AS JACK COYNE reached the crescendo of his All-Ireland winning speech from the Hogan Stand in July, he spoke pure poetry and history entwined.
“To every young boy and girl across Mayo and the diaspora across the world, never stop dreaming, stick your chest out, and be proud to be from Mayo.”
It was important that Coyne mentioned the diaspora. That he put them right up there in the moment of Mayo’s greatest-ever triumph. A vale of tears had been shed for the departures, for the final leavings, for the poor souls that lost their way and the loneliness.
Now, it was another vale of tears. Some for those that passed on. But mostly of joy.
If one of the common threads of Mayo is emigration, then you can say that the Barony of Erris bore more than most.
For many young Belmullet men of 20, there was an established path towards the potato fields of Lincolnshire, small towns like Caistor, or, for example, Grantham.
The story goes that when Margaret Thatcher, née Roberts, beat Ted Heath in the 1975 Conservative Party leadership elections, the footage was beamed on a television screen in Belmullet.
A local man glanced up at the screen and exclaimed, ‘Jesus Christ, there’s Maggie Roberts! One of ours went out with her!’
***
The Mayo senior football championship has been like a Led Zeppelin concert this autumn. If there is a Bonzo Bonham character, it’s been Belmullet.
These punks from out west have been thumping the drums and raising Hell. Drawn in a group with Breaffy and Knockmore, they were meant to be relevant only in a scoring difference fashion for those that progressed.
But they went to Knockmore on a Friday night for the first round, beat them, and blew the doors off it all. With Ryan O’Donoghue bringing all his defiance of summer, with Seamus Howard let loose and under local management of former player Kieran Lavelle, they now face Garrymore in the county semi-final (Sunday, James Stephens Park, Ballina, 1pm).
Ryan O'Donoghue in action against Knockmore. Evan Logan / INPHO
Evan Logan / INPHO / INPHO
They haven’t won a county title, the Paddy Moclair Cup, ever. The closest they came was losing the finals of 1945 and 1981. Every time they looked like making headway, a fresh gust of emigration would rob the spine of a good team. A third loss in 2021 felt inevitable.
Their progress now, comes down to availability. Not everyone is around Belmullet, but they are close enough to get there. And on occasion, the mountain moves to Mohammed. They train in a variety of locations; GMIT for the hipster student lads in Galway, Limerick and Claregalway.
Eamon McAndrew, he of the late goal against Knockmore a few weeks back, travels down from Cavan where he is based as a garda.
Travelling is nothing to that community and to the club. Every year when they come to their annual audit, the number opposite transport still makes the eyes bulge.
From U8s up to senior, they run mini-buses and buses. The nearest clubs are Crossmolina and Ballina. Each is in excess of 100km for a round trip. And that’s their derby.
Ian McAndrew is a former club chairman, secretary and treasurer, twice each. He’s headed up the lotto and done everything in between, but nowadays he says his taste for a good chat marks him out as something of an amateur club historian.
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The modern age
“We are in a golden era in that we are in the semi-final,” he says.
“It’s against the odds this year, we weren’t given any chance in our group which was a very tough group; Knockmore and Breaffy were the warm favourites.”
Ian McAndrew (centre) with Ryan O'Donoghue's parents, Brenda and Michael at the All-Ireland final.
It’s fair to say that Belmullet doesn’t get the same tourism uptake as a Westport or Ballina. It’s a question of isolation and remoteness.
However, the world got to see something incredible when the Mayo All-Ireland celebrations parked up for the Wednesday night after the final.
The county board had chosen Belmullet and booked out the Broadhaven Bay Hotel for whoever to stay.
On a beautiful evening, the club organised a constant park and ride service from the town out to their pitch in Tallaght townland, to avoid parking disasters.
“I am 66 years here on the streets of Belmullet and I have never seen a street party like it in my life,” says McAndrew. “There were people up on roofs, up on chimney stacks. Thank God there were no accidents.”
Among the thousands there, he bumped into a couple from Ballindine. The cup would be going much closer to them in the coming days, in Claremorris. But the couple knew the craic in Belmullet would be too good to miss.
Half of Kilmeena came along, all of Jack Carney’s connections. It was wild, free and uninhibited.
“You had the team running up the main street of the town here at half four in the morning and a squad of people after them,” says McAndrew.
What stood out for him was the sight of so many former players enjoying themselves, such as their own Chris Barrett.
The famous McDonnell’s Pub (‘The Lobster Pot’ to the locals) was creaking under the weight of pressure. They set up a bar in the yard, and manning it was more former players in Brendan Harrison and Seamus O’Shea.
“They were literally throwing out cans of Coors to anyone who would put up their hand and catch it. How the economics of it worked, I don’t know,” McAndrew chuckles.
***
16 years ago, Belmullet opened their new grounds. In the future they hope to add an all-weather pitch, subject to negotiations around the adjacent land.
Emigration can now be a boost. Former clubman Pat Gorham owns MFE Formwork in Kuala Lumpur and is the club sponsor. Before that, it was Preform Construction in Hong Kong.
