(Family) court of King James

HE still spins around Killarney on his bike at 55, looking as fresh as paint, uncreased by the stresses of life and Kerry’s roller-coaster ride to Croke Park.

“How much do I play the father thing with him?” Diarmaid O’Donoghue asks himself. “Well, he’s just completely driven with this thing on Sunday, but after that, like he’s 24, it would be nice if he dipped back into the real world. Got a job or something.”

No-one’s quite sure where Kerry’s lightning rod James O’Donoghue got this flat-line temperament or when he developed it. His mother and father insist it’s not from them. His grandfathers were publicans (Dan Lenihan’s on College Street), politicians and union reps, trades not noted for their monastic silence.