Unique Kildare jersey for Jeremy Burke gala auction

Pat Kelly with the All-Stars jersey.

A unique Kildare football jersey will be going for auction tomorrow morning (Irish time), Saturday 11 November, in Perth, Australia, writes Brian Byrne, to help raise funds for important Irish charities. The jersey has the signatures of all of the 13 Kildare players who have achieved recognition in the GAA All-Stars since 1978.

The one-of-a-kind souvenir was organised by Kilcullen man Pat Kelly for the Perth event, a major Gala Ball taking place on Saturday 11 November to honour his grand-nephew, the late Jeremy Burke, a young musician who died suddenly in Canada last January. Jeremy's sister Caroline Kelly Morgan, who lives in Perth, organised the Ball which has been strongly supported by the city's community and businesses and is sold out. 

Caroline, along with their mother Louise and other members of the family, formed the JBforever27 Foundation after Jeremy's passing. The Foundation has already donated €28,542 to the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust, which helped bring Jeremy home from Canada, and it is also helping the CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) and AnamCara charities as well as funding a music Bursary open to 5th and 6th Year students in Cross and Passion College Kilcullen. Louise and Jeremy's grandfather Joe travelled to Perth last week for the coming event. 

"I wanted to provide something very special of Kildare for the auction that will be part of the event," says Pat Kelly, who along with his brother Joe are also well-known musicians in the Kilcullen and wider area. "So I got this idea of getting the All-Stars signatures on a jersey — it had never been done before." 

The 13 signatures contributed represent a total of 15 All-Star achievements, as Dermot Earley and Glenn Ryan both received the distinction twice. The full team on the jersey are Ollie Crinnig (1978), Martin Lynch (1991), Niall Buckley, Davy Dalton and Glenn Ryan (1997), Dermot Earley, Karl O'Dwyer, Glenn Ryan, Brian Lacey and John Finn (1998), Anthony Rainbow (2000), Dermot Earley (2009), Peter Kelly and Johnny Doyle (2010), and Mick Foley (2011).

"I got great support from everybody when I contacted them," says Pat Kelly. "Some of them went out of their way to accommodate the idea — for instance, Mick Foley met me on the Curragh as he was driving down the country and signed the jersey on the bonnet of his car."

The young Jeremy Burke was also a big GAA fan and was once presented with an U8 Player of the Year award by Brian Lacey. All in all, there will be some special memories made in Perth this weekend that will resound around the planet back to Kilcullen.

NOTE: This article was first published in The Kildare Nationalist.

Brian Lacey presenting the young Jeremy Burke with an U8 Player of the Year Award.

Johnny Doyle with Pat Kelly as he gathered the signatures.

Mick Foley signing the jersey on the bonnet of his car on the Curragh.

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