Reasons why Mayo v Galway brings out the best (and worst!) in Mayo sports reporting

NOTHING stirs the blood more than a meeting of Mayo and Galway in the championship and the media have played no small part over the years in reflecting the emotions of the respective counties.

The Connaught Telegraph were certainly to the fore of a couple of publicity stunts when one or two of their reporters got on the wrong side of the Mayo team and the County Board with some rather audacious headlines.

Pioneering the early reporting, which was certainly ahead of its time, was former ace with The Connaught Telegraph, known then as ‘the Sports Voice of the West’, Sean Rice, who later moved to The Connaught Tribune where he worked from Tuam.

What became know as the ‘I refuse to report’ saga, Sean was so annoyed with Mayo’s display against Galway when they met in MacHale Park in 1968 that he refused to report on the game after Mayo’s defeat in the semi-final.

Mayo had won the championship the previous year for the first time in 12 years.

 

Said Sean: “The defeat was a bit hard to take and when someone mentioned afterwards that I shouldn’t bother reporting it, I took it seriously and decided to crucify myself together with the players.”

It took a good few years for the bridges to mend between the newspaper and its readers, who were a bit stunned to turn to the back page only to discover the heading ‘I refuse. . .’

On a lighter note, Sean was also involved in a famous back page which depicted him in a photo by Liam Lyons with his two big bare feet up on his desk under the heading ‘I will walk barefoot from Galway to Castlebar if Mayo lose to Galway'.

The year was 1967 and Sean was so confident that Mayo were going to beat Galway in the semi-final because they had a very strong side and Galway, three-time champions – from ‘64 to ‘66 – had just returned from America and could not have been at their best.

The match was in Pearse Stadium and Sean promised to walk home to Castlebar barefoot if Mayo lost.

Sure enough, Mayo won the game and the Telegraph scribe was saved that long journey home.

One of the most controversial strokes by The Connaught Telegraph involved its current sports editor, John Melvin, who printed what became known as 'the blank page'.

It arose when Galway hammered Mayo in Tuam (3-17 to 0-10) on July 11, 1983.

The original intention of the sports editor was just to leave the photograph out but when a compositor was overheard to say 'I wouldn’t use their photograph at all,' the sports editor had a Eureka moment and decided to leave the space where the photograph was to go blank, and imbedded in the middle the famous caption - 'This space was to be filled by a photograph of the Mayo team. To save any further embarrassment all around, we decided not to publish it.'

It took a long time for Mr. Melvin to repair the damage from that particular stunt but it certainly hit the national headlines at the time.

Two other names come to mind when Mayo play Galway.

Stephen Joyce, who broke Mayo hearts on so many occasions with killer goals, and Willie Joe Padden, who was made immortal by The Sawdoctors with the line: 'Will Galway bate Mayo? Not if they have Willie Joe.'