Yesterday, tens of thousands of people turned out in Castlebar to celebrate what one Mayo fan described as the “greatest thing” - the county’s first All Ireland win in 75 years.
The town was a sea of red and green, as young and old took to the streets to welcome the Men’s Senior Football team back to Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.
Since 1951, the team has reached an All Ireland final 11 times, but was defeated on each occasion - until Sunday.
Famously, the county believed its team was living under a lingering curse put on them in 1951 by - depending on who you ask - an upset priest or widow.
Whatever the truth, there is now no doubt that The Curse is no more.
“It's hitting now,” one elderly man in Castlebar told Newstalk’s Henry McKean.
“I think the real time is going to sink for everybody is when we spot the team on stage or on the pitch or whatever.
“I think that's when the crackers start.”
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One local woman said she was hugely “excited” to see the players and that it “means everything that I lived to see Sam come back to Mayo”.
At 68-years-old, like most Mayo people, she has never seen the county win an All Ireland football final and considered it the “best moment”.
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Another man, who was alive in 1951, said he too was thrilled to welcome the team home.
“Well, I'm looking forward to see Sam,” he said.
“It'll be one of the greatest things I have seen for a while because I was only three when it came the last time.
“[I’m] always proud to see Mayo; we waited so long and so it has to be the greatest thing that happened to me for a long time.”
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Owen Duffy, who runs a drive thru coffee shop in Ballina and has designed a special Kobe coffee cup, admitted there were a “lot of tired heads” in the county.
“The buzz is unbelievable,” he said.
“They were out till about three or four o'clock in Ballina - the town was nuts.
“I drove in from Dublin with the brothers by about two o'clock in the morning and just to see everyone out on the streets.”
