Kerry to unmask its own Gooch army

WILL the real Gooch please show his face?

Hundreds of young Kerry fans will be going around Dublin tomorrow wearing masks with an image of their pin-up hero, Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper.

It’s all part of the colourful build-up to the All-Ireland football final against Mayo and pupils from the Presentation Monastery primary school in Killarney showed off their masks yesterday, watched over by teacher Michael Gleeson, himself the winner of two All-Ireland medals with Kerry.

Students at Coláiste na Sceilige, Caherciveen, where Kerry manager Jack O’Connor teaches, painted a mural at the school entrance portraying the Kerry players as Roman centurions.

Kerry has an increased allocation of 14,000 tickets, but some fans are still hoping to get tickets when they arrive in Dublin.

Iarnród Éireann is running five special trains for Kerry fans tomorrow, three of which were booked out online in a record 19 minutes, but yesterday there was still a limited number of seats left on the fourth.

All Aer Arann flights from Kerry to Dublin tomorrow were snapped up by half-time in the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork. A chartered flight by Slattery’s Travel, Tralee, departing at 7am tomorrow, sold out at €245 a seat.

Mayo fans, meanwhile won’t mask their support for their heroes. Thousands will arrive at Croke Park tomorrow with life-size drawings of their favourite players after The Mayo News distributed cut-outs to schoolchildren.

Pupils at Killeen National School, near Louisburgh, with cut-outs of Ronan McGarrity, David Heaney, Ciaran McDonald and Conor Mortimer, will appear on tonight’s Up for the Match on RTÉ and are hoping for a day off on Monday to celebrate Sam Maguire’s first appearance in the county since 1951.

Meanwhile, local authorities in Kerry and Mayo are flying the flag while sending out a road safety message, distributing free car flags with a drive safely slogan.