All-Ireland Final countdown: Belmullet backs its boys to shoot for the stars

Belmullet GAA club is buzzing as two of their own endeavour to return Sam Maguire to Erris.

The community is putting its considerable support behind Ryan O’Donogue and Seamus Howard ahead of the All-Ireland Final showdown with Kerry.

The barony is bouncing as Mayo prepare to end their 75-year drought and Belmullet is beaming with pride for their local lads.

Club stalwarts and former chairmen John Gallagher and Ian McAndrew told the Western People that the entire area is thrilled.

“We are so proud of them. To see Ryan score 1-11 in Croke Park was incredible and a huge feat. I think Belmullet reflects the mood in the whole county. We are very proud of this young team.

“There is always great pride when you have men on the team. There was Chrissy Barrett before that and Billy Joe and Willie Joe of course. It adds that extra bit when you have one of your own men that you are looking out for. Ryan is such a talisman for this team. You would suspect he will be an All-Star this year but that won’t matter much if he wins an All-Ireland. Sam Maguire is the main thing!” said Ian.

“There is such a sense of pride in the area and the club,” added John Gallagher.

“You are standing behind the counter in the pub, and you seek the look on the faces of 50 or 60 people when Ryan scores a point. It’s incredible,” added John, who runs Teach John Joe in Aughleam.

Ryan has been integral to Mayo yet again this campaign and John and Ian say his considerable talents were evident from an early age.

“I saw him from the age of around 8 to 10 playing underage. Even at that age you could see his talent, his accuracy, his movement. He was a jinking type of player and very slight but showed great talent and toughness even at a young age,” said John.

“He was a good all-round boxer, footballer, soccer player. He is teaching here in the Convent now and they love him,” Ian commented.

The GAA is at the heart of life in Belmullet, and the O’Donoghues and Howards are a huge part of that family.

“And it’s not just because their sons are on the team. Ryan’s mother Brenda does a huge amount of work behind the scenes for the club,” said Ian.

Ryan’s fiancée Courtney O’Donnell stars for the Belmullet ladies side and her brother James is a teammate of Ryan and his brother Shea.

Ryan and Seamus hail from Lakefield and Glencastle and the rural areas that skirt the town of Belmullet have always been a nursery for some of the finest footballers from Erris.

“Ryan’s next village would be Muingmore and then you are into Kiltane. We always had good footballers from around there. Liam Donoghue who played with Mayo in the 70s was from there. It’s an area with two small national schools, Sraigh and Glencastle. Stephen Carolan we would have got from there too,” said Ian.

Ryan is already considered one of the greatest footballers that Belmullet and Erris has ever produced. An All-Ireland crown is likely to end the conversation about who the finest footballer from the area is.

“We have had this debate down in the club and in the pub too! Mick O’Toole was a very good footballer, Liam Donoghue was, Willie Joe, Tom Reilly, Chrissie Barrett was outstanding, Billy Joe gave great service. But this fella is head and shoulders above them,” Ian posited.

“Ryan and Billy Joe would be the best club men. Ryan would be a better footballer than Billie Joe but both possessed that fantastic club ethic,” John remarked.

John recalls being impressed by Ryan’s dedication and devotion to his sport.

“There was one day I heard a loud banging noise in the gym in the depths of winter and there was Ryan with a weights ball, pumping sweat. He told me this is what you must do to achieve what he wants to achieve.” 

The Belmullet clubhouse proudly boasts three large photos of their three All-Stars, Chris, Willie Joe and Ryan.

“Ryan scores and he scores heavy. He is a great buckeen,” said Ian.

Ryan and Seamus live around two miles apart and the locality is excited about what Seamus can produce in the future.

“Seamus is still so young, and we are delighted for him. He’s outstanding for his age. When we shocked Castlebar Mitchels last year, they were all coming up to me, who was our number eight. He was outstanding. He is a tremendous prospect,” said Ian.

“Seamus is a quiet, unassuming guy, and a great athlete. He has a fantastic engine,” added John.

Football is an obsession in Mayo and Erris takes the passion and devotion to new heights.

“We were always a football mad area. The distance to matches never really bothers us. Big crowds from Belmullet always go to matches and the club is central to everything down here,” said Ian.

John believes the long history of emigration has imbued natives of Erris with such a connection to their homeplace and its people.

“So many people had to leave here in the past to make a better life. But home was Mayo, home was Blacksod, home was Belmullet. And the sense of pride in the jersey and the club colours is huge.” 

John represented Mayo in the 1970s and the teak-tough full-back tangled with the Kingdom in the past.

“I marked the Bomber Liston in the National League in Crossmolina. He was a big, mobile man, and nearly impossible to stop when he got a run.” 

He was also a former teammate of Kerry great Ogie Moran at the Franciscan College in Gormanstown, Co Meath. With Ogie at midfield and John at full-back the powerhouse school won and lost a Hogan Cup.

Ian and John fancy Mayo’s chances despite the quality and history of their opposition.

“If anyone told you two months ago that either Louth or Mayo would be in an All-Ireland final you would be sending for the men in white coats to take you away,” said Ian.

“I was at every one of the league games and looking at the match against Roscommon, the first-half against Meath, you would have worried about Mayo, but this young team seems to be able to dig it out and power on. I would be quietly optimistic. Looking at Kerry against Dublin you would wonder how good they actually are. Dublin had an awful of wides and the decisions went against them. There is a feeling out there that Kerry are there to be taken on.

“Kerry will of course be a different animal in a final,” he added.

Ian McAndrew believes Mayo’s run to the final has generated hope rather than hype.

“There isn’t the blind madness of Mayo for Sam. People just seem more focused on the fact this this a young team that is doing well.” 

John Gallagher added: “I think the Kerry team have some weaknesses. There are frailties around the half-back line and around midfield. I think this is the first time that we have a forward line packed with this much talent. If we had this forward line back in Chris Barrett’s time, we would have won All-Ireland titles,” said John.

“Ryan is the leader, he dictates the play. He has become very astute and shrewd. They will have a job to quieten him,” he added.

Erris is likely to erupt if Mayo capture Sam Maguire.

“If Mayo win, it’s not just Belmullet, it’s the whole Erris diaspora. We come from all over. There is four clubs in Erris – Ballycroy, Kiltane, Cill Chomáin and ourselves. The amount of people that came home from England for the semi-final, a fella came back from Perth in Australia for it. It’s unbelievable. I have calls now coming in from all over the world looking for tickets,” said Ian.

Ian will manage to sidestep much of the ticket mania as he and a cohort from the club travel to the former Soviet republic of Georgia for the wedding of former Belmullet captain Michael ‘Mickey T’ Togher.

“I am coming back on the morning of the final. I’ll be gone for all the hype with the tickets!” Teach John Joe will be heaving on Sunday.

“It will be mad, the excitement is something else. The fishermen and farmers are my main customers, and they love to see the team doing well. The Mayo flags will be on all the boats in Blacksod and they will sail with pride,” said John.