Donaghy earns reward for retaining the spirt of innocence

Last week, just before he would inspire Austin Stacks to their first county title in 20 years and win the right to captain Kerry in 2015, Kieran Donaghy ran a five-day basketball camp for 150 kids in his hometown of Tralee.

Caid and cispheil have long complemented each other in Kerry. Johnny Culloty, Tadhgie Lyne, Derry O’Shea, Danno Keeffe and Niall Sheehy all played basketball as well as football for Kerry when both sports were run along the lines of the inter-county model.

Then in the 70s, when basketball switched to a club-based national league, Stacks had a team in it, with John O’Keeffe among their ranks, just before Paudie O’Connor and Killarney down the road would bring in Americans and Americana to transform hoops into being probably the most exciting sport of the 1980s.