In Mayo: A marathon party to rival the annual carnival in Rio de Janeiro is promised in Mayo should the county end a seemingly interminable famine by winning its first All-Ireland football final in 55 years.
Even pop guru Louis Walsh, who is not noted for any particular devotion to Gaelic games, has given his native county his vote to beat Kerry in tomorrow's final.
"Star quality, Mayo, you certainly have the X factor," wrote Walsh in a terse but succinct e-mail to the team. "You have my vote and best wishes to go on and win the final."
Tension between the Garda and the Mayo GAA county board over the latter's reluctance to reveal details of the team's homecoming arrangements on Monday, in a bid to dampen hype, appears to have eased.
This follows a meeting between Chief Supt Tony McNamara, head of the Mayo Garda Division, and board officials on Thursday night. A further meeting was scheduled for last evening.
"The first meeting was productive and we are going to progress from there," a Garda spokesman in Castlebar said yesterday.
Security authorities have given the board an assurance that they won't release any details to the media of the homecoming until after the match finishes when a full itinerary will be broadcast on local radio. The burning desire among Mayo people all over the world to win tomorrow was summed up yesterday by the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. "There is an emotional want in us," he declared. "I was only four months old when we won our last All-Ireland . . . We need a win so badly."
Although her father, Seán Kelly, won an All-Ireland medal with Kerry in 1953, Enda's wife, Fionnuala, is a "committed" supporter of the Mayo team.
He added: "I think Kerry are a bit cocky about this match and we can surprise them." Some Mayo fans, such as Pádraig McGrath, of Claremorris and Singapore, have made trips totalling thousands of kilometres for the big game. Pádraig is the only member of the Singapore GAA Club who has travelled to the 2006 All-Ireland.
Tom Shiel
In Kerry: Three of the four special trains from Kerry for the All-Ireland football finals were sold out by mid-morning yesterday, while no seat was available on the Kerry-Dublin €244 flight organised by Slattery's travel.
The display on car radios showing the station name, Radio Kerry, suddenly changed to Up Kerry, after what the station described as "a temporary" change by technicians to one of its transmitters.
So confident were they of a victory the organisers of the Listowel Races, which kick off on Monday, were trying to decide whether to welcome home Sam Maguire on Wednesday, Kerry National day, or Friday, Ladies' Day - race director Pat Healy said, tongue firmly in cheek.
The scheduled monthly meeting of Kerry County Council due to take place on Monday has been postponed until Tuesday. Mayor of Kerry Ted Fitzgerald said he was acting "out of prudence", but whether that was because he sensed Kerry would be celebrating or consoling themselves was not made clear.
Diplomatically, the mayor said there was a lot of important business on the agenda and he wanted to ensure a good attendance by the 27 councillors.
A life-size painting of 23-year-old Colm "Gooch" Cooper kicking a ball at the award-winning Killarney Railway station, festooned with the green and gold, is one of the most stunning art works this All-Ireland has produced in a county renowned for making an art out of the game.
The fact that the eye-stopper, by Dingle artist Kieran McCluskey, has to be by-passed by the real Colm Cooper on his way to his gym and pool after training each evening adds extra zest, and no doubt plenty of encouragement.
Ann Lucey