‘Great to be home again at last. Amongst my own’

FÁILTE! I’m Sam Maguire and dear God but I’m glad to be home again at last.

I’ve been knocking around the country for the last 20 years and, as ye all know, I’m delighted to be amongst my own again. As soon as the big city fuss is over this week please bring me down to Mallabraca outside Dunmanway, where I was born, and let me spend even one night in the valley between Nowen Hill and Yew Tree Hill under the Shehy mountains as the evergreens whisper welcome home. The last few years have been tough and I’m not getting any younger.

It is not easy for a West Cork man to be comfortable in Kerry and I’ve spent too much time there in recent years.