Mayo could not have asked for better champions

It is now over three weeks since the final whistle and the joy of winning the All-Ireland has not abated one bit.

We thought the sheer ecstasy of winning might just last for a few hours, a day or two at the most. But it sustained for well over a week.

There were so many indescribable highs. The elation of the few hours afterwards, particularly being able to be in Croke Park with my nine-year-old daughter. Meeting your crew an hour afterwards. Playing songs in the car on the way home that you had playlisted for such a day.

Crossing the border at Ballindine. Passing the pitch in Breaffy and saying it’s now home to four All-Ireland champions (we’re not letting Raheny claim Rob Hennelly!). Calling to my folks who brought me to my first final in 1989 (lifted over the turnstiles, if only you could still do that four of us would have been there).

The homecoming on Monday and seeing Sam Maguire in Mayo. Driving up the Main Street in Castlebar afterwards with the kids out the windows blaring ‘The Green and Red of Mayo’ and ‘To Win Just Once’ while adults came over high-fiving the joyful kids.

Going to Belmullet on the Wednesday and seeing Sam Maguire up close and getting to chat with and congratulate some of the players and management. Interviewing Ryan O’Donoghue but also his parents. It was an extremely emotional but beautiful chat with Michael and Brenda who encapsulated the pride and the journey so articulately at a time when most of us were struggling to comprehend it all.

Experiencing the bedlam of a proper Belmullet street party that night.

Wondering if I should go to all the homecomings. Realising there’s only so much emotional energy I have left.

Heading to Breaffy on the Friday and seeing the club’s four All-Ireland champions hold Sam on home ground. It wasn’t Sam’s first time in Breaffy. I was there over a decade previously when it was there for a Newstalk roadshow with Oisín McConville and Donie Shine but resisted the temptation to touch it – only when we have it ourselves was my decision.

Getting to touch it then with Matthew Ruane in Breaffy on that glorious Friday afternoon.

Waking up in the mornings and the realisation setting in that it wasn’t a dream.

In the week afterwards, the tears became less frequent but a lovely warm feeling remained. Seeing Sam set sail for Clare Island and Inishturk was magnificent. In advance of the final, I interviewed Padraic O’Malley from Clare Island and Mikey O’Toole from Inishturk, two of the best Mayo fans you could ever meet.

For them to welcome Sam Maguire and some of the Mayo stars to their islands was wonderful. They set sail in all kinds of weather across the waves to Roonagh to follow Mayo for decades.

Seeing pictures of Sam in MUH with some great Mayo people who are on difficult journeys right now and knowing the lift it is giving them.

The sight of Sam Maguire being hauled up to the top of Croagh Patrick made your heart soar. It was such a spiritual sight. And trust me, as anyone who has held it can testify, it’s not light! So it was quite the workout for lads who had just played club championship that weekend.

It was a contagion of joy throughout the county. You nearly felt sorry for people from other counties who could never experience anything quite like this.

But what made it better than anything else was the real sense of belonging. It’s what is great about the GAA. A team represents your parish, your county and you feel part of it. It is part of your own identity.

But the way this team have brought everyone into its collective embrace has made the whole celebration so much better, personal and fulfilling.

Jack Coyne told us to stick our chests out and be proud to be from Mayo. And how we have. But what has given me the greatest pride is the magnificent way the players and management have carried themselves as champions.

They are custodians of Sam and, in so many ways, of us all and they have taken that job seriously and represented us magnificently.

They could easily have reached for the ‘we were written off’ finger-pointing that many go for. And they were, certainly by yours truly after the Roscommon game. But they rose above that towards a higher purpose.

They could have claimed the victory as theirs alone but they were so magnanimous in making this a victory for everyone.

Jack Coyne’s speech set that ball rolling.

“To the people of Mayo, this victory belongs to you. Whether you are here in Croke Park, at home or anywhere around the world, today is your day.

“To those players and coaches who wore the jersey before us, you inspired generations. You inspired us and showed us what it means to play for Mayo. I hope we honoured your legacy today.

“A special mention to those who are no longer with us, who dreamed of this day. Again, we hope we made you proud.” 

It was the most evocative, magnificent speech and it brought all of us into the glory which speaks volumes for the leader that Coyne is.

Andy Moran was very quick to think of people who had bad final experiences like Donie Vaughan and Liam McHale. It was a collective win and a collective catharsis.

And that has underpinned everything since.

Everywhere they went, they carried themselves so well. They have been so obliging to all the requests they’ve received, so giving of their time. I hadn’t the energy to follow them that week. By the Thursday, they must have been absolutely wiped yet they still felt a duty to keep going and planned the brilliant open-top bus tour on the Friday.

That trip gave so many people in so many clubs, villages and towns memories to take to the grave. The players parked their own exhaustion and thought of others and maximising the emotional whirlwind of the most incredible week.

They enjoyed their few drinks, which they were more than entitled to, but none of them became messy, they represented their team, their families, their clubs and their county with pride, dignity and grace.

Leading it all was Andy Moran. As the man who has led Mayo across such a great frontier, he has worn all of that so lightly. Perhaps that has been the key - the players wore the weight of history so lightly in the build up and during the final. Moran set the tone with his even-keel temperament.

He and his management and players have understood so perfectly what this means to our people. They have treated that responsibility with great care.

Mayo could not have asked for better champions.