The Kieran Donaghy interview: Still drawn back to the cauldron

“Am I good enough to wear number 14 for Kerry next year? That’s what I have to prove.” Kieran Donaghy thought he was finished in a Kerry jersey. The pain of defeat by Mayo bit deep but he has always found a way of twisting pain to his own ends. And he has always loved to prove people wrong.

Within half an hour of what seemed like the final act of Kieran Donaghy’s inter-county career — a frustrated swipe to the face of Aidan O’Shea that incurred his first straight red card in 10 years — Kerry and Mayo supporters who made the skip across to the other side of Jones’ Road for Jury’s Croke Park would have encountered a surprising sight by the counter of the courtyard bar.

There, waiting to be served among the throng like everyone else, was the strikingly familiar, tall figure of Donaghy, along with his fellow Tralee titan and friend, David Moran, the two of them still in their tracksuits.