Anywhere else, the joke about the "open invitations" to the wedding of Sam and Lily would be wearing a bit thin. The life-size, white-clad, bridal couple adorning a Straffan roof would look plain crazy. The seven fluffy white teddy bears above the church in Clane would look positively deranged. The goalposts guarded by a white-clad gorilla perched above a Celbridge supermarket could look a tad precarious. Ardclough children heading off to a bunting-bedecked school yesterday, dressed entirely in white for Lilywhite Day - from nail polish to wigs - might be mistaken for a clutch of daft little angels.

As for St Brigid in Kildare town - well, she's probably happy enough with her massive white T-shirt and headband proclaiming her loyalty to the Lilywhites. Ollie, the Athy bull with Up Kildare painted on his chest, has lodged no objection that we know of. But anyone subjected to a zillion brutalised renditions of The Curragh of Kildare could have a decent deafness case in store.

And how will that Robertstown family get the gigantic painted "Simply the Best - Kildare" sign off the roof? As for all those little white ribbons and flags fluttering from every KE-registered car in the country . . . doesn't white signify mass surrender?

Kildare? Surrender? Hah. That's an old one. The team manager drives a lily-white Merc, for God's sake, and he's a Kerryman (known as St Micko by the way). To get the temperature of the county, imagine a lotterywinner: high as a kite, choked with emotion, reeling in disbelief.

Some say it was written in the stars (or in a deal between the GAA and Charlie McCreevy in return for the £20 million). Whatever it was, when half the county showed up in Croke Park for the ritual humiliation by Dublin in the summer, something was different. Swamped by an ocean of white, the Dubs seemed smaller, less threatening. The Lilywhites thrashed them and the white ribbons, bears, nutty anthems and sea of bunting have been flying ever since.

It's been a long time coming.

The Sam Maguire Cup was awarded for the first time in 1928 and, after beating Cavan by a point, the Lilywhites took Sam to his first home in the plains of Kildare. And the sad fact of the matter is that he hasn't been back since. That's 70 years of a famine since Sam's last flirtation with Lily; 70 years the butt of taunts that white was for surrender. Thus the rash of "open invitations" and bridal couples. It's long past time for a wedding.

If tidal waves of emotion, hearts full of yearning, and an extraordinary new-found self-belief mean anything at all, Sam and Lily will tie the knot tomorrow. Read the banners: "With Micko's guile and Kildare's style, Sam and Lily will walk down the aisle", "Galway has stone walls. Kildare has Brian Lacey", "Kildare for the Sam. Galway for the Races". Marvel at the mighty county council's sense of power: "This one's for the back of the Galway net" reads the KCC sign beside the massive spherical landmark outside Naas known as "Perpetual Motion". Newbridge Cutlery's banner urges the team to "bring home the silver and we'll polish it".

For the GAA, it's a bonus beyond the £20 million. In a county where, as Charlie McCreevy put it, Junior B matches can attract a crowd of 3,000, a new generation of Gaelic fans is coming out to play. Team training sessions have been swarmed by children begging for autographs, keeping players in the grounds for 45 minutes and more. The vast dormitory towns in the north of the county, peopled by citizens of every county in the land, are joining in, revelling in a new sense of belonging. And in every little pocket of every single conversation, there's the pseudo-throwaway rider: "Any sign of a few tickets up there?"

According to the sports editor of the Leinster Leader, Tommy Callaghan, there are 55 clubs in the county and every one of them could have sold 1,000 tickets. In the event, they each got about 70. But the big screens are going up all over the county and they'll have their own seas of white.

"I never thought I'd be looking on an All-Ireland final with Kildare playing in it," says Tommy Callaghan. Will they win?

"Yeah," he says, gravely. "If they don't, it'll break my heart."

Oh, and by the way, anyone up/down/out there got a couple of spare tickets handy? Any price paid.