A PHOTO taken in Kerry during the ‘Big Freeze’ of winter 2010 has gone viral after a Kerry Facebook group posted it on Monday morning.

The image of the ice-laden cross taken on the top of Mount Brandon on January 1, 2010 by Máire Criomhthain, has been viewed 167,000 times (as of early Wednesday afternoon) since it was posted up by the ‘Kerry Airport Should Be Renamed Tom Crean Airport’ group.

Up to Wednesday afternoon at 2.15pm, it had been ‘liked’ 1,914 times and shared an incredible 2,602 times.

“Does anybody out there know if there has been a post put up on a Kerry-based Facebook page which has ever received that amount of likes and shares?” asked Tralee auctioneer Eddie Barrett, who regularly puts up photos and articles for the group.

Eddie spotted a story on IrishCentral.com at the weekend which contained the photo, among other images of Kerry and decided to post it on the Facebook page. The image was named ‘The Cross With Angels Wings’ and the reaction has been phenomenal.

“We’re just stunned. I never came off the computer last night with messages from friends all over the  world talking about it,” said Eddie

“When we started the site in April, we set ourselves a crazy target of 5,000 likes by Tom Crean’s birthday on February 25. We never thought in a million years that we’d get near it but now we have over 4,000 likes – 1,000 more than the Kerry Airport Facebook page,” he said.

It’s all more publicity for the group which is trying to get Kerry Airport to be renamed in honour of the west Kerry explorer. There are events planned by the group later in the year to further their cause so watch this space.