This is excellent


An open letter to the Mayo team

" What we are living a lifetime for"

Dear lads

Here we go again. Another September and we rest our dream on your young shoulders. It's a lot for you to carry on All-Ireland Final day. But if we can't trust you, where else can we turn. We're squeezing the ticket of a lifelong journey into your safe hands for you to get us a travel pass so as we can live a dream.

Who are we? We're the woman serving the meal at a wedding in the Castlecourt. We're the kid playing in the schoolyard. We're the girls on the B shift in Baxter. The exiles in London or Long Island. The five Ballinrobe lads who took off one morning for Australia.

The patient in hospital wearing her Mayo neckband. We're the mother who worries daily about the price of the school books or the uniform. We're the fly by nights, the chancers, the sleeveens, and the all right sort of an 'auld character'.

We're the singletons, the married, the divorced, the widowers and the widowed. We're the dreamers and believers and the legends of the road. We're Mayo.

You're the gift we inherited when dad brought us to see you play. It's the Sunday of childhood that has become every day or our life since. From high infants you were there.

We were Morley and Prendergast in sixth class. In secondary school you were with us too. Tickeen and Joeeen. We were you wearing our Mayo socks in Presentation College Headford. No replica jerseys then. It was years later we proudly adorned ourselves in Larry's (McEllin) famous shirt.

You were there playing gooseberry when we fell in love. If she had no heed in football she was ditched. Didn't matter a damn if she had a dowry and road frontage. Ours was a different kind of love. Monday's when we woke with our football hearts broken.

You were there when the kids were born. We passed on the baton on. The easiest gospel we ever preached. All the roaring getting them up for Mass we could have saved ourselves if the priest wore red and green vestments. They are mothers themselves now. In the car with us now on this crusade. Full driving license too. The next generation in the back. Too big a stack to be strapped in the baby seat either. A growing reminder that precious time is slipping away.

Because of you we have to put an extra set of tyres and tax the car most years. Never had a right holiday either.
Wouldn't know Lanzarote from Pavorotti.

Met a woman once who was going to Cornwall. "Ah lovely," I said by way of saying something. "Were you ever there?" she asked. "No" I replied, feeling a right idiot.

Didn't bother asking her was she in Scotstown on a cold crisp January Sunday in 1996, the day Kenny Mortimer was sent off. We burdened Kenny and his brothers with this dream too. Left it on Noel Connelly's shoulder also. Others too like Ronaldson, Geraghty, the genius Ciaran McDonald, Willie Joe and McStay. They were worthy of our hopes and aspirations. Their want was ours.

You're the reason we clutched at straws in the gale. 1985 when Mayo and Monaghan were in the All-Ireland semi-finals and some pleb told us Old Moore's predicted two M's would meet in the All-Ireland. We scoured every page for confirmation, but two M's for the Maam Cross Fair was as near as we got. We just want from you one September Sunday when an unimaginable world unfolds.

Small things will do us thereafter. A night around Christmas when the family are gathered. A warm fire and we watching the video of Mayo winning the All-Ireland Final of 2013. Hair still standing on the napes of our necks.

We'll get a nice picture too standing between Donal, Kenneth, Mickey and Colm holding the Sam Maguire. For the coffin. Our jersey strewn on the lid beside it and the congregation singing our Mayo anthem "The Green and Red of Mayo" when they wheel us out. That's what we're living a lifetime for. You're carrying us on your shoulders now. In Mayo we trust.

Good Luck

Willie McHugh

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 20/09/2013 12:40:26    1485723

Amazing

BannerBoy2013 (Clare) - Posts: 325 - 20/09/2013 12:45:29    1485728

Come on Mayo

downtothecore (Down) - Posts: 349 - 20/09/2013 12:56:02    1485739

Nice piece in fairness.

hurlingdub (Dublin) - Posts: 6978 - 20/09/2013 12:58:46    1485742

Fine words indeed, spoken from the heart.

brendtheredhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 10897 - 20/09/2013 13:04:03    1485747

up mayo hope ye do it lads .

liffo (Offaly) - Posts: 649 - 20/09/2013 13:06:28    1485749

What a piece from Willie, I nearly have tears reading that and sums up the mood of a county and its people. This is more than just a football game.

