Mayo for Sam has currency

TO COIN A PHRASE!?The €2 coin was found in a till in Co Wicklow.

Mayo for Sam has currency


Áine Ryan

MAYO for Sam’s perennial currency among the county’s thousands of GAA fans is legendary. The cross-generational yen to watch the boys in green and red bring that coveted cup across the border has caused grown men to cry, fly home from places as distant as Kathmandu and Timbucktoo, beg, borrow and maybe even steal to get tickets to Croke Park.
Nothing surprises The Mayo News when Sam is the subject. But we were left scratching our heads when it was brought to our attention that a €2 coin, with ‘Mayo For Sam’ engraved in it, turned up in a cash-register in the County Wicklow town of Arklow last week.
There could be a vital clue in the fact that The Blue Cafe is renowned for its big Irish breakfasts.
Perhaps, a downcast fan, who couldn’t bear to travel back west after Mayo was beaten by one pesky point by the Dubs last September has been wandering around - just like national poet, WB Yeats’s Wandering Aengus – in a state of confused anxiety.   
Fortunately, The Blue Cafe’s proprietor doesn’t only serve-up hearty fries, she plans to keep it for the elusive owner who may well need it as a lucky charm for this year’s championship bid. Indeed, it could become the legal tender in the independent republic of Mayo if the elusive Sam comes across the border. Maigh Eo Abú!