A few years ago they needed a dig out. And all the Belmullet businessmen in Dublin pulled them out.
Emigration is now something people do for career advancement, rather than keeping body and soul together. A few years back, about six of the senior team left in one close season. It’s not the case right now.
But by God, this region had things tough.
Lincoln fields
“America was always huge. But even bigger for the Erris people was the agricultural work in Lincoln,” McAndrew says.
“They would go potato picking and hoeing beet. And then they might go down to London on the buildings. But they would all come home for seasonal work and save the hay, save the turf, maybe get the wife pregnant again! Save the hay and turf for their own father and mother, their own children and wife, go away and earn great money but hard money on the potato fields.
“A lot of them settled in London as the money was good and not as back-breaking as picking spuds from 6am to 6pm.”
One generation after another either made it back or stayed put, to various levels of success or despair.
By the early to mid ‘90s, there were so many Mayo men from Belmullet and Ballycroy around the Holloway Road in north London, that they formed their own club: Sam Maguires. Naturally, they played in green and red.
The appetite for football has always been there, whatever their means. In the history of Ballina Stephenites, written by former Western People editor Terry Reilly and published in 1986, he told the story of how a delegation of Belmullet footballers came out to play a game of football around the turn of the 19th century on the back of a lorry.
None of them had such fancy accoutrements such as football boots, instead they tore in wearing their work boots.
***
They don’t tempt fate by saying it, but Belmullet is something approaching thriving. Many an area in Ireland would envy them.
Labhair Réalta Mhaigh Eo Ryan O'Donoghue linn tar éis an chluiche ar an Domhnach 💚❤️
There are two secondary schools in St Brendan’s and Our Lady’s. Pupils come from a wide area and all feed into Belmullet, Ballycroy, Kiltane and Cill Chomáin.
“Thankfully as a club, we don’t have to amalgamate with anybody. If we do, we have to travel inland. But that’s away down the line because we have record numbers at our Cúl Camps, we have huge numbers of girls and boys from U8s up,” says McAndrew.
“From the leadership we get from the GAA at the moment, from the way things are run in Mayo, I can see it is as healthy as it has ever been in my life.
“Years ago, we could have fielded a team in Grantham or in most towns in England. Now, we are able to field our team at our own grounds in Tallaght.”
A season of a lifetime for Mayo football has carried into the domestic season.
The crowds going to matches have been the biggest any of the locals can recall. For sure, the new rules help, but something of the ‘Keep Swinging’ attitude that Andy Moran instilled into his players is seeping into the fabric of the clubs too.
Anything can happen. Everything is up for grabs. We are down to the last four and Westport, Crossmolina, Knockmore and Ballina are all gone.
With Ryan O’Donoghue in the form he is, they have a puncher’s chance.
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From there to here: Belmullet taking their place among the elite as emigration slows
AS JACK COYNE reached the crescendo of his All-Ireland winning speech from the Hogan Stand in July, he spoke pure poetry and history entwined.
“To every young boy and girl across Mayo and the diaspora across the world, never stop dreaming, stick your chest out, and be proud to be from Mayo.”
It was important that Coyne mentioned the diaspora. That he put them right up there in the moment of Mayo’s greatest-ever triumph. A vale of tears had been shed for the departures, for the final leavings, for the poor souls that lost their way and the loneliness.
Now, it was another vale of tears. Some for those that passed on. But mostly of joy.
If one of the common threads of Mayo is emigration, then you can say that the Barony of Erris bore more than most.
For many young Belmullet men of 20, there was an established path towards the potato fields of Lincolnshire, small towns like Caistor, or, for example, Grantham.
The story goes that when Margaret Thatcher, née Roberts, beat Ted Heath in the 1975 Conservative Party leadership elections, the footage was beamed on a television screen in Belmullet.
A local man glanced up at the screen and exclaimed, ‘Jesus Christ, there’s Maggie Roberts! One of ours went out with her!’
***
The Mayo senior football championship has been like a Led Zeppelin concert this autumn. If there is a Bonzo Bonham character, it’s been Belmullet.
These punks from out west have been thumping the drums and raising Hell. Drawn in a group with Breaffy and Knockmore, they were meant to be relevant only in a scoring difference fashion for those that progressed.
But they went to Knockmore on a Friday night for the first round, beat them, and blew the doors off it all. With Ryan O’Donoghue bringing all his defiance of summer, with Seamus Howard let loose and under local management of former player Kieran Lavelle, they now face Garrymore in the county semi-final (Sunday, James Stephens Park, Ballina, 1pm).
They haven’t won a county title, the Paddy Moclair Cup, ever. The closest they came was losing the finals of 1945 and 1981. Every time they looked like making headway, a fresh gust of emigration would rob the spine of a good team. A third loss in 2021 felt inevitable.
Their progress now, comes down to availability. Not everyone is around Belmullet, but they are close enough to get there. And on occasion, the mountain moves to Mohammed. They train in a variety of locations; GMIT for the hipster student lads in Galway, Limerick and Claregalway.
