It is an interesting time in Kerry. Over the last couple of months, the issue of Kerry Co-op shares has dominated the headlines as the co-op board sought to introduce a share redemption scheme which would allow shareholders to cash in their co-op shares for the first time in an official scheme.

It’s no surprise that Kerry Co-op shareholders are eager to cash in their shares, with some people sitting on millions of euro worth of stock. Since it opened for applications in May, the share redemption scheme has surpassed all expectations, with almost 1,500 applications for the first window of the scheme – almost five times higher than was predicted.

The scheme has also thrown up some jaw-dropping anecdotes of people with Kerry shares who had no idea their shares could be worth as much as €620 each.

Many of these unsuspecting shareholders were left shares by their relatives and are no longer involved in farming.

More than a handful found themselves to be accidental millionaires. The Dealer was reminded of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, when Del Boy and Rodney discover their old watch was worth millions of pounds.

In one instance, a Kerry woman asked to cash in all of her Kerry Co-op shares, which she believed to be worth a few thousand euro.

The woman’s financial adviser asked her to take a seat as he explained she had more than €2.8m worth of Kerry Co-op shares.

Another story from the Kingdom tells of the local postman, who had been left Kerry Co-op shares by an uncle years before. Doing his rounds one morning, the postman met one of the board members of Kerry Co-op and politely wondered what was the story with the co-op shares.

When the board member enquired how many shares the postman had to sell, it emerged he was sitting on €850,000 worth.

The enormous wealth created by these Kerry Co-op shares will be life-changing for many people now that they have a mechanism to cash them in.

You might find a few extra Kerry GAA fans sitting in the premium level seats in Croke Park this summer.