The boy brought Sam home to Belmullet

From Ballyhaunis to Belmullet, Mayo’s All-Ireland heroes returned to their clubs and communities to scenes of extraordinary joy. These were more than homecomings: they were moments of remembrance, pride and the fulfilment of dreams.

CLG Béal an Mhuirthead stalwart John Gallagher and club chairman Willie Sullivan (partly hidden) welcome Sam Maguire and clubmates Ryan O’Donoghue, Séamus Howard (panelist) and Martin McIntyre (physio) back to the club grounds at Tallagh for the Belmullet homecoming. Pic: Michael McLaughlin

IT’S Ballyhaunis on the Tuesday. It’s the honour of the winning captain to be next on the list and as Jack Coyne looks down the street at his people, those who coached him, played with him, guided him and supported him, he can’t see where the crowd ends up the hill towards the top of the street.

“To the people of Ballyhaunis, I genuinely don’t have the words to say what this town means to me and how proud I am to be from Ballyhaunis. I love this town and everything about it,” said Coyne.

On his wrist is a black and red wristband. He wears it every day, including on Sunday when he lifted Sam Maguire for the first time. It is his club colours with one word on it, ‘Pierce’, in memory of Pierce Higgins, Keith’s older brother who died from motor neurone disease in 2023. 

People like Pierce and Ted Webb, the boy wonder of Mayo football in the 1970s who was taken too soon and whose family home is nearby, are fresh in so many people’s minds on an evening like this.

It’s a joyful remembrance. The players take the mic and sing a few songs. Coyne lashes out Joxer Goes To Stuttgart. Belmullet’s Séamus Howard does an impressive version of Olivia Dean’s Man I Need. Tommy Conroy sings what could well be not just his own anthem but that of the group — Dog Days Are Over. The previous night in MacHale Park, all the crowd sang along with Aidan O’Shea as he blasted out The River by Garth Brooks. It was a song he sang after losing campaigns. Now it’s no longer a paean to just resilience but triumph also.

“And I will sail my vessel ‘til the river runs dry Like a bird upon the wind, these waters are my sky I’ll never reach my destination if I never try So, I will sail my vessel ‘til the river runs dry.”

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The devotion continues on the Wednesday. Ballina, Crossmolina, and Belmullet are all on the agenda but first there is an evocative stop at Foxford, alleged home to the so-called ‘curse’ of 1951, purported to have been placed on the team by a disgruntled priest.

The parish priest of Foxford in 2026, Fr Pádraig Costello, an accomplished footballer himself in his younger years, is delighted to see this day.

“It’s an absolute release. I never believed in the curse,” he says. “Whatever it was, it’s gone now, it’s history, and it’s just absolutely wonderful.”

The plan had been simple enough. Cian McHale and Darren McHale would carry the Sam Maguire Cup from the town clock, across the famous bridge spanning the River Moy, symbolically linking their clubs, Moy Davitts and Knockmore, and connecting one half of Mayo to the other.

The reality was rather different. As soon as the pair emerged with the trophy, a tidal wave of supporters surge towards them. 

'#Swept along by pure excitement, the players scarcely seem to touch the ground as they are carried across the bridge by an ecstatic crowd of a thousand or more, who are determined to celebrate every second of a historic occasion.

Sam Maguire is carried shoulder-high through the streets of a town that could not have been prouder.

The Mayo footballers had departed for Dublin the previous Saturday as mere humans. Now it looked like they had returned as immortals.

It’s obvious in Ballina too, next stop on the tour. The crowd is ecstatic and it is mind-blowing for the players to experience.

“Hearing the stories and seeing what it means to people, seeing people break down in tears and tell you about how long they’ve waited for this moment and all the games they’ve gone to … It’s really special seeing the ability that you have as a player to positively impact people,” recalls Ballina’s Sam Callinan.

Crossmolina wasn’t on the initial itinerary for the Wednesday but a realisation soon sets in that they could not drive through the home of Conor Loftus, Jordan Flynn, and Kobe McDonald en route to Belmullet without stopping.

So a hastily convened homecoming at St Tiernan’s Park is arranged. Thousands turn up at short notice. Just before, there is a short stop in Ardagh, home of James Carr, for a quick drink in O’Boyle’s Halfway House. After Crossmolina, it is onwards for Erris.

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Crossing the Musical Bridge at Bellacorrick, one of only three road entries to the Barony of Erris, is a rite of passage for any winning team from the area.

Ryan O’Donoghue, Séamus Howard, and team physio
Martin McIntyre, three proud Belmullet and Erris men, get out to honour the tradition and all those who have come before them.

Waiting there in a wheelchair is the legendary Pat Gallagher from Ballycroy, one of the great gaels of the region. Pat had been at death’s door earlier in the summer but lived to see this day, and him cradling Sam Maguire on the Musical Bridge is a special sight.

Approximately 5,000 fans wait for the team at Belmullet GAA Club’s grounds at Tallagh.

Club chairman Willie Sullivan beautifully described how Ryan’s incredible final performance had Belmullet’s DNA of survival writ large into it.

“The Belmullet area has produced the finest of people for generations. It has filled the public service with guards, teachers, nurses … They grew up coming from the land, coming from hardworking people, have a work ethic and a survival technique that’s unique to this area and Ryan O’Donoghue took that with him onto the field last Sunday and absolutely devoured before and after him.”

Mayo star Jordan Flynn embraces his Crossmolina manager Brian Benson at the homecoming at St Tiernan’s Park, home of Crossmolina Deel Rovers. Kobe McDonald, holding Sam Maguire, is just behind him. Pic: Michael McLaughlin

A full-on rave takes place in the town centre that night. Players are chaired shoulder high and a crowd of over a thousand sing along to The Green and Red of Mayo and Grace blasted from a sound system on the street.

It’s calmer the next day as Ryan O’Donoghue and Sam Maguire are flown by helicopter from Belmullet for a special visit to his 87-year-old grandfather David.

The previous Friday, as he prepared for the final, Ryan called to his grandad, who had been unwell in recent times.

“Boy, bring it home,” David told him.

“And Ryan was so determined and that was all he had thought about and he said: ‘I’m going to do it and I will do everything I can to bring it home to grandad’,” Ryan’s mother Brenda recalled the previous night.

“And he is bringing it home in the morning. He is going to see grandad with Sam tomorrow and I can’t wait,” added Brenda.

Sam Maguire arrives at Lakefield at the south-eastern end of Belmullet
parish. It was here as a young boy in national school that Ryan O’Donoghue would get up in darkness and go for runs, lit up by the lights of his father Michael’s van driving behind him, training to win national boxing titles.

That was the start of a journey that brought him to Croke Park and now he is back to visit his grandfather with Sam Maguire.

The boy brought it home.

Eleven days later, David O’Donoghue passed away peacefully.

Never Stop Dreaming: Mayo's Story of All-Ireland Glory by Anthony Hennigan and Edwin McGreal. Picture editor: Michael McLaughlin

This is an extract from Never Stop Dreaming — Mayo’s Story of All-Ireland Glory by Anthony Hennigan and Edwin McGreal, published by Mayo Books Press and is available from bookshops and online at mayobooks.ie. A portion of the proceeds supports Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation’s Sunflower Children’s Hospice project in Castlebar.