Christy O'Connor: Westmeath aiming to buck trend of famine-ending teams

Often for counties ending a provincial famine lasting 40 or more years, the post-script has never been as exciting as the original fantasy

After Westmeath won the 2004 Leinster SFC title, it would be another four years before they won another game in the province. Pic: Paul Phelan/Sportsfile

After Westmeath won the Leinster football title last month, manager Mark McHugh asked Damien Healy from the 2004 side in to speak to the group. That 2004 side were the original trailblazers when winning a maiden provincial title. Those memories will always be burned into the consciousness of Westmeath people but the trail went cold and the blaze soon burned out at the end of that season. And Healy told the 2026 group that he didn’t want them to have those same regrets.

At the end of Marooned, the fly-on-the-wall documentary that captured Paidí Ó Sé and Westmeath’s journey to that historic first Leinster title 22 years ago, the closing sequence is distilled into a series of short clips played out to the backdrop of Damien Rice’s classic The Blower’s Daughter.