My father had been waiting his entire life for that whistle. After 75 years, the curse was over. Mayo were Gaelic football champions having overturned the second-biggest deficit in the history of All-Ireland finals. The county hadn’t seen such a miracle since Father Horan got the taoiseach to fund an international airport near the shrine of Our Lady of Knock.

Three months before Dad was born in Castlebar, Mayo won the 1951 title. Their celebrations on the way home were exuberant and, so the legend goes, disrupted a funeral in Foxford. The furious priest (some versions blame the widow) cast a curse on them, saying Mayo would never again lift the Sam Maguire Cup while any of those players lived.

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Nonsense, right? Except that Mayo then lost 11 finals, four by one point. Fifteen days after the 2021 final, Paddy Prendergast died, the last of those who had played in the 1951 side. Only Mick Loftus, an unused substitute, remained, and when he died in 2023 Mayo fans hoped the curse had also expired. It didn’t look good when they fell seven points behind Kerry after 15 minutes on Sunday, their first final........

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