I said Mayo would lose. I was on the ball

I stuck my brassy old neck away out far last June, when writing a column for our Irish-American brothers and sisters on the other side of the Atlantic.

I said I was not writing a sporting yarn at all, but still was driven to predict the infinitely sad reality that, yet again, the Mayo footballers would not win the All Ireland final of 2014.

I correctly forecast that they would, once again, come storming out of the West like young lions, that they would look a terrific team of mighty footballers in the crucial, later stages of the championship, but somehow, as they have been doing now for decades,they would yet again fail to bring Sam Maguire back home with them, to the banks of the Moy, this month.