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DUBLIN, Ireland - Mayo ended a 75-year wait for the All-Ireland Gaelic football title with a victory over defending champions Kerry in Dublin, triggering celebrations across Ireland and among the county’s global diaspora. The long-suffering county’s triumph in the hugely popular national sport brought to a close a widely known superstition that Mayo was under a “curse” dating back to its last championship win in 1951, when a reported disruption of a funeral during the team’s homecoming parade was said to have drawn a priest’s warning they would never win again while any member of that team was alive. Coverage of the result dominated front and back newspaper pages, while national broadcaster RTE’s flagship morning radio show focused heavily on the victory and the team’s hotel in Dublin as supporters marked the end of decades of disappointment. DUBLIN, Ireland - The win drew high-profile congratulations from prominent public figures with Mayo roots, underlining how far the county’s story resonates beyond Ireland. Former U.S. President Joe Biden, a proud Irish-American whose great-great-great-grandfather left the Mayo town of Ballina for the United States in 1851, wrote on X that “the dream becomes reality” and reminded followers that his 2023 parting words in Ireland were “Mayo for Sam!” Canadian premier Mark Carney, who recently visited his grandparents’ village in Mayo, celebrated the result online with the message “the curse is broken”, while Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, whose mother Peggy is from Mayo, also sent their congratulations. In Croke Park, emotional scenes unfolded as Mayo’s young, fearless team lifted the Sam Maguire Cup, with some supporters in green and red jerseys seen crying, blessing themselves and kissing the turf, and player Matthew Ruane telling RTE that watching post-match clips left him in tears as the scale of the achievement began to sink in.

Prepared by Emily Rhodes and reviewed by editorial team.