A county rejoices in the newness of it all

How was it for you?

We had always wondered what the aftermath of an All-Ireland SFC Final victory might look like. I think it’s safe to say it’s been beyond anything we could ever have imagined. Was there ever been a more special week in Co Mayo than that after 75 years of waiting came to an end – and will the likes of it ever be seen again?

My kids spent their week going from bog to homecoming to bog to homecoming but if it were possible to convert into power the atmosphere that has pervaded the county, there’d be no need for turf for 10 years or more.

We had watched on with envy over the years as not so much Kerry or Dublin, but counties like Donegal, Tyrone, Armagh, Meath and, of course, Galway, got to do multiple times what it took us 75 years to accomplish. Finally we got to see the Sam Maguire Cup brought back to Mayo. The emotional and euphoric scenes in Castlebar and Claremorris, Ballyhaunis and Belmullet, Ballaghaderreen and Ballina, Foxford, Charlestown, Westport and all points in between, truly were in a different stratosphere to anything the country has ever witnessed. How blessed we are to have lived through the greatest ending to the greatest sports story that has made the headlines from America to Australia.

And it’s the fascinating little stories within the big story that have begun to emerge too, like how Diarmuid O’Connor, when he was substituted in the 58th minute of the final against Kerry, headed for the Mayo dressing-room where his brother Cillian was already watching the game on television, the tension of doing so outside proving just too much. It wasn’t until Tommy Conroy was fisting the insurance point over the bar that the pair sprinted back out of the tunnel in time for the hooter, the screech of which was like a choir of heavenly angels to Mayo supporters.

And because of the newness of it all, there’s all the questions too, like who looks after the Sam Maguire Cup, is that even the real Sam Maguire Cup that’s been doing the rounds, who among the players and management are the first in line to receive the 35 Celtic Cross medals, will Mayo GAA buy medals for the rest, and as Mayo supporters, at what stage does it become inappropriate to keep hugging people who at best might only pass as mild acquaintances?

I’ve enjoyed the fondest of embraces and conversations with people, some of whom have probably wanted to wring my neck for opinions I have expressed previously in these pages about matters Mayo GAA. It’s as though one game, one victory, has wiped a slate clean. That the crankiness of a county has been shattered by 70 glorious minutes.

The anthems have continued to blast out (has there ever been a group of Galway men to rejoice more about the a Mayo win than the Saw Doctors – and more power to them!) but apparently To Win Just Once isn’t going to be enough for this group of Mayo footballers, if their manager Andy Moran has anything to do with it.

“Let’s keep enjoying this feeling. Let’s harness the feeling. And let’s get a tiny bit greedy now and let’s go back after it again in a couple of months,” he told the thousands who were packed into The Square in Ballaghaderreen.

The players, of course, are back at it this week, when they become rivals once more in the Mayo club championships, the attendances for which should skyrocket on the afterglow of this All-Ireland SFC Final triumph.

Andy Moran’s positivity and can do attitude has transformed not only a team but an entire county, a county that for so long was everybody’s second favourite. Now we’re the team to beat. It doesn’t get much better than that.