Eamon McAndrew, he of the late goal against Knockmore a few weeks back, travels down from Cavan where he is based as a garda.
Travelling is nothing to that community and to the club. Every year when they come to their annual audit, the number opposite transport still makes the eyes bulge.
From U8s up to senior, they run mini-buses and buses. The nearest clubs are Crossmolina and Ballina. Each is in excess of 100km for a round trip. And that’s their derby.
Ian McAndrew is a former club chairman, secretary and treasurer, twice each. He’s headed up the lotto and done everything in between, but nowadays he says his taste for a good chat marks him out as something of an amateur club historian.
The modern age
“We are in a golden era in that we are in the semi-final,” he says.
“It’s against the odds this year, we weren’t given any chance in our group which was a very tough group; Knockmore and Breaffy were the warm favourites.”
It’s fair to say that Belmullet doesn’t get the same tourism uptake as a Westport or Ballina. It’s a question of isolation and remoteness.
However, the world got to see something incredible when the Mayo All-Ireland celebrations parked up for the Wednesday night after the final.
The county board had chosen Belmullet and booked out the Broadhaven Bay Hotel for whoever to stay.
On a beautiful evening, the club organised a constant park and ride service from the town out to their pitch in Tallaght townland, to avoid parking disasters.
Among the thousands there, he bumped into a couple from Ballindine. The cup would be going much closer to them in the coming days, in Claremorris. But the couple knew the craic in Belmullet would be too good to miss.
Half of Kilmeena came along, all of Jack Carney’s connections. It was wild, free and uninhibited.
“You had the team running up the main street of the town here at half four in the morning and a squad of people after them,” says McAndrew.
What stood out for him was the sight of so many former players enjoying themselves, such as their own Chris Barrett.
The famous McDonnell’s Pub (‘The Lobster Pot’ to the locals) was creaking under the weight of pressure. They set up a bar in the yard, and manning it was more former players in Brendan Harrison and Seamus O’Shea.
“They were literally throwing out cans of Coors to anyone who would put up their hand and catch it. How the economics of it worked, I don’t know,” McAndrew chuckles.
***
16 years ago, Belmullet opened their new grounds. In the future they hope to add an all-weather pitch, subject to negotiations around the adjacent land.
Emigration can now be a boost. Former clubman Pat Gorham owns MFE Formwork in Kuala Lumpur and is the club sponsor. Before that, it was Preform Construction in Hong Kong.
A few years ago they needed a dig out. And all the Belmullet businessmen in Dublin pulled them out.
Emigration is now something people do for career advancement, rather than keeping body and soul together. A few years back, about six of the senior team left in one close season. It’s not the case right now.
But by God, this region had things tough.
Lincoln fields
“America was always huge. But even bigger for the Erris people was the agricultural work in Lincoln,” McAndrew says.
“They would go potato picking and hoeing beet. And then they might go down to London on the buildings. But they would all come home for seasonal work and save the hay, save the turf, maybe get the wife pregnant again! Save the hay and turf for their own father and mother, their own children and wife, go away and earn great money but hard money on the potato fields.
“A lot of them settled in London as the money was good and not as back-breaking as picking spuds from 6am to 6pm.”
One generation after another either made it back or stayed put, to various levels of success or despair.
By the early to mid ‘90s, there were so many Mayo men from Belmullet and Ballycroy around the Holloway Road in north London, that they formed their own club: Sam Maguires. Naturally, they played in green and red.
The appetite for football has always been there, whatever their means. In the history of Ballina Stephenites, written by former Western People editor Terry Reilly and published in 1986, he told the story of how a delegation of Belmullet footballers came out to play a game of football around the turn of the 19th century on the back of a lorry.
None of them had such fancy accoutrements such as football boots, instead they tore in wearing their work boots.
***
They don’t tempt fate by saying it, but Belmullet is something approaching thriving. Many an area in Ireland would envy them.
There are two secondary schools in St Brendan’s and Our Lady’s. Pupils come from a wide area and all feed into Belmullet, Ballycroy, Kiltane and Cill Chomáin.
“Thankfully as a club, we don’t have to amalgamate with anybody. If we do, we have to travel inland. But that’s away down the line because we have record numbers at our Cúl Camps, we have huge numbers of girls and boys from U8s up,” says McAndrew.
“From the leadership we get from the GAA at the moment, from the way things are run in Mayo, I can see it is as healthy as it has ever been in my life.
A season of a lifetime for Mayo football has carried into the domestic season.
The crowds going to matches have been the biggest any of the locals can recall. For sure, the new rules help, but something of the ‘Keep Swinging’ attitude that Andy Moran instilled into his players is seeping into the fabric of the clubs too.
Anything can happen. Everything is up for grabs. We are down to the last four and Westport, Crossmolina, Knockmore and Ballina are all gone.
With Ryan O’Donoghue in the form he is, they have a puncher’s chance.
Not Belmullet?
Why not?
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Belmullet GAA Gaelic Football Mayo Paddy Moclair way out west