Tim Kennelly - an appreciation Last Monday evening, I received a phone call from Tim Kennelly. We had a long discussion about an event that we were organising to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our victory with Feale Rangers over Austin Stacks in the 1980 County Championship Final. We also spoke about the standard of football in North Kerry and the very poor record of North Kerry teams in the County Championships since 1980. Tim was adamant that only one team should represent North Kerry in the County Championship, at least for a trial period of three years. We both agreed to continue our discussion on the matter when we would meet again. He was also looking forward to visiting Duagh to so a coaching session with school children on Friday. When I received the call on the Tuesday that Tim had suffered a fatal heart attack, I was totally shocked. I was in disbelief. It was hard to understand that someone who was as large as life just 24 hours before, was now dead. Great moments and victories that we both shared over almost 40 years began to flash through my head. I felt a great sense of loss because Tim was a great friend and was always there when it counted most. I went into the Dail Chamber for the Order of Business. My state of shock must have been evident, because one of the Ushers asked me if I was okay. I passed on the sad news to Tim's great friend Enda Kenny and An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern and Minister John O'Donoghue. When the Order of Business commenced, each Party Leader paid tribute to Tim and extended their sympathy to his family. I have never before seen this happen in Parliament for a sportsman. It was a spontaneous outpouring of sympathy and admiration for one of the true greats of Gaelic Football. I played with Tim at both under 16 and Minor level for Listowel. We were both on the Listowel under 16 team that beat Moyvane in the 1968 North Kerry Final. We also played on the St Michael's College team that won the County College's Cup in 1970. I played at centre forward, Tim was on one wing and the great athlete Gerry Kiernan was on the other wing. From 1973 to 1983, we played with Feale Rangers. We won two County Finals and contested three more. Tim was a stalwart in those teams. He was an inspirational figure who led by example. He was man of the match in the historic 1978 County Final, when Feale Rangers defeated Mid Kerry to win the County Championship for the first time. In 1980 he displayed real courage when he played for most of the final with a dislocated shoulder. He remarked to to John O'Keffe after the game: "Ah sure, I beat ye with only one hand." For eight glorious years, we played together for Kerry. We travelled together to training in Killarney and to many of the matches. I was on the team the day that Tim made his debut against Offaly in Tullamore. Kerry needed a centre half back at the time. On the recommendation of Andy Molyneaux, then County Secretary, the selectors gave Tim the opportunity and he made the position his own for nine years, winning every award the game offered over that time. He was an exceptional player, certainly the greatest centre back that Kerry ever produced and would rank among the greatest in the history of the game at national level. Mick O'Dwyer was not exaggerating during a radio tribute to Tim this week when he compared him to the great Bobby Moore of England and Paul McGrath of Ireland. Tim had immense strength and skill but, more than anything else, had great heart. When the pressure was on, when your back was to the wall, when everything seemed lost and the heads were dropping, Kennelly would show his true grit and courage. He was a great man to rally a team in adversity. He was truly inspirational and his enthusiasm permeated through the entire team. I also played against Tim in many local derby matches between Finuge and Listowel. I marked Tim in the 1972 North Kerry Senior Final in Ballylongford. Although only 17 years if age at the time, he gave an exhibition of high fielding that day that won the match for Listowel. Games between Finuge and Listowel are always highly contested. However we never allowed this to affect our friendship and inevitably we finished up in a local hostelry afterwards for a good laugh and to revisit some of the incidents that happened during the game. Tim will be sadly missed by his many friends and relatives, including his devoted mother Madge. However the people that will miss him most are his wife Nuala, who was totally devoted to him and supported him through thick and thin, his sons, Noel and Tadhg and his daughter Johanne. I would like to finish with a quotation from a play by Duagh dramatist, George Fitzmaurice: "What matters now, what he did or didn't do, since he is dead, but it is for him and the like of him, that the flowers smile and always smiled in the green soil of Ireland." Jimmy Deenihan The Kerryman 15 Dec 2005 Tweet

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