The perennial sharpshooter behind the lens has spent well over a year trawling through his vast collection of photographs of teams that chronical 55 years of sporting history in the Kingdom.<\/p>\n
John\u2019s unique pictures helped to build on the countless stories of wins, losses, and draws in hurling and football \u2013 games that have come to define sporting identity in Kerry.<\/p>\n
Part of John\u2019s motivation for the book is that not all players in Kerry featured in big days at Croke Park. And while some did, many of the pictures contained in this book remember the players who donned jerseys with pride for their county, clubs, towns, and villages.<\/p>\n
John was a familiar figure with his camera at club games throughout the county down the years, not just at senior level but at underage level as well.<\/p>\n
“Press photography allowed me to meet some good friends in football and hurling over the years in Kerry. My camera has pictured the stars of yesterday and today,\u201d he told The Kerryman. <\/p>\n
The book has a valuable collection of team photos from county championships from North Kerry and South Kerry leagues and championships from the late 1970s to the 1990s.<\/p>\n
The five Tralee Clubs – John Mitchels, Kerins O\u2019Rahillys, Austin Stacks, St. Pat\u2019s and Na Gaeil also receive particular attention with players and supporters covered, including club stalwarts like Sylvie Mason, John Kissane and James Hobbart.<\/p>\n
The reader is also taken back to the Golden Years from 1975-1984 when Kerry participated in ten All-Ireland Finals, winning eight. There are pen pictures of Kerry captains from 2000 to 2022 and the members of the Kerry Supporters Club from 1984 to date.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the book takes people back to experience the excitement of Sam Maguire\u2019s homecoming to a packed Denny Street in Tralee in 2022, after an eight year gap was bridged.<\/p>\n
About a quarter of the pages are devoted to Kerry hurling. 2025 is the centenary of the North Kerry Hurling Board and there is a lovely picture of a youthful Fr Mossie Brick, donning the Kilmoyley jersey. Rare photos of John Mitchels and Spa Killarney hurling teams in the 1980s are also included.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis latest book project is a very timely one considering Kerry are once again All-Ireland champions. There are photos in this book that have not been seen since they last appeared in newspapers many years ago,\u201d John said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel the book will make a great nostalgia piece and is a conversation maker in terms of a \u2018who\u2019s who\u2019 in the many team photos. Football and hurling mean a lot to the people of Kerry and I think this book does this pride and emotional connection a service,\u201d John added.<\/p>\n
The book launch takes place on December 5 at The Rose Hotel (7:30pm). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The perennial sharpshooter behind the lens has spent well over a year trawling through his vast collection of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60,16585],"class_list":{"0":"post-162820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-stephen-fernane"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}