2 Cover story A HOUSE OF PAIN NO MORE MayosAll-Irelandtriumphreleased75yearsof pent-upemotioninoneunforgettableafternoon ByKeithDuggan M acHale Park in Castlebar has always been best suited to those Saturday-night matches in winter, when the season is young and the promise uncontained. An ideal evening would be polar-cold and dry, with maybe a low fog hovering across the low fields. Some big-shot county Kerry, Dublin, one of the Ulster blades or Galway would be in town. The downtown pubs McHales or Sloyans or Buckos would benefit from the pre-match crowd. The main stand would be full for at least half an hour before throw-in. The younger crowd would arrive in their going-out clothes. In the press box, the usual faces. Austin Garvin, who trained Mayo minor teams to two All-Ireland titles in the barren 1970s, would be there. Seán Rice, another seer of the Mayo tradition, would be there. Former players might be gigging with Midwest Radio. You were bound to see, in the stand, any of the well-known faces of Mayo football Liam Mac or Willie Joe or James Nallen, David Brady or the Mortimers. Maughan. The team would take the field. And thats when youd feel it: the static electricity of pure Mayo togetherness and separateness which would travel from the crowded stadium across the vast county to signal another go at this thing. Since Mayo became All-Ireland senior football champions again late last Sunday afternoon, ending a 75-year wait, the sounds and images of the day have traversed the digital globe, landing everywhere from Australian television to CNN. And finally, the win reverberating around the world this week ending one of the longest droughts in sports history, and breaking an Irish curse, said Christiane Amanpour, the political anchor, ending her show with footage of the closing seconds. The audio footage of Midwest Radios broadcast from Croke Park also swept the globe as commentator Stephen Grealis and analyst Martin Carney delivered a closing stanza that was half poem, half primal scream. Tens of millions of viewers were discovering Gaelic football for the first time. Understandably, they had questions. What was this sport? Why hadnt they seen it before now? If the teams draw those crowds, why arent the players paid? And so on. The Mayo diaspora, from former US president Joe Biden to the Gallagher brothers of Oasis, heard the call and responded with messages. Congratulations MAYO lick it up to ras very proud LG x, wrote the younger Gallagher, a regular visitor to his mothers homeplace of Charlestown. Within Ireland, the national response was equally remarkable. The 139-year history of the senior football championship is based on county allegiance that is fierce and sometimes poisonous. But last Sunday, Mayos finest hour was transformed into a unique day of national celebration within seconds of the final whistle. Old rivalries and enmities were temporarily suspended. All 30 neutral counties were moved, in a way that seldom occurs, by the success of the winning team THE IRISH TIMES Weekend Saturday, August 1, 2026 and its followers after a litany of sporting heartbreaks. The players and supporters of Kerry the standard bearers for the sport remained in the stadium. As serial winners, the scenario was alien to their psyche, but they saluted its importance. All was flipped: all of that bottled disappointment of 11 lost All-Ireland finals since 1989, of the memory of family members or friends no longer alive to witness this, all the primordial pride in their county now let loose into the atmosphere. It was overwhelming. I have nothing to say, Lee Keegan, one of Mayos greatest ever footballers, admitted in a choked voice as he stood with the other RTÉ panellists. Then, Keegan delivered a searing, unforgettable tribute. Im f***in delighted. Im so proud. I just have no words. Thats just unbelievable. I thought Id never get to see the day this comes. And to see what they did today, the way they finished it . . . the sneering for years, the laughter at Mayo those guys are legends for the rest of their lives. National landmark events tend to be grim, tragic or politically momentous. But