By Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN, July 27 (Reuters) – The shattering of Irish sport’s most famous curse reverberated far beyond the western county of Mayo after their All-Ireland Gaelic football victory drew cheers from famous descendants including former U.S. President Joe Biden, Canadian Premier Mark Carney and members of rock band Oasis.
The long-suffering county’s 75-year wait to claim the Sam Maguire Cup in the hugely popular national sport dominated the front and back newspaper pages on Monday. National broadcaster RTE’s flagship morning radio news show largely rotated between Mayo and the team’s hotel in Dublin.
Biden, a proud Irish-American whose parting words during a three-day presidential trip to Ireland in 2023 were “Mayo for Sam!” led the congratulations from thousands of miles away.
“Today, the dream becomes reality,” Biden wrote on X shortly after Mayo’s win over holders Kerry, the competition’s most successful team, recalling his final words in Ballina, the town his great-great-great-grandfather left for the U.S. in 1851.
“Congratulations to my friends in Mayo. You earned this victory. Enjoy every minute. Sam is coming home.”
DISTANT COUSINS
Carney, who like Biden spent a large part of a state visit last month meeting distant cousins in his grandparents’ Mayo village, shared his congratulations, as did the Gallagher brothers from Oasis whose mother, Peggy, hails from Mayo.
“The curse is broken,” Carney wrote on X, referring to the popular myth that when the last victorious Mayo team’s homecoming parade disrupted a funeral, the priest declared they would never win again as long as any of that team lived.
The “curse” haunted Mayo much like similar superstitions did to fans of U.S. baseball teams the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. The last member of the 1951 All Ireland-winning team died in 2021, two weeks after Mayo lost their last and 11th successive final.
A popular book written about the drought was titled “House Of Pain”.
But the young, fearless team’s win on Sunday left grown men in green and red jerseys in tears around the 82,000-seat Croke Park Stadium. The camera panned to one crying fan on the final whistle who blessed himself and fell to his knees to kiss the ground.
“I was with my partner this morning and we were looking at some clips on social media and I genuinely broke down just looking at them,” Mayo player Matthew Ruane told RTE.
“It half hit home for the first time. Genuinely, it’s amazing.”
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, editing by Ed Osmond)
Comments