Declan Bogue: Kerry v Tyrone will be a game of menace and stubbornness

Back then, Tyrone fans still had the semi-final win in 2003 and the finals of ’05 and ’08 to feel superior about. But the events since 2008 has led to a curdling of relationships between the two

Tempers flare between Tyrone's Padraig Hampsey and David Clifford of Kerry during their 2019 All-Ireland semi-final. Picture: INPHO/Bryan Keane

It was on February 21, 2013, that I first encountered the late, great Weeshie Fogarty. He was up in Quinn’s Corner, for the Ulster launch of his book, My Beautiful Obsession. Few have lived the kind of life Fogarty lived with a lifelong passion — sorry, obsession — for Kerry football. And he was in the right spot as the proprietor Paudge Quinn was the first man to score a goal in an All-Ireland final off another late great, Páidí Ó Sé.

The crowd that turned out was akin to a large Irish wedding; massive, with giddy people of all ages. Soon the seats were taken up. Then the standing room. Pews were lifted from the bar, the foyer and the place became the kind of scene to give NPHET a nightmare.