They've done it to us again!

Get me my nitroglycerin!  Palpitations, arrhythmia, cardiac arrest.  All are possibilities when watching a Mayo match.  A level game (tie) after a full 70 minutes plus approximately 10 minutes of injury time.  Then on to overtime once again.  Two ten minute halves.  Mayo trailed for most, but against all reason, were on top when the final whistle was blown.  Our lads had been ahead by fully 7 points - double score, 14 to 7 - during the second half.  But heck, they're Mayo.  Nothing comes easy, especially for us fans.

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We didn't go to the match, which was held at a neutral site in Limerick.  It's about a 3 hour drive from most of Co Mayo; a 1 hour drive from Co Cork.  Regardless, in a crowd of 13,500, one person wrote that 13,000 were from Mayo, 500 from Cork.  Mayo fans are loyal, rabid, resilient.  They are truly the "13th man" on the field.  Mayo faces the Connacht champs Co Roscommon at Croke Park in Dublin next Sunday in the semi-finals - eight teams are left on the march to the All-Ireland.  I'm glad we'll be here to watch it.  Maigh Eo Abu!

We had gone over to Darren Madden  and Maria Ruddy's house on Clew Bay to watch with their son Conor and Darren's da and mam, and Maria's mam.  At the interval (half-time), Maria presented some lovely open sandwiches of smoked salmon on buttered brown bread with a delectable relish of onion, tomato, and balsamic.  It was enough for three dinners for sure, but we walked over to the local pub, The Shebeen, for dinner after the match.  I had a big fried slab of Cod and a portion of chips, because, heck, all I do is eat.  Demurred on dessert, but did have a cappuccino before me and the lads retired to the back room to play several competitive rounds of pool.  Everyone won a match; everyone lost a match.  But one could tell what Darren has done on the long dark nights of the Irish winter.  If not for some bad turns of luck, he would've run the table on most matches.  It was a night of good fun.  Such nice and welcoming people.  Another blessing for us in this charming town of Westport.