Sean McAndrew, whose father John played for both the 1951 and 1951 winning Mayo teams, said it was “amazing” to watch the county reclaim the All-Ireland title.
Sean said that although his dad moved moved to Birmingham in England in 1960, he always kept up to date with the team.
“Mayo probably has one of the highest emigrant populations across the world and a lot of people see the GAA as their connection to home.”
John McAndrew passed away in 2013 and Sean said it would have meant a lot to him to see Mayo win again.
“It’s all he ever wanted and you could see the disappointment each time that they failed.”
Sean said there was “no talk” of a curse for the first few years after Mayo last won in 1951, “but then I think people got suspicious when good teams weren’t progressing”.
He added that his dad was a “quiet, level-headed” man who didn’t talk much about the curse, but had said he “couldn’t recall” the supposed incident involving a funeral.
Sean said he has always taken talk about a curse in “good humour”, but does recall one occasion when a women approached him and his son after an unsuccessful final for Mayo and said “maybe we need to get rid of a few of them”, referring to the surviving members of the 1951 team.
“It did make you think twice about whether people believe in things… and thought that’s what needed to be done,” he said.