Clew Bay oysters and Croke Park dreams

It could be the weather or it might just be the general ambience that has bathed Mayo in affability now that we are in the All-Ireland Final, but I am about to do something that I have avoided doing in fifty years of writing this column. I am about to give a plug to a local business that has caught my eye and fulfilled a gourmet need to the point of excess. 

Up the road from me is Croagh Patrick Seafoods - an oyster and shellfish farm on the shores of Clew Bay. It is operated by the Gannon family and is an example of a small(ish) operation that is a credit to Mayo’s entrepreneurial skills and heralds a bright future for people with a bit of imagination.

Like a lot of other farming families around Clew Bay, the Gannons have harvested the fruits of the sea for hundreds of years whether that be oysters, mussels, clams, carrageen, dillisk, or a variety of seaweeds. In more recent times and in keeping up with the times, Padraig Gannon branched out into oyster farming and having established a successful operation then sought to add value to his operation by using the opportunity presented by the Great Western Greenway and the Wild Atlantic Way.

He set up a visitor centre offering Oyster Farm Tours and Tastings. Now, to me and lads like me, that would not be a very appetising offering, but to an entrepreneur who is prepared to put in a bit of hard work and imagination it is the foundations of success. The family-run business has been producing native Clew Bay oysters and the award-winning Pacific oysters for some decades now and his Tours and Tastings is making an impression.

I had been to the Visitor Centre and had tasted the shellfish offering previously but, as I say, the weather being what it is, I decided to take another tour and was welcomed by Padraig (he had to ask who I was, which dented my belief that I am a well-known columnist!). He was bringing in to the kitchen a freshly chucked batch of oysters and proudly showed them off to me and suggested a photo to bring home with us.

Well what does one do in such salubrious company but agree. Padraig went off about his business and I proceeded with mine which was to order a half dozen grilled oysters fused with garlic, a half portion of mussels and an open smoked mackerel pate sandwich while my daughters, who were treating me, had the open prawn sandwich. Just delicious. It was a feast with a difference fit for a gourmet such as myself. Now, shellfish is not everybody’s cup of tea but for a treat on a fine day the tasting was well worth the detour off the Newport/Westport road in to glorious Roslahar.

ENGLAND'S WOES

It definitely has to be the sunshine and the feeling of joie de vivre at Mayo’s qualification for the final that has induced in me a certain sympathy for England. For me it goes against the grain to have any emotion whatever about England playing football. In fairness, that has more to do with the English sporting media who have yet to realise that England is no more the home of football than Pol Pot’s Kampuchea is.

When Ireland went to the World Cup, the supporters boasted “you will never beat the Irish”, but it was said with a certain amount of good humour. When the English media proclaim that you will never beat the English, they are serious. And that’s the difference.

With the Irish lads Kane, Rice and Nico O’Reilly (he has to be Irish with a name like that) in their line-up you would have to be a dyed in the wool Anglophobe not to take an interest in England’s games and, of course, when pitted against Argentina, probably the best football nation in the world, now that Brazil is in decline, it was a game that was worth tuning in to. And Argentina have Messi who, if one were to take heed of the media (not just English!) is now a pensioner at 39 years of age and well past his prime. It would seem that nobody told Messi he was over the top.

England’s approach to the game was similar to Jack Charlton’s - hoof it up the field and play in the opposition half. England however did not have the calibre of player that Charlton had and while the England goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford, played his part as the launchpad of the English attacks, it was not a pretty game.

The first half was boring and the game did not take on any excitement until England scored and that, in a sense, was their downfall. Argentina left off the shackles and decided to play. It was not just Messi. Argentina had players in all positions who were more accomplished on the ball than their opponents and they were relentless in pursuit of the goals that would bring them to the final.

I had, sorta, hoped that England would hold out but it was not to be. The only consolation for them was that the score could have been much greater. It was tough to see the disappointment on the face of Kane and Rice, who was clearly not fully fit for this World Cup. Perhaps the next one.

THE FINAL

And so to matters of far greater import. Elsewhere in these pages you will get all you need to know about Mayo’s upcoming game against reigning champions Kerry in the All-Ireland Final. I have, on many occasions, made my views known on the structure of the championship but, as they say, we are where we are.

Mayo are in the final on merit. We were beaten in the championship twice but we won the games we had to win to get to the final. More importantly we played attractive and positive, attacking football. We defended when we had to defend and, in the performance of that task, showed considerable improvement. This game is a bonus. As team manager Andy Moran has suggested nobody expects Mayo to beat Kerry.

We are led to believe that every county outside of Kerry would like to see Mayo win. That of course is nonsense. There are plenty of people in every county who would hate to see Mayo win. Look up social media and you will see plenty of that illogical antagonism. 

I’m of an age now where I’m not too bothered about the outcome. What I’m looking forward to is seeing Mayo at their best, being entertained, and getting value for the cost of admission. I’m confident Mayo will play with passion and intent. They will seek to entertain. It is in the breeding, the genes.

Andy Moran and his backroom team will look at Kerry and will deploy their resources in the way they think best to limit Kerry’s dangermen, just as Jack O’Connor will leave nothing to chance in terms of curbing Mayo’s shooting stars. The reality on the field is of course different to the plans hatched on the drawing boards and it happens, at times, games are decided by performances and actions that have nothing to do with the best laid plans.

If things fall into place and Mayo get the bounce of the ball they have the players to overcome Kerry. Sometimes, it takes a bit of luck to win a game and while teams generally are supposed to make their own luck, a little bit of extra luck for Mayo would not go amiss. We’re entitled to it.