The mayors of Dublin and Kerry have joined the banter between football fans in the two counties in the run up to next weekend’s All-Ireland football final.
Dublin Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe has invited his counterpart, Niall Kelleher, mayor of Kerry County Council, to stay in the Mansion House the weekend of the match, in a tongue in cheek letter.
“There i5 sure to be plenty of banter between your kingdom and my city ahead of the Men5 All Ireland Football Final,” Cllr McAuliffe wrote, replacing the letter ‘s’ with the number 5, in a jibe about Dublin’s quest to claim the coveted five-in-a-row All Ireland wins on September 1st.
Last night I received this invitation from my good friend and Kerry descendent Dublin Lord Mayor @PaulMcauliffe, here is my official response on behalf of our Kingdom. #kerry4Sam #thekingdom pic.twitter.com/EF4KBwroel
— Cllr. Niall Kelleher (@niallkelleher) August 23, 2019
“But banter a5ide we are a city of wecome5 and it would be my plea5ure to have you and your wife 5tay a5 our gue5t5 in the Man5ion Hou5e that weekend,” he wrote.
In an equally light-hearted response, Cllr Kelleher said he would happily accept the invitation, while reminding the Lord Mayor of Kerry’s record All-Ireland football haul of 37 titles.
“If you don’t mind we’d like a street-facing room to look out at our second favourite 37 - the bar across from your house on Dawson Street.
“I just hope they didn’t name it after the number of times Sam has come to Kerry or else they’ll have to change the name shortly,” he wrote.
“Some who won’t have to change their names are the fine Dublin players with good Kerry family titles. Like O’Sullivan, O’Carroll, some half of the Brogans and indeed your own McAuliffe is straight from our ancient winning land,” Cllr Kelleher wrote.
“Also I look forward to returning your invite. You can get to Kerry easily, just follow Sam down the road when he’s travelling home.
“He knows the way fierce well, having been down here 37 times, in case I haven’t mentioned it,” he wrote, signing off as the mayor of Kerry ,”the Kingdom of Ireland, 37 times over”.
