THE KING OF THE GARDEN COUNTY

Wicklow legend Kevin O'Brien on the magic of the GAA, his offers to play elsewhere and mighty Micko

- Roy CURTIS

LIKE a jewel thief ransacking the Louvre, Kevin O'Brien is coaxing priceless treasures out through the window of memory, each one a vivid illustration of the magical glint his days on the GAA frontline brought to his life.

First, a beautiful story from that crazy summer of 2009, when the hysterical pandemic that was Micko Fever infected every living creature in Wicklow as football's backstreet boys stepped briefly, memorably, onto Broadway.

Even if he lived a thousand lives, O'Brien might struggle to identify a moment as profound as one that unspooled that year, one that set his heart afire with an appreciation of the sporting community that has shaped the epic poem of his life.

Wicklow's greatest ever footballer, its lone All Star and yet a creature of unshakeable humility, he was a vital cog in O'Dwyer's management team on the July afternoon 16 years ago when the Leinster minnows (one of only two counties in Ireland never to win a provincial title in football or hurling) defeated Down in Aughrim, a shock so seismic it broke the Richter Scale.

But above the victory itself, glorious though it was, it is a post-match cameo, one so beguiling that it would renovate the most bruised spirit, that endures in O'Brien's mind.

"I will never forget a gesture the Down manager Ross Carr made that day. On his darkest day in management, his job gone, he did something incredible.

"The Down bus was caught in terrible traffic trying to get out of Aughrim. God it must have been subdued bus. Ross saw me on the street. He stopped the bus, got out, walked over to me and said 'Kevin, I didn't see you after the match.'

"And he gave me a big hug. I was speechless. This man had won All-Irelands as a player, his job was gone, the world was going to give out about him. Yet he made the effort to stop that bus to do that. What does that tell you about his character?