Mayo-Roscommon rivalry as passionate as ever in Ballaghaderreen

THE GAA cuts very deep in Ballaghaderreen.

It does not just divide clubs, parishes or households, it even divides families.

In weeks like these, those divisions grow wider with every bit of small talk, pub talk and slagging, in every stitch of blue, yellow green and red flag that flies in this most rural of rural towns.

Veteran Ballaghadereen footballer Stephen Drake can still remember the day he watched Mayo give Roscommon a good trimming back in the late 90s’ on a day when John Casey ran riot.

“I wasn’t too far from my uncle in the crowd, who was a staunch Roscommon supporter, and  I was giving it a bit of lip and I think he was fit to hit me at that point, Lord rest him,” Drake tells The Mayo News over a Zoom call.

A man with a way with words who knows his football and this part of the world inside out, few people are better placed than Stephen Drake to set the scene in Ballaghaderreen on the week of a Mayo-Roscommon game.

“It takes on a life of its own when the two teams meet. Obviously, with the town being in Roscommon and playing in Mayo it’s so unique, I suppose, not only in Connacht but country-wide,” says Drake, who’s now domiciled in Wexford.

“So it ramps up a small bit, there’s no question about it. When Mayo draw Roscommon in the championship it’s usually tail-end of the year to December-January. People are talking about it from then on, basically. The slagging will literally start when the draw is made.

“It’s always at the back of people’s mind even as you go through the National League, the FBD, there’ll always be a little bit of chat about it and once the league finishes it really ramps up in the town and the banter, and the over and back, and the slagging and what not, it will hit fever pitch over the next few weeks into the next week into the week of the game.”

There were plenty of great games to match the generous exchange of banter and slagging in the build-ups and aftermaths.

Drake played Minor for Mayo on the day Gerry Lohan sent us packing with a last-ditch goal in 2001 – the last time Mayo were beaten in the Hyde in championship.

He fondly remembers 1991 and Derek Duggan’s equalising free from 55 yards out, ‘extending to about 155 yards in the intervening years’.

He even went up to Croke Park to watch the Rossies put a break Meath team ‘on the ropes’ in that year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

In Ballaghaderreen, with families often intwined with both counties, the rivalry carries with it a certain degree of expect.

Stephen Drake’s case is certainly not only example.

“Going into it the biggest example of that that we would have had would certainly have been Andy,” he said, referring to his brother-in-law who’s now over the Leitrim seniors.

“Andy’s Dad Vince, Lord rest him, was a huge Roscommon supporter and obviously that changed when Andy went into the Mayo panel and started doing well,” says Drake.

“Obviously he’d always support his son but that would have been a big example of a house that was absolutely split down the middle, Dad and brother supporting Roscommon, or older brother supporting Roscommon. Then the other side of the house supporting Mayo.

“There’s loads of other examples of that across the town, which again adds to the fun and the craic we have, leading up to the games.”

The mood after games varies according to the result, according to Drake – whose brother David was a regular on the Mayo senior panel for many years.

The days when one side gets a thumping - like Roscommon did in the replayed All-Ireland quarter-final in 2017 and when Aidan O’Shea announced his arrival in 2009 - are swiftly forgotten by the victims.

But the narrow wins, like 2001, 2019 and, most recently, 2023, are still talked about in Roscommon.

Casting a dispassionate, analytical eye on the upcoming instalment of this great old rivalry, Drake maintains that both teams have gone back since last year’s ambush in the Hastings.

“I really do hope I’m wrong, I think it’ll be a pretty cagey game, for a couple of reasons,” he explains.

“We have seen a bit of a blueprint on how to frustrate and beat Mayo over the last four years and a bit. So I do expect Roscommon to set up like that. The fact that their form is poor as well means they would probably be cagey anyway and they'll want to stay in the game as long as possible. So that sort of lends itself to them setting up like that.”

Who wins, if that’s the case?

“When it’s all said and done, I think Mayo are in a better place than Roscommon at the moment. And I think if we can perform at our at our best or close to our best, I would expect us to win this game by four or five points.”

You can take the Mayo man out of Roscommon, but you’ll never take the Mayo out of the man.