Half a glance at the match programme for West Kerry’s defeat of Austin Stacks in the Kerry SFC quarter-final confirmed one of the most remarkable resurgences of a small GAA club in recent times.

It was the renowned sportswriter Hugh McIlvanny who spoke of the the larcenous nature of death, its habit of breaking in on us when we are least prepared for it and stealing the irreplaceable. He was speaking of Jock Stein, but the feeling can seldom have been more painfully experienced than on the roads and boithríns around West Kerry last night.