Former All-Ireland winner widely tipped to secure key Mayo GAA role
by Aiden Henry
FORMER All-Ireland winner with Mayo, Diane O’Hora, has been installed as the odds-on favourite to be the next Mayo ladies' senior football team manager.
The role became vacant after Liam McHale stepped away from the job at the end of the 2025 inter-county season when they defeated Leitrim in the senior championship relegation playoff, a game played earlier this month.
Ballina native O’Hora confirmed to The Connaught Telegraph yesterday (Monday) that she had entered the race to be the next Mayo senior manager.
Although Friday next (August 1) is the last day for applications for the job, when one looks at O’Hora’s CV, it is going to be difficult to look beyond her for the position.
O'Hora boasts an illustrious history in the sport. For a start, her playing days were marked by exceptional success with Mayo, with whom she won three All-Ireland senior championship medals.
Indeed, she was captain in 1999 when Mayo were presented with the Brendan Martin Cup for the very first time. To add to this, she also won two All-Star awards.
But once her footballing days were behind her, she transitioned seamlessly into coaching and management. Like her magnificent exploits on the field of play, O'Hora took to coaching and management equally as good. Success followed at every club and county she went to.
Along with coaching and managing a number of clubs, O'Hora also got involved with a number of counties, including Longford, Roscommon, Down, Meath and Kildare.
After taking a coaching role with Kildare for the first year, she then took over as their manager.
She guided Kildare to the National League Division 3 and Division 2 titles in successive seasons, and also won the All-Ireland intermediate championship title with the Leinster county.
On stepping away from Kildare in 2024, many tributes were paid to her in recognition of all that she did for Gaelic football within the county.
The Kildare County Board stated: "It is with great regret that we must announce this evening our senior county manager, Diane O'Hora, has resigned her position as Kildare senior team manager.
"Diane brought our senior panel to the highest level in the association, and we wish to extend our warmest gratitude and best wishes for the future to Diane and her management team.”
Now could be the right time for her to take on the Mayo job. “My dream after my great playing days with Mayo was to someday come back and manager the county senior team. I feel that time has come now,” Diane told The Connaught Telegraph.
She continued: “I have been approached on a number of occasions to let my name go forward for the Mayo ladies' senior job. But I felt it was not the right time and that I needed to get as much experience as possible before I would ever go for the job.
“As a coach and manager, I have fully learned what is required and I'm ready to give my all to Mayo if the Mayo Ladies County Board feel I am the right person for the job.”
When going to press, it was not known if any other candidates had applied for the position. But with the deadline being next Friday, there is still plenty of time for them to their applications in.