even as captain Jack Coyne delivered a momentous speech in a prolonged guttural howl, it felt as though the significance of the day was being claimed by history: that this was one of the more unique and joyful national episodes since the foundation of the Republic. Any visitor knows this: Mayo is a chatty county, filled with natural, often excitable storytellers. And every- The Sam Maguire is brought back to Castlebar by the All Ireland winning team, Mayo. PHOTOGRAPH: ENDA ODOWD one now knows about Mayos staggeringly bleak fortune in All-Ireland finals between 1951 and Sunday. It would have been understandable had the county and its footballing representatives turned surly or uncommunicative as the doleful record was extended. The years of All-Ireland final defeat could be recited like the sorrowful mysteries: 1989, 1996 (after a replay), 1997, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2016 (after a replay), 2017, 2020 (the Covid final, played at night in a ghostly Croke Park) and 2021. The numbers ticked up like an unpaid debt. The pursuit was epic. Still, with the unfulfillment, it was threatening to become macabre. In the age of the DavidSedarisontheseriousbusinessofcomedy.Page8 WalledtownsofIreland:RositaBolandvisitsWexford.Page10 PatrickFreyne:GlenHansardwasIrelandsbandleader.Page5 WEEKEND THE IRISH TIMES Saturday, August 1st, 2026 A WOUND IS HEALED Afterdecadesofheartbreakandnearmisses, Mayofinallyhasitsmomentinthesun By 2 Cover story A HOUSE OF PAIN NO MORE MayosAll-Irelandtriumphreleased75yearsof pent-upemotioninoneunforgettableafternoon ByKeithDuggan M acHale Park in Castlebar has always been best suited to those Saturday-night matches in winter, when the season is young and the promise uncontained. An ideal Cover story meme, the jokes came thick and fast. Through all that, Mayo footballers and supporters never shied away from speaking about it, nor returning to All-Ireland finals. Maybe we make too much of the football, Fr Leo Morahan, the former county board executive, said back in 2007. Mayo has the 4 Cover story 2004, when he was beginning his sec- ond term as Mayo manager. By September, he had the county back in an All-Ireland final, when Kerry defeated his young team. Like most GAA counties, the network of names and connections within Mayo football are impossibly dense: you could fill the People GLEN HANSARD WAS OUR NATIONAL BARD TheFramesfrontmanwasIrelandsbandleader, anditfeltlikehewouldbedoingthejobfor alongtime ByPatrickFreyne I n the 1990s, I wasnt convinced by The Frames. They felt a bit mainstream. A bit major label. I was a young idiot. Later, a friend convinced me that I 6 Music THE PIANIST WHO PLAYS WITH ONE HAND ONLY Freya Terris is the first pianist to pass their Grade 8 piano exam playing solely with their left hand ByJohnOConnor L ike countless other young musicians, Freya Terris discovered her love of music at the piano stool. Yet her journey has been anyt People 7 Fearkeptmefrom doingwhatIreally wantedtodoorsay Q&ARevJanetBroderick The Donegal-based priest on childhood games with her brother actor Matthew Broderick, how people react when she preaches sermons, and who could play her in a biopic Howagreeableareyou? I think life has made me agreeable 8 Interview I DONT LIKE EXTREMISTS. BUT I FIND THEM THRILLING AS CHARACTERS TheUSwriterandhumouristtalksabouttheseriousbusinessofbeingfunny onthepageandathislivereadings ByPatrickFreyne WEEKEND INTERVIEW DAVID SEDARIS A few days after I interview David Sedaris, I receive a thank-you postcard fe Interview 9 I just tried to get through my days [at school] without being found out as gay. Im 69, so no one even really imagined then that anyone could be anything that awful back then DavidSedaris: Idontknowhow tobuyaplane ticket.Idontopen anymailthat doesntlooklike fanmail. Photograph: Leonardo 10 Feature HISTORY EMBRACES US EVERY DAY IN WEXFORD In the first of a four-part series on Irelands walled towns, we visit Wexford, where history is quite literally in peoples back gardens ByRositaBoland I f Billy Colfer talked to you about history, youd sit up and listen, Paul Walsh tells me. W Feature field. We