A long-awaited championship victory for the Irish county of Mayo sent shockwaves well beyond its western borders Sunday, drawing emotional reactions from famous figures around the world — including former U.S. President Joe Biden, Canadian Premier Mark Carney, and the rock band Oasis.
Mayo’s triumph in the All-Ireland Gaelic football championship ended a painful 75-year drought and shattered one of Irish sport’s most enduring curses. The victory dominated Monday’s newspaper front and back pages across Ireland, and the national broadcaster RTE’s top morning radio program was devoted almost entirely to coverage of Mayo and the winning team’s Dublin hotel.
Biden, a proud Irish-American who closed out a three-day presidential visit to Ireland in 2023 with the rallying cry “Mayo for Sam!” was among the first to offer congratulations from across the Atlantic. His parting words had been spoken in Ballina, the town his great-great-great-grandfather departed for the United States back in 1851.
“Today, the dream becomes reality,” Biden posted on X following Mayo’s defeat of Kerry — the most decorated team in the competition’s history. “Congratulations to my friends in Mayo. You earned this victory. Enjoy every minute. Sam is coming home.”
Carney, who like Biden spent a significant portion of a state visit last month reconnecting with distant relatives in his grandparents’ Mayo village, also extended his congratulations. So did the Gallagher brothers from Oasis, whose mother Peggy is originally from Mayo.
“The curse is broken,” Carney wrote on X, referencing the popular legend that when the previous Mayo championship team’s victory parade interrupted a funeral procession, the presiding priest declared the county would never win again while any member of that team remained alive.
The so-called curse shadowed Mayo in much the same way similar superstitions once haunted fans of U.S. baseball teams the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. The final surviving member of Mayo’s 1951 All-Ireland winning squad passed away in 2021 — just two weeks after Mayo suffered their 11th straight final defeat. A book chronicling the long drought was fittingly titled “House Of Pain.”
Sunday’s victory, delivered by a young and fearless squad, reduced grown men wearing Mayo’s green and red colors to tears throughout the 82,000-seat Croke Park Stadium. Television cameras caught one overcome supporter dropping to his knees at the final whistle, blessing himself and kissing the ground.
“I was with my partner this morning and we were looking at some clips on social media and I genuinely broke down just looking at them,” Mayo player Matthew Ruane told RTE. “It half hit home for the first time. Genuinely, it’s amazing.”
