All-Ireland Final countdown: Paddy was present for Mayo’s ’51 victory
98-year-old Paddy Nyland is hoping Mayo can put their All-Ireland SFC Final hoodoo to bed, 75 years after he was in Croke Park to last see the county lift the Sam Maguire Cup. Paddy's late brother Martin Nyland for years served the Western People as its Swinford correspondent.
At 98 years of age, Paddy Nyland remains one of the dwindling number of supporters who witnessed Mayo's last All-Ireland football triumph in Croke Park in 1951.
A native of Sweetwell, Swinford, Paddy later settled in Kilkelly after marrying his late wife, Mena. Aged 23 at the time, he travelled to the final with three friends, taking a hackney from Swinford to Croke Park on Sunday, September 23, 1951, setting off at 5am.
The fare for his journey was 10 bob (10 shillings), and they stopped for Mass when they saw a crowd standing outside a church in one of the towns on the way to Dublin.
There was no scramble for tickets in those days. Instead, supporters queued outside Croke Park, and when the gates opened they were admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.
“We queued outside first of all. They opened at 11am and started letting people in. You had to find your place then as best you could,” Paddy told the .
“We’d be lucky enough; we always got in.
“It was about two and six, half a crown we used to call it, something like that to get in. You would be in from 11 o’clock onwards and you would be waiting then until the match would start at 3.15pm.”
Paddy Nyland was one of the 78,201 people who got into Croke Park on the mild September day and he managed to get a spot to stand under the cover of the Hogan Stand. He enjoyed the minor game before the enthralling clash between Mayo and Meath. He joined the masses of people that invaded the pitch to see captain Sean Flanagan lift Sam Maguire for the second consecutive year on the steps of the Hogan Stand.
Following the game, the long journey home began, stopping for food along the way. Paddy enjoyed the craic with his friends as they celebrated the double.
Man-of-the-Match Pádraig Carney was Paddy’s favourite player of the 1951 team and was in Swinford when Carney and the rest of the team brought the Sam Maguire Cup to the town.
Paddy, who just happens to be my grandfather, thought that Mayo would go on to win a title every couple of years, but the wait goes on for the Mayo faithful.
Looking ahead to this weekend’s final, he believes that Mayo have a fifty-fifty chance of bringing Sam back West.
“They have a good chance, they have some good young players there who have no fear.” If Mayo end their long wait, Paddy says he’ll be there to welcome Sam Maguire home once again – a celebration he has waited 75 years to see.
