The borderline rivalry of Mayo and Galway

EYES ON THE PRIZE  Mayo’s Martin Connolly and Galway’s Stephen Joyce, pictured here during the 1984 Connacht Final in Salthill, both came from Mayo/Galway border villages.  Pic: Tuam Herald

Feature
Willie McHugh

NOTHING ignites passion in the soul like Mayo/Galway rivalry. It’s the inherited strand in the DNA. Its origins precede Old Moore and perhaps Methuselah also.
In the everyday scheme of things life along the borderlines is enacted in a cordial manner. But football happenings unearth deep-rooted loyalties. ‘A friendly disliking’ best describes either side’s feelings towards the other then.
Shrule sits at one of the more heated hearthstones of this age-old contention. The Black River on the village periphery represents the great demarcation. Caherlistrane, with storied Knockma as its backdrop, rolls down to its southern bank.
Jack Gibbons’s pub just inside Shrule Bridge has played host to a lifetime trading of cross-border banter. Behind most echoings there’s a whispered mutual respect. Down the village, when Pascal Mullin was ideal host and innkeeper, photographs of Galway’s All-Ireland winning three-in-a-row sides of the mid-60’s adorned the walls of Mullins comfortable hostelry.
When the 1976 championship was mothballed in history’s closet, Jack Craddock extended an October invitation to the ever popular Caherlistrane and Galway stalwart, Mick Judge, to visit his establishment with the Nestor Cup.
Football followers from both banks gathered to welcome Mick and the accompanying silverware. Night became morning before festivities ceased with Jack leading a rousing rendition of ‘Nine Green Bottles’ as a grand finale.
It’s a second religion. The late Joe Duddy, a lifelong Shrule and Mayo supporter, removed the Sacred Heart picture, replacing it instead with a snapshot of an airborne Willie Joe Padden raking a Castlebar skyline.
Joe left the lighted bulb underneath.
Things got a tad out of hand betimes. In 1965 Jack Ronaldson’s viewing of the Galway/Down All-Ireland semi-final was interrupted with shouts of “Up Down” emanating from a nearby porch. During the interval, Jack went to investigate and took the necessary action. He watched the second half without further interference from abroad.
Some defeats were harder swallowed. The late Seamus Egan, as nice and inoffensive a soul as ever minced meat, operated a butcher shop in the village. Seamus’s weekly repast was a Sunday night visit to Gibbons’s Bar. On the 1998 evening after Galway beat Mayo in Castlebar, Seamus contacted his friend, Eddie Ryan, suggesting forsaking their regular nocturnal haunt and repair instead to Macken’s in Kilmaine.  
Eddie enquired why. “Because the crowd above the bridge will be down in their droves tonight and the hoors won’t give us a minute’s comfort,” was Seamus’s instant reply.  
Over the years some crossed enemy lines. Canon Michael Reilly from Carramore, within the Caherlistrane jurisdiction, is now P.P. in Castlegar. During his student years he spent his summers working with the OPW in Headford. One Sunday he played a junior game with Shrule. The legendary Caherlistrane football devotee, Tom O’Brien, got wind of it.
Early next morning, as Michael cycled to work, Tom sat waiting on the wall outside his Knockroon homestead and he demanding answers.
“I told him, most evenings I was kicking a ball against the gable wall and someone from Caherlistrane would pass down going almost to Shrule to collect Harry Lee for a minor match, and they never once bothered stopping and asking me to play. That answered Tom’s inquiry.”

THE advent of television in the mid-60’s ratcheted the rivalry a few levels higher. Galway footballers became the first instantly-recognised superstars. What’s seldom was wonderful back then also.
In places like Frank and Agnes Curley’s Ironpool home, neighbours packed sardine-tight watching Galway win All-Irelands. New-age heroes like Geraghty, Colleran, Keenan, Dunne, McDonagh, and Leydon emerged. The legendary Noel Tierney became another household name.
In Belmont schoolhouse, straddling the Mayo-Galway border near Milltown, Noel had future Garrymore stalwarts and sometimes Mayo players, Billy and Martin Fitzpatrick, as classmates.
Here’s Billy’s account of happenings back then. “Noel spent every evening playing football with us at home in Ballyglass. He intended joining Garrymore and sought permission to transfer in 1959. But pressure came from somewhere and the request was withdrawn. Noel then played minor for Galway against my brother Martin. That Galway minor team contained the nucleus of the three-in-a-row side.
 “Around the same time John “Tull” Dunne and Father Paddy Mahon tried transferring Ballyglass from Mayo into Galway. They almost succeeded. The motion was only defeated by a single vote at a Connacht Council meeting in Castlerea.
“I remember seeing Noel forking hay a few hours before he drove to Castlebar to play the 1966 Connacht Final. The same day the Mayo players were below in the Imperial Hotel lying in bed resting. Galway won and Noel came home and finished the hay saving.
“But we were so proud in Ballyglass seeing him winning his All-Ireland’s with Galway. Noel Tierney was one of us and that’s how we regard him even to this day. And you couldn’t meet a nicer or more down to earth person than Noel.”
Caherlistrane’s Leo Courtney is a lasting football aficionado. Without a prompt he recites the stats verbatim. “The 88th championship meeting between them, Mayo won 41 against Galway’s 40 and six draws.”
Leo attended his first Galway/Mayo clash in Tuam Stadium in 1961. Missing one replay is the only smudge on an otherwise unblemished attendance record. Leo’s mind harbours some standout memories.
“The ’66 final in Castlebar was probably the highlight. A Cyril Dunne pointed late free from an impossible angle levelled it, and Liam Sammon punched over the winner in injury-time.
“Galway beating Mayo in 1998 was significant in us winning the All-Ireland. Mayo had contested the two previous All-Ireland finals and beat us in 1996 and ended the Tuam hoodoo in ‘97, winning there for the first time since 1951. They beat us again in Tuam in 1999 on a fierce wet day.
“Best players I saw were John Keenan, Padraic Joyce and Michael Donnellan for Galway. Mayo’s John Morley was brilliant too, but Ciaran McDonald was the greatest Mayo player of all. And like most genuine Galway supporters I’d love to see Mayo win an All-Ireland because they come back year after year. They’ve been in hard luck but sometimes it’s of their own making.”
And as to the camaraderie between the sides, a Cyril Dunne yarn captures it well. “After the 1966 game we stayed in Castlebar until the following Wednesday. We’d have waited longer too but we’d run out of money. It nearly cost me my job. When I turned up for work with Bord Na Mona in Shannonbridge on the Thursday morning, the boss asked me how long it takes to play a bloody Connacht Final!”
Along the Mayo/Galway borderline it takes most all of a lifetime.