{"success":true,"data":{"id":"565deb6b-8372-46ac-856f-507aebc15cb6","title":"Fans stunned as Mayo Gaelic football team beat ‘75-year curse’ to win All Ireland final","summary":"The team’s losses have been put down to a myth that the 1951 team had not shown respect to a funeral","content":"US Edition Change\n\nSupport Now\n\n*   News[News](https://www.independent.co.uk/us)\n\n*   Sports[Sports](https://www.independent.co.uk/sport)\n\n*   Culture[Culture](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment)\n\n*   Lifestyle[Lifestyle](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style)\n\n*   Money[Money](https://www.independent.co.uk/us/money)\n\n*   Travel[Travel](https://www.independent.co.uk/us/travel)\n\n*   Premium[Premium](https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium)\n\n*   Climate[Climate](https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change)\n\nMore\n\nMore\n\n### Thank you for registering\n\nPlease refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in\n\n# Fans stunned as Mayo Gaelic football team beat ‘75-year curse’ to win All Ireland final\n\n## The team’s losses have been put down to a myth that the 1951 team had not shown respect to a funeral\n\n[Greinne Ni Aodha](https://www.independent.co.uk/author/greinne-ni-aodha)Sunday 26 July 2026 20:35 BST\n\n*   Copy link  \n*   Bookmark  \n*   [Comments](https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/gaa-mayo-curse-history-all-ireland-final-b3021852.html#comments-area)Go to comments  \n\n## Bookmark popover\n\nRemoved from bookmarks\n\nClose popover\n\nopen image in gallery\n\nFans outside Croke Park stadium after Mayo beat Kerry in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final, the team's first win since 1951(PA)\n\n### Your support helps us to tell the story\n\nFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.\n\nAt such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.\n\nThe Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.\n\n**Your support makes all the difference.**\n\nMayo’s Gaelic football team has ended a 75-year losing streak after winning the All Ireland championship, end an apparent curse that fans believed haunted the county for decades.\n\nFans were stunned as they emerged from the home of Ireland’s Gaelic games, Dublin’s Croke Park, with some putting the win down to the expired curse – and the county’s young superstar players.\n\nThe Mayo Gaelic football team is regarded as one of the best in the country but has repeatedly fallen short of winning the top prize of the Sam Maguire Cup in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.\n\nThe repeated final losses have seen the hopeful mantra of “Mayo for SAM” gain prominence, referring to the Sam Maguire Cup, which has been chanted by high-profile figures including former US president Joe Biden during a visit to his ancestral home county of Mayo.\n\nMayo has not won the cup in 75 years despite reaching the final 11 times since 1989.\n\nThe green-and-red team has lost by one point in three finals since it last won the championship in 1951.\n\nThe loses have been put down to a myth that the 1951 winning team had not shown respect to a funeral they passed on their homecoming route.\n\nIt is said a relative of the dead person placed a curse on Mayo that the county would not win the Sam Maguire until every member of the 1951 team had died.\n\nIt was reported that the last surviving member of the 1951 team died in 2021.\n\nThe so-called curse has been criticised as not showing respect to the 1951 team, the facts behind the story have also been questioned, while others dismissed it as a convenient excuse for poor performance.\n\nBut some fans did believe there was a curse on their home county’s footballing chances.\n\nA stunned Patrick Devaney, 32, from Knock, wandered outside Croke Park minutes after full time amid a sea of disappointed Kerry fans who had left the stadium.\n\n“I can’t believe it, I’ve seen them lose so many times, I just can’t believe it,” he told the Press Association.\n\n“I’ve been at nearly every other final Mayo were in, so I can’t believe it.\n\n“Twelve finals they’ve lost in my lifetime. I can’t believe it.”\n\nAsked if he thought they would win, he said: “A hail Mary chance, yes. I believed in the curse until about 15 minutes ago.”\n\nPatrick Devaney from Knock celebrates outside Croke Park stadium after Mayo beat Kerry in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final, the team's first win since 1951(PA)\n\nRachel Neeson, who is from Co Antrim but whose family are from Kilmovee, said the win was a “dream come true”.