I haven’t said a huge amount about my my pet project in a while, for the very good reason that I haven’t had the time to do a whole load on the results archive over the past year. Last winter came and went and I only managed to add all of the results and most of the team details for 1949 (I’d been hoping to fill out that whole decade last back-end but it never happened) and work is still proving to be an obstacle to my getting back to the nice, comfortable environs of the National Library to dig out some more of the historical stuff.
But then, out of the blue like, I got an email a short while ago from a chap named Padraig Ferguson who said, and I quote, “I have the complete inter-county results for Mayo” and “you are welcome to a copy if you want to have them”. I said that I did. Sound man that he is, he emailed them through to me, all in a handy spreadsheet as well.
I already have in my possession The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games and so by using this and the historical results section on the GAA’s website as a cross-check on Padraig’s (extremely accurate) data, I’ve been able to complete the entire record of our senior inter-county results for league and championship right back to the day that the county first kicked a ball in anger.
From what I can see, that day was the 9th of November 1902, when we played Galway in the final of the 1901 Connacht championship (it’s not clear if there were any games leading up to this initial decider). We won, they objected and then we won again in the refixed match. A great rivalry was born.
I’ve been in communication directly with Padraig already but I’d like to formally record my appreciation again for his generosity in making this information available to me so that it may be shared with the wider world. It goes without saying that it would have been a long, long time before I would have got the archive to the same point if I had to do so under my own steam.
But, of course, the job isn’t finished at all yet and my initial aim of compiling full team details with every result as far back as possible remains undimmed. I also want to add U21 and minor championship results to the mix as well (they’re only currently included for this year and last) and that’s obviously going to take a fair bit of time and effort to do. What Padraig’s intervention has enabled me to do, however, is to decouple this more detailed research from the compilation of the full results archive, which is now more or less complete. If you want to have a ramble through it at any time, just click on the results archive tab above.
Fantastic and unrivaled piece of work Willie Joe. Well done.
Apart from the results some of the early stuff makes for great reading and trivia as matches never seemed to be played in the year that is being contested. For a quick dip into your archive my curiosity was what we were up to 100 years ago in 1910 and 1911. In 1911 the 2009 championship was decided and the story with it is … well you couldn’t make it up ….
“SEMI-FINAL: Roscommon 0-6 Mayo 0-5 (Athlone, 16/7/1911).
Mayo objected to the result on five grounds:
(1) the referee was from Roscommon;
(2) the venue;
(3) the first half lasted 20 minutes;
(4) the second half lasted 40 minutes and
(5) the pitch was too short.
Mayo’s appeal was successful and they went forward to the 1909 Connacht final. ”
You can’t bate that as the fella says !! Brilliant!
that is brilliant stuff willie joe , congrats on getting it up on the site and best of luck with the work ahead
Thanks Ma-Yoman/Roger – it’s good to have got the job this far and to have got such great assistance in the task of doing so.
The crack around those early results is brilliant for sure, though the fun starts as recently as 1946 when Roscommon’s Jimmy Murray waved the green flag himself after scoring against us and almost caused a riot in the process. They still beat us in the replay, though.
The circumstances around why we didn’t defend our NFL title in 1939/40 are also of note as it appears we wuz robbed against Kerry in the 1939 All-Ireland semi-final when a certain 14-yard free (which would have won it for us) wasn’t awarded and Kerry managed to squeeze past us instead.
I love those five grounds of appeal too. When you think about it, most of them, or variants of them, are still used today (I’ve used most of them here at one time or another): i.e. (1) the ref is a bollix; (2) why do the Dubs always get to play in Croke Park? (3) not enough injury time played; (4) too much injury time played; (5) they made the pitch in Croke Park too big when they did the redevelopment. Plus ca change and all that!
Well done WJ, a treasure trove. In the replay after Murrays flag waving caper, both teams posed for a photo together at at half time. An amazing thing to do. Fine men all of them, what would they think of the country today?
Have you ever seen that photo, ontheroad, or would you know if any copy of it exists?
aye willie joe but the one thing that has changed is that mayos appeal was successful that time !
We were obviously more persuasive back then.
Have seen it and will try and get a copy for you. Had it but loaned book out, now must track book and man to get it back.
The 1939 incident was a disgrace. Mayo were awarded a free close in. Whilst the injured Mayo player was being treated two Kerry officals from their county board approached the referee.
On resumption the ref took the ball and threw it into the air and promptly blew the final whistle.
Naturally we lost the replay and when Croke Park was asked to adjudicate over Mayos complaint the ref said he was only telling the Kerry officals how long remained!. The hop ball was because even though he awarded Mayo a free, a Mayo man then pushed a Kerry man thus cancelling out the free , so he awarded a hop ball instead! Santa came to him that year as well and its rumoured that he was capable of seeing leprauchans too!
We are no strangers to the big shaft, the biggest was nine years later when we had a 14 yard free charged down and the ref blew the 1948 AIF up with four minutes left. In the words of the Western People writer who chronicled that match “Surely the saddest words ever penned-what might have been!”
That’d be great if you could, ontheroad – I could stick it on here if that’s okay so that everyone can see it.
While we’re on the topic of we wuz robbed, we shouldn’t forget 1925, which, of course, ended up with the Herrin Chokers being declared All-Ireland champions for the first time even though we had qualified for the final that year (which was subsequently never played) …
An astonishing and valuable achievement. Fair play to all concerned. But doesn’t it show the official sources up very badly? You’d expect them to have this sorted and available long ago.
Fantastic work Willie Joe and makes for good reading in certain decades. It must have been a painstaking exercise. This is a truly excellent site and as someone who left Mayo in 95 a great way of staying in touch with all Mayo football matters. Keep up the good woek. Maigh Eo Abu