All-Ireland final: Master voices for Mayo on MidWest radio

If good radio is about creating word pictures, regional sports commentators have to be masters of their art.

Flat screens, big screens,smartphones and social media may provide stiff competition, but Mayo GAA supporters know there is still nothing that quite stirs the emotion and passion like the trusted “wireless” voice.

“And we don’t have to be neutral”, laughs Michael McAndrew, who will be making his first All-Ireland final broadcast for MidWest radio from Croke Park on Sunday.

McAndrew has already developed a bit of a reputation for this. During the closing couple of minutes of this year’s All-Ireland semi-final between Mayo and Kerry, he couldn’t conceal his anxiety as Kerry’s Bryan Sheehan stepped up to take a free.

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“Go wide, go wide”, McAndrew urged, cheeks puffing as if to blow the ball off course. If converted, the kick could have finished Mayo’s ambitions.

“No, a Mayo man gets it, Aidan O’Shea. It’s all over. We’re going to have to do it all over again. One more time. What a game,”McAndrew exclaimed with relief, as the match ended in a draw.

“Kerry 2-14, Mayo 2-14 and just like 2014, are gonna to do it all over again baby,” he said.

This dramatic exchange between McAndrew and analyst Martin Carney was captured by his MidWest social media specialist Cormac O’Malley and picked up elsewhere.

Conor Heneghan of joe.ie described it as a “classic” and “unashamedly biased”. Local radio provides best commentary because it is “just as emotionally invested in events as any fan” which makes for “absolutely brilliant listening”, he said.

Since then, McAndrew, from Glenamoy, has become “Michael Go Wide, Go Wide”. The 27-year old broadcaster, who trained in Coláiste Dhulaigh, Dublin, and the University of Wolverhampton, takes the teasing in good stead.

His boss, MidWest head of sport Angelina Nugent, has reported on eight finals and two replays in which Mayo have played since 1989, and knows every statistic worth knowing about the county’s fortunes.

“So we’ve had lots of excitement in previous years – because 1951 was Mayo’s last win – but this year there is more caution, and we have people ringing in asking us not to hype it up too much,”she says.

“As for that story about Mayo and the curse, it’s so untrue that it’s not worth talking about.”

“In previous final years, we’d have hosted big shows in the Travellers’ Friend in Castlebar as fund-raisers for the county board training, but this time we are just hosting a two-hour live programme on Thursday night,” Nugent says.

Thanks to MidWest, one fan received two tickets from sponsor Eir on Thursday. Congolese supporter Kany Kazadi spent 12 hours having the Mayo colours of green and red woven through her hair braids. The result was posted on Twitter. Ms Kazadi, who works as a care assistant in the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland day care centre in Castlebar, said she is no fair-weather follower.

“I watched my first final when I was in direct provision in Ballyhaunis in 2013, and I was crying when they lost.”

Her interest in the GAA gave her a sense of purpose at a time when she was - and still is – fearlessly critical of direct provision, and she articulated her views at a seminar on immigration hosted by Mayo Intercultural Action and the Mary Robinson Centre last year.

“I have travelled to most of the matches Mayo has played since 2015,I have been in Croke Park over eight times, and was lucky to get tickets for the final and the replay last year.”

She and her Filipino friend Linda Heraty, a retired care assistant, will head to Dublin again on Sunday. “ I have a really positive feeling about Mayo,”she says.“And we will go up again for the women’s final, of course”