\n\n“We’ve loads of kids back home up in Antrim and we’re now going back home to get them and we’re going down to Mayo this evening.\n\n“They don’t know we’re coming but there’s 10 of us coming down from Antrim.”\n\n“Kerry fans were lovely, turned around and congratulated everybody straight away, it was just lovely, really really lovely.”\n\nShe said things “fell into place” on the day: her daughter, whose name is Niamh Neeson, got them the tickets, and they were sitting in row “NN”. It was also Reek Sunday.\n\n“I did believe in the curse. I believe in curses, I believe in cures. Today, they got the cure!”\n\nPaul Murphy and his sons Feidhlim, 11, and Odhran, 13, travelled over from Manchester to watch the final.\n\nMr Murphy, who said his father is from a small village in Mayo, said his sons are involved with the St Laurence’s club in Manchester and he has gone to many All-Ireland finals over the last 20 years.\n\n“It was amazing when Mayo had won,” Feidhlim said. “They played brilliant, absolutely perfect.”\n\n“For the whole game I thought Kerry were going to win,” Odhran said. “But then at the end when we went up by five, I thought we had the game won.\n\n“I was clapping and really happy,” he said when it hit full-time.\n\nTheir father added: “I went into the game with quiet confidence. The first 10 minutes was a killer, I just thought, is it 2004 or 2006 all over again? But then Mayo came back, they stuck at it, they were resilient, they never let it go.\n\n“This is their first all-Ireland final, actually I tell a lie, Odhran came over as a baby in 2013, we weren’t so lucky with that one. But I thought if I brought the two of them it might just change the luck.”\n\nAsked what they planned to do next, he said: “To be honest we don’t know what to do with ourselves. We’re not used to being at the end of a favourable result, frankly. So we’d normally put the heads down and slink away but, it’s all up in the air, who knows? See how the night goes.”\n\nMayo supporters celebrate outside Croke Park stadium after Mayo beat Kerry in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final, the team's first win since 1951(PA)\n\nMattie Joe Connolly and his wife Bernie said youth was the thing that changed Mayo’s fortunes.\n\nHe said his grand nephew is Darragh Beirne, the corner forward who scored the goal for Mayo in the final.\n\n“They came here to Croke Park, they weren’t afraid to come here and they weren’t awed by the big ocassion, those young guys,” he said.\n\n“I was living more in hope than anything – after all those years, all-Ireland champions.”\n\nBernie said they had attended the finals where they had lost but that “today was worth waiting for, it was fantastic”.\n\nCiaran Ivan and Siobhan Lavelle, 25, watched the match from a nearby pub and said the victory was “surreal”.\n\n“It was unreal, my ears are still ringing and my voice is nearly gone,” she said.\n\n“I had good faith in them to be honest, bit nervous in the first half but by the time the bell rang, we were onto a good one.”\n\nMr Ivan said the manager was the winning touch for the team and said the team “did very well”.\n\n“There will be a week-long session I’d say, at least. Mayo for SAM!”\n\nIn a heart-thumping victory speech to a Corke Park packed with Mayo fans, captain Jack Coyne told those from his home county and its diaspora: “Never stop dreaming.”\n\n“Stick your chest out and be proud to be from Mayo. The wait is over, SAM is home.”\n\n### More about\n\n## Join our commenting forum\n\nJoin thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies\n\n### Most popular\n\n### Popular videos\n\n### Bulletin","source_name":"The Independent","source_url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/gaa-mayo-curse-history-all-ireland-final-b3021852.html","url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/gaa-mayo-curse-history-all-ireland-final-b3021852.html","author":"Greinne Ni Aodha","author_name":"Greinne Ni Aodha","published_at":"2026-07-26T19:35:37.000Z","publication_date":"2026-07-26T19:35:37.000Z","image_url":"https://static.independent.co.uk/2026/07/26/20/01KYFP869M7WCCQRQSX06AERJA.jpg","category":"sport","topic":"sport","tags":[],"political_bias":null,"bias_score":null,"confidence_score":null,"credibility_score":null,"factual_quality":null,"reading_time":8,"word_count":1401,"view_count":0,"breaking":false,"breaking_news":false,"ai_analysis":null,"fact_check_status":"unverified","archive_status":"hot","language":null}}