St Brendan’s upset the odds when they defeated 2015 finalists Killarney Legion in the first of this year’s Garvey’s Kerry SFC quarter-finals at Austin Stack Park.

The State paid €2m for a majority stake-holding in the Great Blasket a decade ago, which then-environment minister, John Gormley, considered good value, given the island’s cultural importance and its potential as a tourist attraction.

St Brendan’s Ardfert were pushed all the way by Crotta O’Neill’s before joining Lixnaw in the semi-finals of this year’s Kerry SHC, after a tense encounter played at the Austin Stack Park.

There is hardly a more politically-charged fulcrum of international affairs in the world than the Straits of Hormuz in the Middle East.

Among Ireland’s renowned explorers, of whom there are many, one name stands out. Shackleton and Crean (Antarctic voyages), Robert O’Hara Burke (first to cross the Australian Outback) and many others achieved monumental feats of discovery but it is the figure of the fifth century St Brendan who is the true torchbearer for Irish adventure.

It’s almost 20 years since East Kerry were kingpins of football in the county and their stock of young talent threatens to bring them close to the summit this year.

Not yet 19 and the compilation of his best bits and hits already makes for compelling viewing.

Anyone growing up in the rugged splendour of the Dingle Peninsula must surely be moulded and inspired by such surroundings, as the late footballer and native son, Paidí Ó Sé, often opined.

Forty years ago, Tim Severin sailed across the Atlantic in a leather boat using only a medieval text as his guide. Donal O’Keeffe met the man behind The Brendan Voyage.

Michel Déon, novelist and member of the Académie francaise lived in Co Galway for the last 50 years of his life, and died last December, aged 97. 

St Brendan’s College, Killarney 0-18 St Peter’s College, Wexford 0-10

Fiann Ó Nualláin on plants and herbs that co-habit beautifully — and in binary and non-binary ways, too.

A look ahead to tonight’s three games...

St Brendan’s Killarney (Kerry) 4-15 St Benildus College (Dublin) 0-9

Corn Uí Mhuirí - St Brendan’s, Killarney 5-21 High School Clonmel 0-7: In many ways this meeting of Kerry and Tipperary teenagers felt like a rerun of last September’s All- Ireland Minor football final.

St Brendan’s, Killarney 1-15 Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne 0-11: St Brendan’s, Killarney survived a spirited second-half rally by an Eamonn Fitzmaurice-managed Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne to win the Munster Post Primary U15½ A football final at Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney.

St Brendan’s College 1-18 Abbey CBS 1-6: As championship openers go, this was a relative stroll in the park for St Brendan’s College.

A priest and retired lecturer in his 70s died in a fire in his house in Fenit village near Tralee yesterday morning.

Kilmoyley 3-15 St Brendan’s, Ardfert 1-13: Kilmoyley overwhelmed a lethargic St Brendan’s to claim their 23rd Kerry SHC title - and move one behind table toppers Ballyduff in the roll of hour - at Abbeydorney yesterday.

Kenmare District 5-15 St Brendan’s District 0-8: This time last year Kenmare’s no-show was making the headlines in the opening round of the Kerry SFC, but yesterday it was their first-half demolition job on a weak St Brendan’s District side that caught the eye.

St Brendan’s College, Killarney 1-13, Tralee CBS1-9:

I understand that a family wedding has prompted Ulster senior club football champions, Slaughtneil of Derry to request a change of date for their All Ireland semi-final fixture with Austin Stack’s, The Rock, Tralee from Saturday, February 14 to Sunday February 15.

Lixnaw 0-14 St Brendan’s Ardfert 0-13

Currow 0-13 St Brendan’s 3-13 (AET)

Kerry SFC: Rangers 1-15 St Brendan’s 0-12

From Dracula to Fr Ted and Boyzone, we have devised some of the most brilliant, but often annoying, things on the planet, says John Daly.

Michael Hilliard Mulcahy’s play, Beyond the Brooklyn Sky, deals with the generation that emigrated from Ireland in the 1980s and returned, some without having fulfilled their dreams.

St Brendan’s 0-13 Lixnaw 0-08

KERRY SHC FINAL

St Brendan’s 2-18 Causeway 2-17 (AET)

St Brendan’s, Ardfert 0-12 Causeway 1-09

Milltown/Castlemaine 3-14 St Brendan’s 2-13 (aet)

A SON-IN-LAW of mine, living in the UK, has recently made a hobby of knapping.

The adventurer who crossed the Atlantic in a craft made of hide in a re-enactment of the voyage taken by St Brendan will be reunited with his famous boat today.

Former Kerry player Tommy Griffin has organised a national over 35s charity invitational tournament in his native Dingle and Lispole for Saturday, September 15.

Composer Shaun Davey says his new musical dips in and out of Jonathan Swift’s most famous book, reports Richard Fitzpatrick

A large section of Mt Brandon in Co Kerry has slipped into the sea.