Kerry FC

A consortium built around the Kerry District League and private backers, led by Brian Ainscough, Stephen Conway and Billy Dennehy, filed a bid to join the league on 22 June 2022; the Football Association of Ireland approved it on 16 November, and Kerry FC took up a licence for the First Division from the 2023 season.

The club lost its first match, 0-2 to Cobh Ramblers at Mounthawk Park on 17 February 2023, and it took until 12 May to record a first win, 3-2 over Athlone Town. Billy Dennehy, one of the men who had signed the original bid, took the dugout as first manager. Ainscough left within the year, moving to Dundalk and taking his funding with him, and the club finished bottom of the First Division in 2024 before John Wall, a Tralee-born businessman based in the United States, bought a controlling stake that December and put in €1.5m.

Colleen Healy was appointed manager in May 2025. That autumn the club reached a first FAI Cup quarter-final, beating Sligo Rovers 4-3 after extra time, before Shamrock Rovers ended the run 6-1 in the semi-final. The nearest the club has come to a trophy remains the Munster Senior Cup final of the 2023/24 season, lost to Waterford. Mounthawk Park holds 1,200 people.