discovered that Sparrow was a surname of ship owners back in the 1830s, Hussey says. Hussey brings me out into their back garden to show me where, more than a century ago, a house was built against the other side of their wall. The medieval wall thus became a party wall. It towers 12 Photo essay Formedtotacklethe siltingissueintheriver Liffey,thereservenow extendstotheentirety ofthebay WILD AT HEART Photographs: DaraMacDónaill andEndaODowd Words: EndaODowd O f the 797 Unesco biosphere reserves across 147 countries, Dublin Bay is the only one to include a national capital Photo essay DublinsNorth BullIsland,partof theDublinBay Unescobiosphere reserve,isnow hometo180 differentspeciesof bird.However, conservationists warnthat,asworks tostopcoastal erosionareerected alongthecoastline, theirlong-term impactonthe ecologyand landscapemaybe difficulttopredict. Photographs: 14 Feature TWINS PEAK WERE PROBABLY MIRROR IMAGES OF EACH OTHER Whetheritsthehighsofalwayshavingcompanyor thelowsofsensingtheotherspain,thebestpartof beingatwinisneverbeingstuckforafriend ByJenHogan I relands birth rate may be falling, but the incidence of twin births continues to rise, with al Feature 15 Its sometimes fun and its sometimes not, because they could steal your stuff had a friend beside you. In fact, the twins only really went their separate ways when they went to college and that was a major shock, Emma says. Rebecca says there are lots of upsides to being a twin, but the T 16 Essay he vintage front page shows a street full of Dublin holidaymakers smiling at the camera, sitting on the kerb, waiting for the bus in the sun. But these early queues soon dissipated. Bank holiday spoiled by weather, announces the reusable headline. The citys thoroughfares were WEEKEND E Essay 17 Governments might fancy deploying bank holidays to foster cohesion and goodwill, but that doesnt mean everybody has to play along crashing out of the Fifa World Cup was that Friday, July 24th, became the bank holiday that never was. Would Keir Starmers mooted last act have applied across 18 Feature BE LIKE JOHN LENNON AND BUY AN IRISH ISLAND Four islands for sale off Mayo, Donegal, Tipperary and Galway, with bidding starting at 299,000 ByJessicaDoyle W hen you attract screaming fans everywhere you go, what do you do to get some peace and quiet? You buy an island, of course. Tha People 19 SARAH MOSS Teenage dieting made me an expert in mental arithmetic I bofin. It is suitable for grazing and features two natural freshwater lakes. The island measures 1.2km by 0.4km and rises to a maximum height of 63.3m above sea level. It is a Special Protection Area under the EU Bird 20 Environment TOMAÍ Ó CONGHAILE Our beautiful, troubled planet needs a skilled reconciler T he World Cup may be over but the fallout continues: Trumps unwanted interventions; Germanys early exit; football not coming home; Argentinas post-final petulance. Not to mention, of course, that banner. Environment 21 British navy, spent several days imprisoned in the Tower of London on corruption charges, and died of smallpox before reaching 40. Initially, a strait running between the two main islands was named after him and, by 1765, the Falkland Islands had become the English name for the entire 22 Obituaries FIRST WOMAN DIRECTOR OF A NATIONAL INSTITUTION, LIBRARIAN AND ACADEMIC Patricia (Pat, Patsy) Donlon Born: January 28th, 1943 Died: July 23rd, 2026 Patricia (Pat, Patsy) Donlon, who has died peacefully aged 83 at Blackrock Hospice, Dublin, was a leading light in that remarkable generat Obituaries 23 RENOWNED ORNITHOLOGIST AND COMIC ACTOR WHO STARRED IN THE GOODIES Bill Oddie BillOddiewasamemberofcomedy trioTheGoodies,whoseanarchicTV sketchshowairedinthe1970sand 1980s.Photograph:IanGavan/Getty Born: July 7th, 1941 Died: July 25th, 2026 Bill Oddie, who has died aged 85, was a mul 24 Last word DAVID McWILLIAMS ThefirstvictimofAI? Theeconomy W e are in an era of great technological advances, or so say all the tech bros who are championing not just AI, but a whole host of technological innovations from finance and healthcare to supply chain management and communications. In