Booze ban on Kerry trains to final

KERRY football fans travelling to the All-Ireland final on special trains at the weekend will not be allowed bring alcohol on board.

Iarnród Éireann business development manager Andrew Roche said people trying to take drink on to the trains would be asked to leave it behind or have it confiscated.

Fifteen trains, with the capacity to carry 10,000 passengers, will be running from Kerry between tomorrow and Sunday, but the ban will apply only to the special trains.

The Iarnród Éireann decision arises from the misbehaviour of up to 30 drunken young Kerry fans on a match train last month. Gardaí were called to board to train at Rathmore, following complaints from other passengers.

All trains from Kerry and Mayo will use Heuston Station, as Connolly Station will be closed.

Meanwhile, like their team, which is usually slow enough to start, Kerry football fans haven’t been in a hurry to show their colours. But the famous green and gold is, at last, being rolled out in towns and villages.

Nowhere are the colours more evident than in Caherciveen, base of Kerry manager Jack O’Connor and six players involved in Sunday’s All-Ireland senior and minor finals.

Some of the 600 students at Coláiste na Sceilige, Caherciveen, have created an art work to mark the occasion, as Jack teaches in the college and all six players have also come through its halls.

Thirty-three transition year students and others in art classes created the large banner proudly displayed outside the college and declaring, ‘We Back Jack To Bring Sam Back’.

Transition year co-ordinator John O’Connor, who worked closely on it with art teacher Valerie Brouder, said: “There’s a great buzz not only in the college, but in whole Caherciveen area. Jack O’Connor teaches Irish and English and is extremely well respected by one and all. We’re all 100% behind him.”

But they’re not scaling the dizzy heights of Killarney curate, Fr Kevin McNamara, who has sent five Kerry flags to the top of the 285-ft spire of St Mary’s Cathedral. “They’re definitely the highest flags in Kerry, if not in Ireland,” said Fr McNamara.

Steeplejacks working on the cathedral spire brought the flags all the way to the top, placing one on each corner of a protective frame.

Fans, meanwhile, are continuing their desperate quest for tickets. Kerry has been given an allocation of 10,000 tickets - 6,000 seated and 4,000 for Hill 16 - but demand for exceeds supply. Schools in the county got five Hill 16 tickets each.

Some of the fans that got tickets queued for up to four hours for train tickets at railway stations in the county, earlier this week. Thousands will travel to Dublin on special trains during the weekend. Also, three flights are due to leave Kerry Airport on Sunday morning with the 300 passengers each paying over €200.