Dick Spring has beaten Denis Foley for the accolade Kerryman of the Year and he will be presented with his parchment at a ceremony in the Red Cow Inn on the Naas Road, Dublin tonight. Foley was on the original shortlist for his PAC work, but there was some dissent within the Kerry Association that a convention was being breached by even considering a politician. It was felt that it was better to keep politics out of it.
Now that the honour, which does not carry any duties or even ceremonial functions, goes to Spring at tonight's annual dinner, the tradition is being well and truly broken, and party rivalries can be expected to raise their heads on an annual basis. Indeed, it was being said in Leinster House this week that Jackie Healy- Rae will have to be next.