Heartbreak Again for Mayo

All-Ireland Senior Football Final:

Dublin 1-17; Mayo 1-16

Once again Mayo have to swallow the bitter pill of defeat in an All-Ireland Senior Football final. On this occasion they were beaten by a 76th minute pointed free from Dublin's Dean Rock. They lost by a similar margin to the same opposition in their last encounter in an All-Ireland senior final.

I have a special fondness for Mayo football having had an obsessive interest in Gaelic Games since my early youth. In that part of South Tipperary where I come from, we had a particular affinity for Gaelic football; although our interest in hurling was also intense as was the case throughout the county and beyond. In those relatively stress-free times, Mayo were one of the footballing giants. I can recall the names of practically all of their All-Ireland winning team of 1951.

This present Mayo team is very close to the Holy Grail. They recall the indomitable spirit of another great son of the county, Michael Davitt who co-founded the Land League which refused to be crushed by the cruel Land Lord system in the latter part of the nineteenth century. I am also reminded of that sad day on July 7th, 1980 when Mayo lost one of it's greatest-ever footballers, John Morley, who was brutally shot down by bank-robbing terrorists.

Let next year be your year.