Soccer finding a place in the Kingdom’s sporting firmament

THE names represent a strange amalgam between a culture that is as old as the Blasket Islands themselves and a comparatively new fashion — Rattoo Rovers, Asdee Rovers, Lenamore Rovers, Tralee Dynamos and Killarney Celtic to name but a few.

Football, after all, is endemic to Kerry; brilliantly expressed by successive generations of talented players. Now an additional brand has taken hold and the native sons are embracing the opportunity to illustrate what has always appeared to be a natural talent by competing in another, related, code.

Gaelic football will always be the dominant brand of football in Kerry and nobody would be so foolish as to attempt to challenge that. But soccer is an outlet that is appealing to a growing number of Kerry footballers and the evidence is that it comes naturally to them.