Colin Sheridan: The 'Mayo Effect' explains why everyone is talking about their All-Ireland triumph

Colin Sheridan explores why Mayo's All-Ireland victory captivated the world — and why the attention will inevitably fade

Colin Sheridan examines the 'Mayo Effect', arguing the county's All-Ireland triumph became a global media phenomenon shaped by the attention economy. Picture: ©INPHO/Tom Maher

Forgive me, readers, but this will be a column about Mayo. Not about famine and emigration. Not about the Atlantic nor the peculiar burden and privilege of growing up in a county that somehow managed to turn centuries of suffering into an identity. No, this column is about what happened next, and what happened deserves a name. 

A psycho-social phenomenon heretofore known as the Mayo Effect. The Mayo Effect is what happens when one completely authentic story collides head-on with the modern attention economy. The result has been extraordinary. One minute, Mayo — a place unknown to most of the wider world — simply won a game of Gaelic football.