Colin Sheridan: Time to move on from civil war in Mayo 

It may be too late for accountability, but it’s never too late for a fresh start. Too many people have been hurt, and all in the name of a stupid game of football. It’s finally time to grow up.

TIME TO MOVE ON: Mayo finished what was a difficult week for the county with a win over Tyrone to keep their chances alive in group one of the All-Ireland SFC. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

There’ll come a time in some fancy university somewhere far from Attymass where an entire post-graduate studies program will be dedicated to Mayo football. A bit like the infamous Boston college tapes that were to remain sealed until all the protagonists had passed away, a similar statute of limitations will have to apply in order to keep entire families from falling apart. That’s why distance will be important, too. It’s too sensitive a topic to reside just up the N17 in the University of Galway. Such an undertaking needs funding, an amnesty from blame, and the type of patience and perseverance only a dozen well-funded PhD students possess. If there is ever to be a successful truth and reconciliation process, it needs to be chaired independently. Having visited a few post-conflict zones in my time, I can attest to the power of forgiveness, but after living through four decades of Mayo madness, I am wise enough to understand that there isn’t an accounting firm in the world that could heal the wounds of generational trauma inflicted, all in the name of sport. And the pathos is not just on the ground at home. There’s as many people in London, New York and Chicago driven to distraction by current events as there are in Bonniconlon and Barnacarroll. If anything, exile amplifies the torment.

Of course, the Duke Centre for Mayo Melancholy and Infinite Sadness in North Carolina will have little or nothing to do with Gaelic Football, and everything to do with a psyche of self-sabotage that has infected those invested in the game. The fallout from last Monday night’s county board meeting - and the subsequent statements from the executive and GAA president Jarlath Burns - has been brutal, even by Mayo standards. Added to the mix are the worrying withdrawal from duties by manager Kevin McStay, and the team's defeat of contenders Tyrone, against considerable odds. You should never bet with your heart (I know, you should never gamble, period), but such is the entropy that so regularly engulfs Mayo, the outcome in Omagh was the only logical conclusion to a chaotic week.