{"id":585261,"date":"2026-08-06T19:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T19:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585261\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T19:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T19:40:16","slug":"ta-siad-ag-teacht-mayos-all-ireland-aces-deliver-sam-maguire-to-proud-island-folk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/585261\/","title":{"rendered":"T\u00e1 siad ag teacht: Mayo&#8217;s All-Ireland aces deliver Sam Maguire to proud island folk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the waves they came, ferry and escort. A crossing 75 years in the making and buffeted by sporting heartbreak.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The pier at Roonagh, immortalised in the Saw Doctors\u2019 classic song Clare Island, finally welcomed its most famous visitor this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Sam Maguire Cup, set to spend its first winter in Mayo since 1951, paid visits to Inishturk and Clare Island, the two Atlantic islands served by the \u2018ferry out from Roonagh,\u2019 as the song says.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5184604_11_articleinline_1000047013.jpg\" alt=\"WELCOMING COMMITTEE: The natives and future stars of Inishturk GAA welcome Aidan O'Shea, Jack Carney and Sam Maguire to the island on Thursday. \" title=\"WELCOMING COMMITTEE: The natives and future stars of Inishturk GAA welcome Aidan O'Shea, Jack Carney and Sam Maguire to the island on Thursday. \" class=\"card-img\"\/>WELCOMING COMMITTEE: The natives and future stars of Inishturk GAA welcome Aidan O&#8217;Shea, Jack Carney and Sam Maguire to the island on Thursday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Less than a fortnight after the county\u2019s unexpected win over Kerry in the All-Ireland final, the cup made its way to Co. Mayo\u2019s most remote locations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt means so much to everyone on both islands that Sam Maguire has been here already,\u201d said Inishturk native Danny O\u2019Toole, who lives on the mainland and is involved in coaching with Breaffy senior men\u2019s and Carnacon senior ladies teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mayo heroes Jack Carney and Aidan O\u2019Shea brought the cup out through Clew Bay and onto Inishturk, while Mayo GAA coaches Billy McNicholas and Kieran Kilkenny transported it to Clare Island. On both islands, Gaelic football is king.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Long before the ferry service reached its current standard, islanders made early-morning or night-before pilgrimages to Roonagh and onto Castlebar, Tuam and Dublin so that they could support the green and red.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Islanders also travel to the mainland on a regular basis to play for Louisburgh GAA and LGFA teams in west Mayo and county leagues and championships.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5184310_7_articleinline_Jack_20Carney_20and_20Aidan_20O_27Shea.jpeg\" alt=\"Jack Carney and Aidan O'Shea on Inishturk island with Sam Maguire\" title=\"Jack Carney and Aidan O'Shea on Inishturk island with Sam Maguire\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Jack Carney and Aidan O&#8217;Shea on Inishturk island with Sam Maguire<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">On their own merits, the islands field teams each year for the All-Ireland All-Island Championships.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt is a source of pride to us that we can field our men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams each year. Players come home from all over Ireland, and often beyond, to line out for us and the other islands in the competition,\u201d said long-serving Clare Island official and former all-island winning captain, Padraig O\u2019Malley.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This June, the neighbouring Mayo islands clashed in the women\u2019s decider on Inis M\u00f3r with Clare Island triumphing on a 1-13 to 0-4 scoreline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe Mayo players have been incredibly generous with their time since last Sunday week. They have gone to great lengths to see that as many people as possible got to touch the cup and that it was seen in so many places,\u201d added Danny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the waves they came, ferry and escort. A crossing 75 years in the making and buffeted by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[217463,61,60,4185,43],"class_list":["post-585261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-all-ireland-football-final","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mayo-gaa","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585261","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=585261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}