Anna Galvin on the joy of Kerry ending their All-Ireland title famine against Galway

In the days that followed their final success over Galway at Croke Park on Sunday, August 4th, Anna Galvin and her Kingdom colleagues were able to get a full sense of what winning this year’s TG4 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship has truly meant to the people of Kerry.

The day after ending their 31-year wait to collect the Brendan Martin Cup for the 12th time, the Kerry squad embarked on a prolonged tour of the Kingdom’s various towns, villages and clubs.

The likes of Knocknagoshel (home of veteran midfielder Lorraine Scanlon), Castleisland and Killarney were amongst the spots that the team called to at the beginning of the week, but it was never going to be possible to fit every place into a single journey.

Following a trip to North Kerry on Tuesday to give winning captain Niamh Carmody of Finuge/St Senan's a fitting homecoming, the squad eventually found themselves passing through a number of locations in West Kerry on Wednesday.

It is the Thursday afternoon after the All-Ireland when we catch up with Galvin, who has been blown away by the reception the players have received throughout their tour of the county.

“We were a little bit taken aback as to how many people were actually turning out in every single spot. It was unbelievable and people are so happy for us. It has just been class. As you can probably tell, our voices are gone from all the chatting and all the shouting all week, and our hands are sore from the signing of jerseys!” acknowledged Galvin, who played the full 60 minutes at midfield in Kerry’s All-Ireland triumph.

“We were here (West Kerry) last night and we were just walking up the street there this morning and we were like ‘lads, it’s surreal!’ We did a lap of the town with a pipe band last