Seven of his brothers have won Kerry county championship medals as well as with two All-Ireland handball titles.And very early on in his sporting career, Kerins was tipped for Kerry football stardom and looked a dead cert for inclusion on the Kerry minor team of that era.

But one day in 1966 changed all that and indeed the futures of many other aspiring young players."The John Mitchels club told me that I must write a letter apologising for playing soccer with Tralee Dynamos and if I did that I would be allowed back to play GAA again," he reflected this week.

Peter Gordon Kerins was not impressed.

The letter was never written and Peter Gordon Kerins went on to become perhaps the most famous player ever to grace the domestic soccer scene in Kerry, winning numerous League and Cup titles with his beloved Tralee Dynamos and still playing the game into his mid 40s.

In a nutshell, Peter Gordon Kerins is a true legend of Kerry soccer.

At the time of the dispute with John Mitchels, soccer in Tralee was in its infancy and in that same year a group of players met at the Low Field in Tralee and decided to set up a soccer league in he Kingdom, a county that had been the heart and soul of the GAA since the game started back in the 1800s.

The altercation with he John Mitchels club made up Kerins mind as to what code he would choose to continue to display his talents.

"The letter that he John Mitchels club asked me to write, apologising to them for playing soccer, was never written. They are still waiting for it to his day," Kerins told The Kingdom.

The Kerry and District Soccer League, as it was known in he beginning, was established just four months before the infamous Ban was repealed.

Those at he centre of the meeting that night in the Low Field, with only a candle for light, could see the writing was on the wall the Ban was about to die and they seized their chance.

Just behind the Brandon Hotel, Tralee Dynamos played for the ten years of their existence, on the very pitch that Kerins started his soccer career and he played there during the ban with the factory that he used to work in at the time.

At that time, Tralee Dynamos was the only team in Kerry.

"I was working in he CWS Bacon factory in Rock Street and all the lads there, played soccer," Kerins recalled.

"At the time I wanted to play any sport that I could but because it was 1966 and the World Cup was on in England, soccer was the game that everybody wanted to play," he said.

Craving meaningful competition, Dynamos joined the Desmond League. They travelled to their away matches in a hired van that probably always got hem there but sometimes it proved to be a longer day than expected.

All too frequently the hired van might not be capable of making the return journey home which meant he players had to thumb their way back to Tralee.

More often than not he van was only designed to carry a dozen people, but I often carried 18 or more, Kerins recalled.

"The crack was brilliant at the time. There wasn't only players on the bus but the supporters also clambered on board, which made he journey all the better.

"You could find at least three or four players in the boot of the van squeezed into a small space just to get to see the game. We would tog off at the side of the road and then we might have had to walk through six or seven fields to get on the pitch and the next time you went back it could be a different pitch," Kerins said.

Back in Tralee, down at the Low Field for their home games, Dynamos often had to put up with downright acts of vandalism. Every so often broken glass was spread on their pitch on the night before a home match and, on a number of occasions, their goalposts were cut down.It was vandalism by a few and Kerins admits that in later years, when the Ban was lifted, hey discovered who the culprits were.

Peter Gordon Kerins remembers numerous GAA people urging him not to play soccer.He paid no heed and neither did a lot of others, including some well-known county footballers at the time."Some Kerry players like Eoin Liston and Mikey Sheehy played soccer and when I was playing, Jack O Shea was playing," he said.

But yet during the time of the Ban, Kerins remembers many famous faces attending soccer matches, yet the GAA, literally turned a blind eye." Back in he early 1960 s Mick O Connell went to see Cork Hibernians play a game in the Mardyke. I was at the same game and the Cork Examiner took a photo of him watching the match and in he days afterwards the GAA denied that it was O Con-nell in he photo," chuckled Kerins.

"O Connell never hid his passion for the game of soccer but that showed exactly how far they would go to protect their own and one of the great players of the GAA".And it didn t stop there. Kerins remembers the rugby players telling him that at the time of the dress dances, when the players were going in the door to the dance, here would always be a GAA man standing outside the door taking the names of he people attending the function.

After that they would be suspended from playing GAA with their clubs. Some GAA boys used to climb in the windows so they wouldn t be seen.Kerins missed out on five great years playing football but he will never regret he decision he made to ignore the apology request from John Mitchels.

" I started playing GAA again but I missed out on playing when until I was at least 22," he said.So does Kerins feel bitter towards he GAA? "No I wouldn t say that because after the ban was lifted I went to play for another twelve years and then joined the Austin Stacks club, where I won a county championship medal in 1986. So I still played football and won medals," he remarked.

Peter Gordon Kerins is pleased to note that times are changing and fortunes have been reversed somewhat." Before it was keep away from the soccer and play the football, now the roles have been reversed," he said."Only a few weeks ago there was a game and most of the players were attached to football clubs but went playing a soccer game instead," he pointed out.

One thing that makes Kerins laugh is the fact that some senior G.A.A. officials will publicly condemn the game of soccer but hey still avail of every opportunity to fly over to the UK to watch Manchester United in action.The G.A.A. during the time of the Ban was always an awkward customer and Kerins believes that after last week's congress, when the motion to get other sports played at Croke Park failed, it showed exactly just how far the G.A.A.  has come in over 30 years!