{"id":569346,"date":"2026-07-26T19:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T19:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/569346\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T19:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T19:16:15","slug":"mayos-aidan-oshea-i-could-have-easily-walked-away-now-i-have-my-all-ireland-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/569346\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayo&#8217;s Aidan O&#8217;Shea: I could have easily walked away, now I have my All-Ireland medal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aidan O&#8217;Shea said he did not think it would take 18 seasons for him to win an All-Ireland title with Mayo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t say I definitely did all the time,&#8221; O&#8217;Shea, who made his debut in 2009, told RT\u00c9 Radio 1 when asked if he always believed the county could get over the line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;But you&#8217;ve got to keep plugging away. There&#8217;s been some dark days. Tough performances, personally and team-wise. But I always felt that on a given day, we could definitely do it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;And look, as I say, look at Kobe McDonald this year, he&#8217;s been outstanding. Ryan O&#8217;Donoghue, the leadership he has shown. I&#8217;m just delighted to be part of it. You know, I could have easily walked away four or five years ago, I&#8217;m so glad I didn&#8217;t. Now I have my All-Ireland medal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">O&#8217;Shea was an unused substitute in the 1-20 to 1-17  <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/sport\/gaa\/arid-41886211.html\">victory over Kerry<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;The boys were unbelievable,&#8221; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;The performance, we were on the ropes in the first half after Clifford&#8217;s goal. Jack Carney hits an outrageous two. Ryan hits the two. We start tackling, turning the ball over and just started momentum building. And then the boys second half, just unbelievable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;There&#8217;s obviously the expression of youth there. Obviously, Kobe, Darragh, Eoin. A couple of 19, 20-year-olds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;I think we came in with the mentality &#8216;Why not? Why not Mayo?&#8217; When we got back at it, we went at it really hard. We felt we&#8217;ve underperformed over the last couple of years. Look, we&#8217;ve taken a couple of beatings along the way, but we&#8217;ve been improving and improving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;Mayo always have good players, you just have to believe sometimes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Asked about the curse and Mayo&#8217;s 75-year wait to win Sam Maguire, O&#8217;Shea said: &#8220;As I said to a few of the boys there, &#8216;It&#8217;s done. We&#8217;ll never talk about it again&#8217;. It&#8217;s an unbelievable feeling. Look at the Mayo people. This means so much.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">O&#8217;Shea also paid tribute to the Kerry supporters who remained in the stadium to watch Mayo&#8217;s celebrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;Obviously, a lot of Kerry blood in my family,&#8221; said O&#8217;Shea. &#8220;Married to a Kerry woman. I really appreciate that. I think every GAA fan or supporter appreciates Mayo winning the All-Ireland. It&#8217;s huge.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aidan O&#8217;Shea said he did not think it would take 18 seasons for him to win an All-Ireland&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[217463,177329,4365,61,60,4185,80],"class_list":["post-569346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-all-ireland-football-final","tag-championship-2026","tag-gaelic-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mayo-gaa","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}