Plans to bring Sam on a tour of Mayo clubs and schools
Mayo GAA to make plans to bring Sam Maguire to every club and school in the county
In a week where the Sam Maguire cup travelled to the four corners of Mayo, the Chairman of the Mayo County Board has reassured all clubs in the county that they will not miss out on the journey of a lifetime.
Mayo’s win over Kerry sparked unprecedented scenes of joy following any All-Ireland victory with the story of the end of the 75 year wait for Sam Maguire making the headlines all over the world. Everyone from the BBC to CNN wanted to know about the story of Mayo’s All-Ireland victory and the end of one of the longest droughts in world sport.
Closer to home, thousands of people in towns and villages throughout Mayo celebrated the victory throughout the week with the Sam Maguire taken on a whistle-stop tour of the county.
An estimated 50,000 people packed into Hastings Insurance Mac Hale Park in Castlebar on Monday to welcome home the victorious All-Ireland champions. On Tuesday, the celebrations headed east to Ballyhaunis, the hometown of Mayo captain Jack Coyne while on Wednesday north Mayo had its day in the sun with Ballina, Crossmolina and Belmullet pulling out all the stops to welcome home their heroes.
On Thursday, the celebrations made their way south where nine players from south Mayo clubs were greeted at the homecoming in Claremorris. Later that evening the tour visited the border towns of Charlestown and Ballaghaderreen where manager Andy Moran was lauded like a returning Roman General.
Open-top bus
The homecoming tour was meant to end on Thursday but a last minute decision was made to bring the players on an open-top bus and a tour of a number of towns and villages starting off in Castlebar and finishing many hours later in Westport.
For Mayo County Board Chairman, Seamus Tuohy, it was a week in which he will never forget and one which was full of emotion and joy.
“The whole week was phenomenal from start to finish,” he told The Mayo News. “The sight in MacHale Park will be something some of us will never experience again.
“There were days when we lost we would often have 8 to 10,000 but to see a crowd when every blade of grass was covered along with the stand was something really special. I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime and it was fabulous.”
The Breaffy clubman said that they had always planned for a homecoming event in Mac Hale Park but the decision to have events in different parts of the county was made in collaboration with Andy Moran and his backroom team in the players lounge of Croke Park.
The executive of the Mayo County Board are due to meet tonight (Tuesday) to agree a protocol for bringing Sam Maguire to every GAA club and school in the county.
“Our goal is for every club in the county to get the opportunity [to have Sam Maguire visit them]. There will be a plan put in place where Sam Maguire will also visit every school in the county but we will have to wait until the schools reopen and have an agreed plan with the teachers and the schools.
“We have a very strong diaspora with great people in places like London Chicago and New York and we will get to these places and other places to be visited,” he said.
The Promised Land
Winning Sam Maguire was one of Mr Tuohy’s targets when he was appointed Chairman of the Mayo County Board and he said that he was always confident that Andy Moran would lead the team ’to the Promised Land’.
“Andy is very open and receptive and easy to work with and has great ideas and focused on the wider aspect and not over demanding in any way. Every time he came into a meeting his focus was totally on the players and making them better.
“The Roscommon game was a dark day for Andy and the team but we reassured Andy of our full support and we would work on this together and there will be better days. I had a chat with him after the Roscommon game and again on Monday afternoon to reassure him of our full commitment and he was the man to take us to the Promised Land.”