Recalling their finest hour - Former Mayo News journalist Edwin McGreal documents the glory days of Mayo GAA clubs in new book

THE round table in The Mayo News forged some of the finest local sports journalism in the land.

Because when the best in the business knocked heads together, great tales inevitably followed.

“It was a great forum for chats and exploring unheard-of stories,” recalls Edwin McGreal, speaking to his old employer about his first book, Our Finest Hour.

Launched at the Wild Atlantic Words Festival this weekend, Our Finest Hour is a 54-chapter compilation drawn from over 200 interviews with Gaels from every corner of Mayo.

Every football club in the county features, including Hollymount, Carramore, Inishturk, Clare Island and five of Mayo’s most established hurling clubs.

Those of us that worked with Edwin always knew that there was a book in him. It could have been about anything; The War of Independence, Western Care, economic development in the West of Ireland, and of course, the GAA.

His introduction to Ireland’s greatest cultural movement came in 1989, when he landed into U-10s training Breaffy in wellies.

That late Fr JJ Cribbin, his first football coach and a man who features prominently in Our Finest Hour, watched this seven-year-old score a couple of goals in galoshes and said: “You have to get this fella a pair of boots.”

That year, Edwin was at every single game watching John O’Mahony march Mayo to the All-Ireland final and back down again.

From then on, Mayo became a serious force in football, and Edwin McGreal developed a serious interest in football.

“I wasn’t very good at it at all, but I was always out in the garden playing. I loved being involved, I loved training and going to matches,” Edwin told The Mayo News prior to the launch of his book.

Around the age of 16, he scribbled his first match reports for Breaffy as the club’s assistant PRO, and later did the same for Ballyvary Blue Bombers.

His first taste of journalism came with two weeks’ work experience under John Melvin in The Connaught Telegraph. In 2001, he joined us up here on The Fairgreen and became one of best local journalists in the country before moving to his new job as Managing Editor of Mayo Books Press in 2023.

Just like the round table chats in his old employment’, the inspiration for Our Finest Hour came during a brainstorm with his Managing Director, David Brennan.

“The more we thought about it the more we thought: ‘That could be very engaging if it is done well,’” recalls Edwin.

“And the more I went doing it, the more I realised this definitely has good potential. The people I would have spoken to, first of all, they were so open and giving of their time and of their memories. They have some incredible stories, and it was an absolute pleasure to listen to them and then quite daunting to do those stories justice in a book.”

_{Former Mayo News journalist Edwin McGreal (left) pictured with George Hamilton and Mayo and Breaffy footballer Aidan O'Shea at the Wild Atlantic Words Festival in Castlebar (Pic: John Mee Photographer)}

Many readers will already be familiar with some of those stories: Ballina Stephenites winning the All-Ireland in 2005, Crossmolina winning the All-Ireland in 2001, Ballintubber winning their first Moclair Cup on their 100-year anniversary in 2010.

But then you’ve Ballycroy, who snuck their then-secretary Michael Gallagher (he of this parish) out of art class to secure a loan from the local bank manager to pay for flights home from England for their best players en route to a North Mayo junior title in 1987,

And what about Inishturk, whose bonfires nearly scorched their isle of less than 60 souls when they captured the All-Islands Cup from neighbouring Inisbofin back in 2008. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But this book does more than simply immortalise the underdog’s elation after lifting a long-sought-after canister.

“The focus on the book is very much positive in highlighting clubs’ history, but you want to get a sense of the challenges and the unique identity in every club as well,” says Edwin.

“We’d often hear someone saying, ‘Why wouldn’t he be tough, he’s a Knockmore man’. They’d have said that of Kevin McLoughlin, even though he wouldn’t have been the biggest man, it still always would have been said ‘Oh, he’s a Knockmore man’. That character trait among clubs and among areas fascinates me. ‘Oh, they are a typical town team.’ Trying to get a sense for that kind of identity within the club and what makes every club different, because every club has a different identity, the same way as every individual has a different identity. It’s just fascinating to explore that.”

Edwin is keen to stress that the ‘finest hours’ in his book are by no means definitive. Other achievements will mean more to club people than others, for various reasons.

But one great day does not define a club.

“Tom Neachtain from Tuar Mhic Éadaigh came with a great line: ‘The club is bigger than us, it’s better than us’,” explains Edwin.

“And that’s what’s great about the GAA, it’s arguably the greatest collective in Ireland at the minute….I just think it’s something great to be involved in.”

Indeed, writing The Finest Hour only affirmed everything he knew about the GAA’s unique place in the social fabric of County Mayo. He lived it as a player with Breaffy, documented it as a journalist with The Mayo News, and is living it once again by coaching the U-8 girls in his adopted Achill.

“There’s just so many strands to it and there’s so much enjoyment in the GAA, and it happens because people in their communities throughout the county and throughout the country give of their time so freely and so willingly,” he says.

“The volunteer aspect of the GAA has been spoken about all the time and sometimes people think it’s overstated, but when I went on a journey like this it did absolutely reinforce that. The amount of people that just give so much of themselves to create something very special in their communities; that altruism is more important than ever in modern Irish society. As long as we have that, I think, as a society as a whole, we’ll do okay.”

Our Finest Hour: Mayo GAA clubs reflect on their glory days by Edwin McGreal is available in all good bookshops and from www.mayobooks.ie

A live panel discussion about the book in partnership with the Mayo Football Podcast will take place in the Coranna Bar in Ballinrobe Racecourse at 7pm this evening (Thursday, October 17, 2024)