Few watching the first of the All-Ireland Football Championship semi-finals have as much skin in the game as 90-year-old Seamus O’Donnell.
As a budding county minor at the time, the Ballaghaderreen man was there when the so-called ‘Mayo curse’ took hold during the 1951 victory celebrations, the last time Sam Maguire visited the county.
He would play for four years at senior level before work commitments led him to a switch of allegiance to Louth, where he ended his maiden season with the Wee County in 1957 with All-Ireland glory, the last time they reached the showpiece.
A career with An Garda Síochána took him to Gorey, which is where he will be watching the events unfold today on TV. With his sons Colm and Mark for company, he’ll be kicking every ball, but there is no doubt which flag he’s waving.
“I’d like to see Mayo win an All-Ireland, but I have to admit that I’ll be supporting Louth because I have a great affinity with the county,” he tells RTÉ Sport.
“I had great times with Louth, so many happy memories.”
O’Donnell was earmarked for success from a young age, three years playing for the Mayo minors – the first of those coinciding with Mayo’s senior success of 1951 – that yielded a Connacht title.
O’Donnell remembers fondly the sight of the heroes coming through Ballaghaderreen, parading Sam Maguire to a jubilant crowd.
“It was their first stop after coming from Dublin, a great evening of celebration,” he says.
It’s a victory parade that has gone down in folklore – the team made its way to Swinford and then Foxford, where legend has it a disgruntled priest put a curse on the team for disrespecting a funeral taking place at the same time – not that O’Donnell has much truck with that version of events.
“It’s a great load of baloney.”
After his first posting as a guard took him to Navan, O’Donnell was then transferred to Omeath Garda Station in north Louth. Having linked in with the local Cooley Kickhams club, the travel to Mayo was becoming unwieldy. After some gentle coaxing from Louth officials during Christmas 1956, he was all-in for the season ahead, which proved to be one of the greatest years in the county’s history.
The Leinster campaign began somewhat sluggishly against Carlow and Wexford, but kicked into gear by knocking out holders Kildare before taking out Dublin en route to provincial glory. Tyrone were swept aside in an All-Ireland semi-final as mild hysteria gripped the county.
Facing them in the final was a Cork side looking to avoid a second successive All-Ireland final defeat despite recent ascendancy in Munster.
The pageantry began on the Saturday for the gardaí involved. O’Donnell and his fellow Mayo native Dan O’Neill travelled to Dublin together, while three Cork players also met the Garda Commissioner; half-backs Paddy O’Driscoll and Paddy Harrington, father of three-time major golf winner Pádraig, and midfielder Eric Ryan.
Ryan and O’Donnell began training on the same day and had struck up a bond, and would mark each other in the second half when O’Donnell was moved back from his wing-forward role.
The match itself was widely considered an entertaining encounter. O’Donnell split the posts at the Hill 16 end in the 13th minute as Louth led for the first time, but a Tommy Furlong goal ensured the Rebels were ahead at the interval.
With 10 minutes remaining, Cork looked well-placed, but a goalmouth scramble saw Sean Cunningham get the final touch and Louth didn’t look back.
Seamus O’Donnell (centre) on the victorious 1957 Louth team
The homecoming conjures up as many memories as the match itself, with the county coming to a standstill. He reckons there were 20,000 in Dundalk, where the crowd – and players – were treated to a rerun of the match courtesy of Micheal O’Hehir’s radio commentary.
“People were listening intently, as if they didn’t know the result… (His point), and then the big cheer would go up,” he said.
Another flip side to the win was a trip the following year to the United States. Having played at the Polo Grounds in 1954 as a result of Mayo’s league title that year, he was back to the iconic venue four years later, while they also made an appearance in Boston. Fundraising initiatives ensured it was an expenses paid trip
“Nobody went to America at that time unless it was to emigrate. It (the holiday) was out of this world,” he said.
Rising through the garda ranks and with a growing family, O’Donnell decided to hang up the boots.
“I played for four years with Mayo and never faced Louth, and in my four years with Louth, I never faced Mayo.”
He has been captivated by this year’s championship, as much by the journeys of his former counties as the free-flowing football itself.
Can Louth take their place in an All-Ireland football final for the first time since 1957?
Now Louth are just 70 minutes away from their first All-Ireland appearance since O’Donnell and his team-mates lined out at Croke Park 69 years ago.
He is one of four surviving members from that day, along with Frank Lynch – just 18 when he started alongside O’Donnell on the half-forward line, goalkeeper Seán Óg Flood, and wing-back Patsy Coleman.
The noise and colour Louth have brought to the party doesn’t surprise O’Donnell in the least, labelling the support base as “the best in the world”. He’s hopeful that there is more to come from Gavin Devlin’s side, though by his own admission he’s a winner either way.
“I would hope that one or the other would win the All-Ireland.”
But the heart strings are tugging strongly in favour of the Wee County, wishing Sam Mulroy and co to take a step closer to emulating the 1957 heroes.
“I loved it up there in Louth and made a lot of friends. We just capped it off by winning the All-Ireland. I’d love to see this group do the same thing.”
Listen to the RTÉ GAA Podcast on the RTÉ Radio Player, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and email us at sportpodcasts@rte.ie
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship semi-finals, Louth v Mayo on Saturday from 5.30pm and Dublin v Kerry on Sunday from 3.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow our live blog on all matches on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1