In two recent articles, I raised a number of concerns that caused considerable debate. It is now worth revisiting these concerns to see if anything has changed. In the first article, before the Galway game, I stated that it was statistically likely that we would have to beat both Kerry and Dublin to get to an All-Ireland final. It’s almost […]
After the Galway game, I stayed away from blogs and podcasts for a week or so. It was like when you would like a swim in the sea but the water just looked too cold. At half-time in the Galway game, it looked like we had got to grips with them and that the early jitters had been overcome. The […]
First of all I thought we fought very well to get back into the game in the first half. Someone said to me at half-time that it was now ours to lose especially with the strong breeze at our backs coming up. In my heart I felt this as well but at the same time having seen enough football through […]
In the last twenty years, only seven counties have played in the All-Ireland Senior football final. Three of these teams, Dublin (8 wins from 8 appearances), Kerry (5 from 11) and Tyrone (4 from 5), have claimed Sam seventeen times between them in those twenty years, the remaining three going once each to Armagh, Cork and Donegal. Mayo (0 from […]
Seated between one of my best friends (and by complete fluke) the priest who baptised me, I watched as a scene I have seen several times before in Croke Park play out in front of me. If I wasn’t going to hell before this, the amount of effs and blinding at missed chances I let out beside the man of […]
I still remember the day I fell in love with Gaelic football: it was July 19th, 2009. On the previous afternoon, my husband and I drove from his hometown of Westport, Co. Mayo, through Delphi in Connemara to Galway City. All along the way, on houses in every village, outside every roadside pub or Texaco, the competing county flags of […]
Not one day goes by where I don’t think about Mayo winning the All-Ireland in some shape or fashion – no joke. It might be when I’m driving, it might be when I’m running/walking depending what sort of state of fitness I’m in. Sometimes it happens when a ball is in my hand but most of the time it’s when […]
It is said that you can get used to almost anything. At half-time in the recent semi-final I was talking to two of my three sons (both Dubs) about the likely All-Ireland final between Dublin and Kerry. It was a pragmatic conversation where I expressed the desire that the Dubs would win that final, just so we could have another […]
I love my songs about Mayo and this time of year, if the Lord spares us, the demand for them in my music library increases tenfold. Famous singer/songwriter and long-time pal of The Saw Doctors, Padraig Stevens, has a song called ‘Up Mayo’. The starting lyrics of it go: “In ainm an Athair, aon athair De, something is starting in […]
10:49am: “We’re sorry, but we couldn’t find any events” 10.51am: “You are now in line……………1,759 people in front of you” 11.07am: “You are now in line……………689 people in front of you” God, I really hate queuing for Mayo tickets online. Technology and I are not friends at the best of times. Give me a physical ticket put into my hand […]