The Mayo Curse

The All Ireland Football Final is on again tomorrow. 


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For the first time since 2014, it will be a final without Dublin. 


Going unbeaten from the start of the 2015 season up to this year’s semi final, Dublin set an all time record of 6 titles in a row. 

This 6-in-row, I will go on record now, will stand forever. 


If any team, during my lifetime, other than Dublin themselves, beats this record, I will buy anybody who cares to remind me of this statement a pint. 


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The final this year is between Mayo and Tyrone. 

Mayo last won the trophy in 1951.


It’s not for the lack of trying but, according to popular lore, Mayo have since then been under the spell of The Mayo Curse.


For those of you who don’t have an intimate knowledge of Gaelic Football culture, let me explain.


There are several versions of this popular myth, but it generally goes along the following lines:


The Mayo team, on the way back to their home county on the West Coast, were celebrating with their newly won trophy on their team bus (sometimes a team truck) when they accidentally drove through the middle of a roma funeral procession. (Sometimes the tale speaks of a Catholic funeral procession, overseen by a priest but the roma version is better)


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The team bus stopped soon after and the team manager (sometimes it’s the captain) got out to apologise to the family for disturbing their moment of grief.


The matriarch of the family, so the story goes, was a gipsy witch and she refused to accept any apologies. She then cast The Mayo Curse.

She told the gathered crowd of football players “As long as one of you is still alive, Mayo will never win the All Ireland again!”


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The players got back on the bus and returned to Mayo for their official homecoming and a couple of days of partying. 


Since then, Mayo have made the All Ireland Final 10 times.

And they lost them all. 


Since 2012, they have lost 5 finals, 4 of them to Dublin, and 2 of those by a single point scored in injury time. 


Tomorrow, Mayo will get their 11th stab at the Sam Maguire Cup since the curse was cast. Dublin are not in the way this time.


Will they lift the curse and the trophy? 


Oh, small detail: one player from the 1951 team, a gentleman named Paddy Prendergast, is still alive.

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