Bernard puts his house on Kerry victory

There are football followers, and then there are football fans: Tralee man Bernard Lynch is such a supporter of Kerry. He has decorated his house in the Green and Gold, got a banner specially made and staked €100 on a win.

Bernard and his family, wife Noreen, daughter Rachel and son Ryan, go to every Kerry match. They were even in Donegal last year.

And he is looking forward to catching up with friends the family made in Donegal on that occasion: “There is great craic, great camaraderie in the GAA. We love going to the matches.”

Both his home at Kevin Barry’s Villas and his carpenter’s work van are displaying giant banners specially ordered by Bernard of ‘the magnificent four’ — David Moran, Cormac Coffey, Barry John Keane and Kieran Donaghy.

Bernard says he felt Tralee needed some extra colour so he ordered the banners from Kingdom Printers. “Kieran is a personal friend and the three others are in my club, Kerins O’Rahillys.” Bernard and his daughter Rachel will be in the audience for the Up for the Match programme on RTÉ on Saturday night.

Asked for a prediction, he said he is “quietly confident”.

“There is great mixture of youth and age in this team and we saw in Limerick how each and everyone of them is hungry for a win. I’d be confident — I backed them at 6/1 before the Galway game and everyone thought I was mad.”

Meanwhile, the GAA is a collector’s dream in Kerry.

The legendary All-Ireland final between Kerry and Cavan — in which the Kingdom lost in the New York Polo Grounds in 1947 — was just one of the 9,000 programmes collected by the Parker family, publicans in Kilflynn.

True stalwarts of the GAA in north Kerry, 83-year-old Michael Parker senior was yesterday proudly displaying his valuable and vast archive, spanning hurling as well as football, at his Tralee home where he lives since his retirement.

“It was back in the early 50s that I saw people walking away from games and leaving programmes after them so I thought it would be a good idea to start collecting them.”

His son Michael jnr, who now runs Parker’s Bar in Kilflynn, has caught the bug as well. People drop in to the bar with match programmes from all over the country, he said.

Currently the chairman of the Crotta hurling club, Michael is also a keen follower of football.

Kerry, at 36 titles more than anyone else, is never tired of being in All-Irelands and this year is special, Michael jnr says.

“We didn’t expect to be in the All-Ireland without the Gooch [Colm Cooper]. We thought we had no chance without him. So it’s a great surprise and this is adding to the buzz around the county.”