Come on Mayo footballers we are all behind ye.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11652 - 20/09/2013 13:06:46    1485750

A lovely piece. Reminds me of the old Mayo man who was sitting next to me at the Cork v Mayo quarter final in 2011 when they had beaten us for the first time in 95 years. At the end I told him that I hoped they went on to win the All Ireland and he said he remembered the last time they won it and just wanted to see it again just one more time before he dies. I hope he is there on Sunday and sees it.

KeyserSoze (Cork) - Posts: 363 - 20/09/2013 13:14:36    1485757

Excellent article. Come on Mayo bring it home its long overdue.

mon (Galway) - Posts: 675 - 20/09/2013 13:16:12    1485762

Wow, you have to love this; you can feel the pain in every word. Sport has a knack of grabbing you by the balls. It takes your life over and just swallows you up. I love the feeling of expectation/fear/hope, it's so hard to explain but this letter is just fantastic. If Mayo don't do it this year we'll be back next and the next and the next until we do and that is what Mayo football will do to you….

Thank you Willie McHugh and fair play to you Jimbo for putting it up.

Mancirish (UK) - Posts: 2200 - 20/09/2013 13:17:15    1485764

Brilliant stuff..

waynoI (Dublin) - Posts: 13654 - 20/09/2013 13:20:47    1485771

Yerrah, yeah. Sure ye can be as sentimental as ye want after the game is in the bag... as long as ye're lads are ruthless to a fault on the pitch come Sunday. Truthfully, this Mayo team is better than any other that U can recall, but they're up against a sky blue attacking force that just won't quit. Start well. Play to your strengths. Be ready to swap around and slow things down at the end, if needs be. Can ye crush the Dubs at that back? It won't be easy but yes ye can. Can ye capitalise on ye're midfield advantage? By staying focused, again the answer is yes. Can ye keep ye're full forward line on the front foot? That, I think will be the crux of it.

Unlike my crowd, if ye have them against the ropes, ye must coldly and calculatedly batter them into submission. What a pity the opposition isn't Donegal or even Tyrone for then there would be no sign of a neutral on the day. As it is, the rest of us expect both teams to serve up something atypical: a final for the ages!

plike (Kerry) - Posts: 569 - 20/09/2013 13:34:23    1485782

Magnif

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 20/09/2013 13:36:47    1485790

Lads

if you were playing anyone else I'd gladly lend me support even though you've sickened me once or twice over the years:). But your not so I can't. But if you come out on top on Sunday, hurt though it will, I will not begrudge you your day in the sun. It's a super letter btw.

Aido

Aido69 (Dublin) - Posts: 381 - 20/09/2013 13:43:37    1485795

Tears on monday dear oh dear.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4954 - 20/09/2013 14:10:50    1485818

Letter is missing crucial reference to rowing over to achill, the final leg of the journey at the end of match day.

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3852 - 20/09/2013 14:18:13    1485828

Mayo are going to win this game well and it will be great to see many years of frustration ended...............

great post.

slayer (Limerick) - Posts: 6480 - 20/09/2013 14:23:02    1485834

Cringeworthy.

This sort of thing is why Mayo fans are often ridiculed after All-Ireland final defeats. 'You were there when the children were born'. FFS, get a grip man. It's all fine and well coming out with this stuff after Sam's been won, but not before. If Mayo win on Sunday, it's because they will be the best team on the pitch, not due to any mythical bond between the team and our exile community. And I say that as an emigrant myself.

Some Mayo folk really do have a tendency to lose the run of themselves in the run-up to All-Ireland final week.

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 20/09/2013 14:34:08    1485839

Not for me this stuff, forget those soft teary-eyed tales of woe.

Thankfully, the current mayo team are far removed from this type of thinking.

Next ball, no more no less.

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 20/09/2013 14:40:15    1485843

Never really got into that sort of stuff, it doesn't do anything for me but anyway I still hope Mayo wins :-)

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 20/09/2013 14:43:00    1485845