Return again to Mayo, Sam Maguire

Dear Sam,

It's been a long time. Thirty years in fact. How can you bear it, being away from Ballaghaderreen for so long? I remember it well, that autumn of 1966. Mick Reynolds, who lived in the town, was on the Galway team which won the All-Ireland football final that year - the very last time you visited any Connacht county. He brought you to Ballaghaderreen.

Such a welcome. Our enthusiasm was embarrassing in retprospect, but you hadn't been in the town since 1951. That was when Sean Flanagan brought you back with that last victorious Mayo team. He was captain, and a solicitor in the town. So, Sam if we were so enthusiastic then in 1966, after 15 years, can you imagine how we will receive you next Monday, after 30 years? That is if you decide to visit us then.

You'll be glad to hear my brother Douglas is no longer in the town. Yeah, he was the one we put sitting in you for that photograph. I know he was only one at the time, but honestly we never expected him to do that. I have often wondered whether the experience has had anything to do with your prolonged absence since. Douglas has been in Philadelphia this past 12 years - so he won't be in Ballaghaderreen next Monday.

A generation has passed and one has been born since you were last among us. It's not as if we haven't tried. You know in 1967 we were absolutely sure you were going to come see us again. What a year! In his eagerness to see you once more my brother Sean ended up being the altar boy in the town with the briefest ever service.

Being a divided town - in Roscommon geographically, in Mayo for football - there were bonfires on the Square whenever Mayo and Roscommon won matches - particularly when either county beat the other. Just to be neighbourly. Not.

Sean was supposed to be serving benediction in the cathedral one Sunday evening that summer, but was distracted by other duties. He was a builder of bonfires extraordinaire and forgot about the benediction. He was fired, having started the previous week.

All for Sam. Sean, too, is in Philadelphia.

Then later that summer on a brilliant August Sunday we took the rocky road to Dublin, to see Mayo beat the bejesus out of Meath in the All-Ireland semi-final. Only it didn't turn out like that. Sean, Johnny Gallagher, Malachy Coleman, Johnny's son William, and myself set off at dawn. We were in Dublin by about 10, went to Mass at the Jesuits on Gardiner Street, and went to O Connell street for breakfast. To be honest, I was completely overwhelmed. All those places we'd been hearing about since the year dot; the GPO, the Abbey theatre, statues of Daniel O'Connell, Parnell, and the spot where Nelson used to be. Above all there was the Irish Permanent Building Society. It was on TV every night.

And all those people, everywhere. I wondered how I could ever remember their names. I knew every man, woman, and child in Ballaghaderreen and the surrounding districts. I knew the names of all the dogs too. Then suddenly this - my first experience of urban alienation. All for you.

Then there was Croke - our field of dreams. Well, it was a nightmare that day. Meath did the dirty again. They beat Mayo. Though our local hero, John Morley, played well.

Poor John. He was a garda in the town. A great footballer, much admired by all of us youngsters. His death then, in 1980, and its manner, was a terrible shock to us all. He was killed in a shoot-out with an armed gang. Even you, Sam, didn't seem so important after that.

But time heals, and later that year we were sure you might visit us again. Roscommon - and my family are really Roscommon supporters - got to the All-Ireland final. The team included Dermot Earley, who is a past pupil of St Nathy's College in Ballaghaderreen. It was so close, much closer than the three-point margin by which Kerry won. Really, until last Sunday week, no Connacht team looked as likely to bring you home. But you had a thing about Kerry in those days.

However the unkindest cut, Sam, was in 1993. You really didn't have to favour Cork to that degree - letting them beat Mayo in the semi-final by 20 points. After that we thought you never wanted to see Ballaghaderreen again. Then along comes Mayo this year, from third division team to AllIreland finalists in the space of months, and we were champions of the world once again. We decked out Ballaghaderreen like never before, green and red everywhere. Two of our men, Kevin Cahill and Dermot Flanagan, are in the full-back line.

We were so sure you'd be among us last Monday week. Half the town was in Croke Park. Even my father had a Mayo flag flying from one of our windows. There are people in Ballaghaderreen who would have predicted that an earthquake was more likely.

Anyhow, right up to those last 10 minutes on Sunday week we were sure, absolutely sure you really wanted to come to Ballaghaderreen this year. And then, you Just let Meath chip at us like that. Surely you must be sick of Meath.

So if I might put it forcefully and finally Sam come to sunny Ballaghaderreen, where the dogs in the street have their tongues out to see you - I'll introduce each one where the birds in the trees sing your name, and where the people are all green and red. For now. You will be more welcome than a hefty increase in headage payments,

Yours, Patsy McGarry.