News of the extent of the challenges faced by the GAA with rural depopulation won’t be news to a lot of gaels in Mayo. They are living the experience of it and have been for some time.

It was one of the best uses ever of an All-Ireland ticket. The year was 1951, and John ‘Twin’ McNamara was restless. He had just finished three years of second-level school in Achill and wanted to make for England.

The death last month of Frank Durcan in Spain brings the curtain down on the life of a man who was one of the most colourful and controversial political characters in Mayo.

The death last Thursday of the writer and broadcaster Manchán Magan has been greeted with a huge wave of sadness right across Ireland, in keeping with his monumental contributions to Irish life and culture.

Last week I had never heard of a Hermes Kelly bag. I’m not sure my wife would take kindly to me spending €20,000 on such an accessory as a gift for her.

The sudden death of Dr John Bradley last week has robbed the West of Ireland of one of its most powerful and brilliant advocates.

The killing last week of Charlie Kirk, a US right-wing activist and close ally of Donald Trump, revealed so much of the worst of where discourse is at these days.

One of the hardest beats for a Mayo sports reporter is going down to the dressing rooms and press conference area under the Hogan Stand in Croke Park after an All-Ireland final defeat.

All over Mayo, all the kids are back to school by the time you read this. Our youngest started national school yesterday, Monday, September 1. His older two siblings joined him to great excitement.

When they first came on stream, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter (now X) appeared like magnificent manifestations of the potential of the internet. We first got into Facebook in 2008 when we were travelling in Australia.

A great footballer does not guarantee a great manager. Current All-Ireland winning manager Jack O’Connor had no county pedigree as a player.

“Where are you from?” For many people, that is a very easy question to answer. For me, I am one of those whom such a question always gives pause for thought.

On the island where one of her famous castles still stands sentry, the legend of Granuaile came alive in spectacular fashion late last month.

The long wait for All-Ireland success in Mayo has changed all of us who care deeply about the fortunes of our senior football team.

When you are in GAA outposts in Mayo like Achill, Ballycroy, Belmullet, Glenamoy, Louisburgh and Lacken, you get a great sense for how vast our county is.

You couldn’t but be infuriated at the tale Ellen told on the Irish Housewife of the Year documentary on RTÉ recently.

When we met Billy and Frances McNicholas in the Silverbirch Hotel in Omagh, the well-known Mayo GAA coach told the five of us that we had brought to 62 the number of Mayo fans he had spotted since arriving in the town ahead of the Tyrone game.

Anthony Hennigan’s analysis of plans for a Mayo GAA Centre of Excellence in Bohola in this paper last week was simply superb.

For those who know the world of Hyrox – a soaring global fitness trend – what James Carty is doing next Sunday in attempting to do five Hyrox events back to back in one day in Crossmolina seems like a hybrid of insanity and inspiration.

Before I was even born in Breaffy, there was a very successful camogie club in the village. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Breaffy were the queens of camogie in Mayo.

Anyone who has ever been to the beautiful Inishkeas off the coast of Erris can attest to the magical nature of the islands, an otherworldly feeling to the place.

For those of us born in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was beginning to feel like there would only ever be one pope. Pope John Paul II was such a constant in our upbringing in a very different Ireland. Many homes had framed photos of him.

It was a historic week in Westport in more ways than one.

In 2017, I was extremely fortunate to be in the presence of former United States Senator George Mitchell at Mount Falcon. I like to claim it was a private audience, as that’s what it felt like.

It would take a particularly cold-hearted individual to watch the final episode of the acclaimed Netflix drama Adolescence and not find it heartbreaking. I won’t lie – I was a blubbering mess watching it.

Ahead of St Patrick’s Day, there cannot be too many of us who thought we’d be mentioning Garron Noone and Conor McGregor in the same breath.

As one man told Toirlach Dever on the Saturday just after he had finished his epic 24-hour run around Achill, it took a madman to think of the idea and another level of madness entirely to actually see it through.

The recent visit by members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI) to the west of Ireland is a salient reminder of the role Europe can play in our development and, indeed, wishes to play.

We are in a housing crisis in Ireland. It is more prevalent in the east coast than in the west yet there are plenty of pinch points here too where demand outstrips supply.

“It is unconscionable that we would be the generation who preside over the permanent demise of rural Ireland. . .

There was something very symbolic about newly-appointed Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill holding a press conference with local reporters outside the front entrance to Mayo University Hospital (MUH).

Anyone who knows Dara Calleary realised straight away that attending the infamous ‘Golf-gate’ dinner in Clifden in August 2020 was a grave lapse of judgment rather than arrogance or contempt for the Covid-19 regulations.

It is now well over two weeks since the fearsome Storm Éowyn came to our shores and left a trail of destruction behind. Incredibly, some people are still without power and tens of thousands more only had their power restored inside the last week.

All hail the ‘good’ room. The much-maligned and oft-underused ‘good’ or ‘sitting’ room is something common to most Irish homes my generation grew up in.

Cuala’s success in winning the All-Ireland Senior Club Football title was very well received in Mayo, as they were managed by Louisburgh’s Austin O’Malley.

The GAA is a magnificent organisation. It has brought untold benefits into every corner of our country. It provides a great physical outlet for young and not so young. It also provides a social outlet for those players.

When you flick through the news pages of the year just gone, it confirms the stories that dominated the headlines in 2024.

The kids’ Christmas wishes this year are an eclectic mix. There’s a request for a tablet (electronic, not medicinal I hasten to add), a bike and from our youngest, ‘lots of torches and Peppa Pig stuff’.

You couldn’t move on social media on the weekend of the election for people decrying why so many voters were voting for ‘more of the same’.

In just two Dáil terms the political order in Mayo has been transformed. We wrote last week about how it was historic that Mayo elected two women to the Dáil for the first time ever.

Never have there been as many strong, capable female candidates in Mayo as in this election. At various stages of the campaign, each of the four women in the field were tipped to take seats and in the end, the performance of two of them was historic.

In these pages next week, you’ll be able to read all the election results and pundits like this writer will attempt to analyse the result and draw conclusions.

Sympathy for politicians is always hard to muster but I can safely say I could think of nothing worse to be doing right now than running for election.