The mayors of Dublin and Kerry have been trading playful taunts ahead of the All-Ireland Football Final.
The capital's Lord Mayor, Paul McAuliffe, yesterday invited his Kerry counterpart to stay in his Mansion House residence on the weekend of the September 1 final.
However, he replaced every letter 's' with the number '5' in a not-so-subtle reminder of the Dubs' bid for a record five-in-a-row.
"There i5 5ure to be plenty of banter between your kingdom and my city ahead of the Men5 All Ireland Football Final," he wrote.
"But banter a5ide we are a city of welcom5 (sic) and it would be my plea5ure to have you and your wife 5tay a5 our gue5t5 in the Man5ion Hou5e that weekend."
He also adds a P.S.: "5orry about all the typo5".
The Mayor of Kerry, Niall Kelleher, was quick to accept the invitation today while also returning fire. He pointedly referenced Kerry's record number of 37 football titles, including a nod towards the 37 bar across the road from the Mansion House.
“If you don’t mind, we would like a street-facing room to look out at our second favourite 37 – the bar across from your house on Dawson Street,” he wrote.
“I just hope they didn’t name it after the number of times Sam has come to Kerry or else they’ll have to change the name shortly.
“Some who won’t have to change their names are the fine Dublin players with good Kerry family titles. Like O’Sullivan, O’Carroll, some half of the Brogans and indeed your own McAuliffe is straight from our ancient winning land.
“If you don’t mind, upon arrival we’ll dispense with monarchical titles "Lord" Mayor. Best to leave that sort of thing to places more befitting, such as a Kingdom, for instance.
“I accept your kind invitation and apologise in advance that I cannot bring our Celtic Crosses with me to show you as we’d need a convoy of 37 carriages to bring them all.
"Also, I look forward to returning your invite. You can get to Kerry easily, just follow Sam down the road when he’s travelling home. He knows the way fierce well, having been down there 37 times, in case I haven’t mentioned it.”
And just to mention it once more for luck, Mr Kelleher signs off as: “Mayor of Kerry, the Kingdom of Ireland, 37 times over”.
