NO ONE had died but a funereal silence hung over the town of Killarney after the final whistle blew in Croke Park yesterday.
The home town of Kerry team manager Pat O'Shea, the Gooch and of some of the Kerry team's key players had been turned into a sea of green and gold for the attempt at the three-in-a-row. At 5.30pm yesterday even the flags hung limply, refusing to flutter without the wind to their backs.
In Scott's Gardens in College Street where several screens drew a festive crowd, there was silence and then philosophy.
"The Gooch was great. He held his corner. He couldn't have done any more. It was a great game, a tight game - but it was a game at the end of the day. I feel gutted. We all feel gutted," Vivienne Power from Killarney said.
A small group of Tyrone supporters in among the Kerry crowd, could not believe their luck. "I didn't expect it. I'm so delighted," Jane Slevin from Omagh, among Kerry friends, said.
On the days of Kerry wins, cars hoot and the tourist town erupts. "It will be a long winter now," one shopper in Dunnes remarked, but the post-match analysis will go on for weeks, he added.
"Paul Galvin should have been brought on sooner," another woman said.
Meanwhile Kerry supporters were urged to turn out in their thousands for the home coming.
The team will travel home in the state of the art inter-city railcar rolled out on the Kerry route for the first time to bring the team to Dublin on Saturday. Departing Heuston Station at 1.20pm, the first stop will be Rathmore at 16.30pm, just inside the Kerry border and the home town of Aidan O'Mahony.
After a 35-minute stop, the train will carry on to Tralee arriving at 18.05pm for the journey by open-top bus to Denny Street. They will travel by bus to Killarney later to a reception at the Glebe car park in the town centre.
Tim Moynihan of the Kerry Supporters' club has urged a large turnout in Tralee and other spots.
"It will be very difficult for the boys to come down Denny Street," he said.