The Big Interview with Barry Moran: Tall tales, crazy days and friends forever

Barry Moran's intercounty career ended without a Celtic Cross but the majority of his memories of playing football with Mayo are full of fun times, not regrets.  "It’s gas the little individual moments that you can piece together and remember and laugh about," he recalls.

Mayo’s Barry Moran, left, and Donal Vaughan celebrate victory over Kerry in the 2017 All-Ireland SFC semi-final replay at Croke Park. The pair are huge friends and Moran was a groomsman at Vaughan’s wedding. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Look, we could get all serious here from the get-go. Like with the memory that triggered you to put in the call to him in the first place — the time he was parachuted in to play as a towering sweeper in front of Quinlivan and Sweeney when Mayo previously met Tipperary in an All-Ireland semi-final and he put to an end any chance of an upset.

Or what it was — and is — like for him to six times have been on the Mayo team bus heading into Croke Park on All-Ireland final day and never leave with Sam Maguire at the front of it.