A row has broken out over the origins of one of the leading contenders for the Greatest Kerry Person of all Time, to be announced tomorrow.
The leading contender is Sister Consilio Fitzgerald, the Mercy nun who founded the Cuan Mhuire rehab centres for people suffering from alcohol and substance abuse. The competition is being run by Radio Kerry.
Sister Consilio, who is a past recipient of the Kerry person of the Year award and the AIB Hall of Fame Award, was born between Brosna in Kerry and Rock Chapel in Cork on the Cork-Kerry border.
The dispute rests on which side of the border she was born.
A 2004 calendar, "Women of Duhallow", places Sister Consilio and her sister, Sister Agnes, firm- ly on the Cork side of the border.
The blurb accompanying their pictures for December 2004 states: "Both Sister Consilio and Sister Agnes were born and grew up on a farm in Clough, Rockchapel, on the Cork border of Kerry in the Duhallow region."
Also short-listed are Sister Stanislaus Kennedy; the late John B. Keane; explorer Tom Crean; former managing director of the Kerry Group, Mr Denis Brosnan; Daniel O'Connell; hotelier Maurice O'Donoghue; football manager Mick O'Dwyer and former Tánaiste Mr Dick Spring.
Ms Sinéad Spain, head of news at Radio Kerry, said Sister Consilio had assured them of her Kerry bona fides. "We are confident she is from Kerry," Ms Spain said.