Thousands of Kerry fans welcome home Sam through the streets of Tralee
THRONGED: The All-Ireland winning Kerry football team arrived home to the Kingdom of Kerry onto Denny Street this evening. Tens of thousands of fans showed up for the Kerry football AllIreland winning team's homecoming in Tralee. Pic: Domnick Walsh/Eye Focus
Kerry welcomed home their heroes along with Sam Maguire as they were paraded through the thronged streets of Tralee on an open top bus in one of the biggest welcome homes according to Kerry manager Jack O’Connor since Kerry ended the last famine in 1997.
Denny Street was a sea of colour from 5pm until the team arrived just after 6.30pm to be welcomed onto the stage, fittingly perhaps, by Councilor Mikey Sheehy, son of Kerry’s greatest ever forwards of the same name.
All the players were introduced to rapturous applause with not surprisingly David Clifford getting the loudest cheer along with the Tralee contingent led by captain Joe O’Connor from Austin Stacks who thanked his club for the honour of nominating him to captain Kerry. He also thanked his teammates for ensuring that Sam was coming home to the Kingdom for the first time since 2014.
Jack O’Connor addressed the crowd and thanked them for showing up in such huge numbers.
“Just a few words on the tremendous reception this evening from this fantastic crowd. I was lucky enough to be here twenty five years ago when we turned down Denny Street with Paidí Ó Sé leading us with the Sam Maguire, not having won it for eleven years.
"We thought we would never see the likes of it again with twenty to twenty five thousand lining the streets. But there has to be at least that if not more this evening so that is amazing in itself.
"When I was trying to entice Paddy Tally down here from Tyrone, one of the things I spoke about was the passion there is for football in this county. I'm glad that Paddy, Barry and Colin Trainor are here tonight to witness this fanaticism for football in Kerry.
"You have to be here to feel it and it’s that passion that feeds the players to make the efforts that they make every year, to go at it year after year and make the sacrifices they do. The Kerry support this year has been invaluable and it started up in Pairc Uí Rinn, it continued all the way to the Dublin game. I never before saw that type of support for an All-Ireland semi-final and it was huge again yesterday and it’s appreciated.”
O'Connor also complemented the clubs of Tralee for producing nine players for the squad and he also had some kind words for one of his selectors, Mike Quirke.
“When I was searching the county for a selector Mike Quirke was quick to come on board and he is a mighty man because he is a lot handier with the gadgets than I am and he does a lot of the video analysis.”
The players were mobbed by young supporters as they boarded the bus for their final stop in Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney.
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