By John Harrington

In an era where fake news is more and more rampant, you would be wise to double-check the veracity of information you consume online.

Mike O’Halloran from Ballyduff is a respected hurling analyst for Radio Kerry, but he’s also a talented playwright with a good knack for spinning a yarn.

Not everyone took that into account though when reading a fantastical account on his Facebook page of why Lixnaw will go into Sunday’s Kerry County Senior Hurling Final against Ballyduff no longer under the shadow of a curse that's plagued them in the past

It’s worth reading the whole post to get the full dramatic effect, but the kernel of the story was that Lixnaw have been cursed ever since a young lad from the area threw a sod of turf a donkey carrying an old woman from Ballyduff.

The donkey was blinded, and when he bolted with the fright he knocked the old woman and the six dozen eggs she was carrying for sale in Lixnaw to the road. 

Filled with rage at the sight of her broken eggs and blinded donkey, she cursed the Lixnaw hurlers to lose six county finals to Ballyduff for each of the six dozen eggs she had lost.

Lixnaw have indeed lost six county hurling finals to Ballyduff, and so the superstitious were happy to take O’Halloran’s yarn as fact rather than fiction, perhaps in the hope that the curse no longer holds sway.

“It was a piss-take, but it’s already gotten traction,” laughs O’Halloran, who himself has won multiple county titles with Ballyduff as both a player and manager.

“Already I've had people telling me that their father was in the field that evening.

“I've had a woman telling me that her Grandfather often spoke about the woman who had a donkey that ended up with one eye.

“Best of all, a woman from Ardfert sent me a message. They've been beaten in the last couple of semi-finals and she was wondering could I make up a curse for them!”

It’s perhaps fitting that a playwright’s skit should gain such traction because there’s always been something of a Shakespearean quality to Kerry club hurling – rivalry, great families, drama, and, occasionally violence.

Thankfully the latter now seems to be a thing of the past because modern society has softened the old tribal enmities.

“Yeah, the violence has absolutely gone,” says O’Halloran. “A gang of us were actually talking about that the other night at a thing we organise for club players called the Kerry Hurling All-Stars.

“I think the violence peaked in the '50s when there was a huge faction fight at a hurling match in Listowel. After that it waned.

“But I think the advent of free education and the Causeway Comprehensive school where you had all the guys from the clubs going together and becoming friends ended the violence in North Kerry hurling.

“My father says tis a pity! He says there's no bite to it anymore so it's no good!”

Whatever about what happens on the pitch, there’ll be no lack of bite in the stands of Austin Stack Park on Sunday.

No-one will be throwing turf hopefully, but it'll be very apparent why rivalry is the life-blood of the GAA.

“The real quality of Kerry hurling has always been the passion, the neighbours,” says O’Halloran.

“There's only stone's throw between all the clubs, they're all gathered in the one corner of North Kerry.

“It's the passion of the fans and the rivalry is what makes it.

“The final is a great occasion regardless of who's in it. There's great colour and much more passion than there is in the football because they all know each other so well and there's huge banter."

As for the game itself, like most Kerry Hurling Finals there's unlikely to be a whole lot between the two teams. 

Lixnaw did beat Ballyduff by nine points in the round robin phase, but Ballyduff produced the performance of the championship so far when they defeated reigning champions Kimoyley in the county semi-final.

"I think they were down by 10 points to four at half-time, but Ballyduff came back and just blew Kilmoyley away in the second-half," says O'Halloran.

"It was a complete transformation from what they had done before. If Ballyduff could produce that for an hour they'd beat anybody, but the question is whether they can do that for an hour.

"And the other side of it is that Lixnaw were very flat against St. Brendan's in the other semi-final and probably should have been beaten. 

"It's a hard match to call."