County Mayo

**Thunderblaster** · 17/04/2006, 9:52 PM

How would you like to describe County Mayo? Is it as good as the tourism boards portray it or do you see the darker side of the county that the tourism bodies does not want us to know?

**gustavo** · 17/04/2006, 9:55 PM

i lived in Ballina for 5 months last year and i thought it was a nice town , very tidy , good pubs but mental for parking and traffic.

**hamish** · 17/04/2006, 9:59 PM

Family have a holiday home in Black Head - lovely spot.
From my footie travels there - very friendly and most helpful, organised, and vibrant people to work with. Loved my times up there so I'm a bit biased TBH. Difference between Galway people and Mayo people is, to paraphrase Mary Coughlan (singer not the TD) Galwegians are friendly and a bit mad while Mayo folks are friendly and a bit sane.

(pssst - Thunderblaster - make sure you send the money in a brown envelope and cash only - no cheques )

**Conor H** · 17/04/2006, 10:06 PM

Only good thing about Mayo is that it's close to galway.Sure half of Mayo live in Galway.If your thinking of going to mayo why not just go an extra half hour to the Big smoke of Connacht.

**gustavo** · 17/04/2006, 10:08 PM

Some more reasons why Mayo is great
Choose Mayo

Choose pain, heartache, depression
Choose to place your faith in false gods adorned with tight shorts, false tans and braids
Choose whether or not to wear your county colours for fear of ridicule should you be at the wrong end of another hammering
Choose false hope at the start of each FBD Cup campaign

Choose Galway as the enemy, Roscommon as an annoyance, Sligo as soccer heads, Leitrim as your favourite underdogs
Choose to wish Padraig Joyce was born our side of the border
Choose McHale Park as mecca, Tuam as a hay shed, Hyde as a hell-hole
Choose to park in the old bacon factory, stand under the score board, watch the girls go by with fake tan dripping from the night before

Choose whether to travel up to Croker the day before or the morning of the big match
Choose whether or not to take home that Tipp girl you met in Rodys
Choose a big mighty fry before the match in your sisters place
Choose too many pints before the match

Choose the Big Tree after the match
Choose to go on the **** even though we lost again

Choose to hope that Maughan finally gets it right, O'Mahony hangs around if Maughan doesn't
Choose to forget Holmes but thank him for the league title
Choose to dream about what it would have been like if we had won in 1996, Choose to forget about 1997 and 2004

Choose to be a Garda, Civil Servant, Plasterer, Carpenter, Plumber, Electrician, Nurse
Choose a flat in Drumcondra, Phibsboro, Rathmines
Choose a house in Ballycullen, Carpenterstown, Lucan
Choose Rody Bolands, the Portobello, Flannerys, Coppers, McGowans
Choose the Manhattan, Giggs Place for eating

Choose to leave your place of birth at the tender age of 17
Choose to go to college in Galway, Sligo, UL, UCD or get the start with the big brother in Dublin
Choose only to return home for Christmas, Easter, the local town festival, Connacht Championship fixtures
Choose whether or not to apply for a job in the one local factory and accept half your current wage in the hope that life will be better than the rat race in the big smoke

Choose Cox's, Rockys, Mantra, Long Necks to drink
Choose Baxter, Volex, Coca Cola to work
Choose Breaffy House, Castlecourt Hotel, Hotel Westport, Pontoon Bridge, Downhill Hotel to get married

Choose Enniscrone for holidays

Choose the Westhern, The Cannacht Telegraph, the Mayo News, Mis Whest Radio

Choose long summer days in the bog, driving a tractor at 12, going to the local mart as a big day out
Choose your first car a souped up Jap import, on your mothers insurance, don't tax it until you are caught
Choose the site your father leaves you and to build a unimaginatively designed mansion on it

Choose the two teacher school for primary education, the big school in town for secondary
Choose to go down town for lunch, play pool in the pub, hope the convent girls notice you
Choose getting a pint in the local at 16, seeing your father in the local disco, thinking you scored because you kissed a girl
Choose to stand outside the church at Sunday mass choose, to always be a mammys boy

Choose Mayo

**hamish** · 17/04/2006, 10:10 PM

LOL Gustavo - you're awful fond of the place.

**gustavo** · 17/04/2006, 10:41 PM

well i wish i could claim credit for it but i just done the old copy and paste from an email!
most of it is true though!

**$Leon$** · 18/04/2006, 7:43 PM

Is there some place you can get these for other counties so far only seen this and the munster and leinster versions. They all appear to be written by the same person.

**Thunderblaster** · 18/04/2006, 9:23 PM

The local tourism organisations should launch a new paraphrase for Mayo! "Welcome to Mayo Where the Sun Never Shines"

As for the city slickers, it is welcome to the wild, boggy west where civilisation is trapped in time. There are nice people in Mayo, but the older, more rural type would come out with very stupid statements and pass stupid comments to people.

The county has a strong conservative, Catholic ethos, generally is bogball mad (it is nearly a crime to play soccer in places) and the majority listens to dreadful dirge in terms of music; trad and Declan Nerney etc and it is littered with farmers and sheep. People may admire the quality of life in the county, but it can be a hellhole at times. Hard to see the majority fitting in in a more open minded area like Dublin.

**gustavo** · 18/04/2006, 9:36 PM

Originally Posted by Thunderblaster

D

The county has a strong conservative, Catholic ethos, generally is bogball mad (it is nearly a crime to play soccer in places) and the majority listens to dreadful dirge in terms of music; trad and Declan Nerney etc and it is littered with farmers and sheep..

I know what you mean , on a toilet wall in IT Sligo someone wrote "Refugees Out" and "Homosexuality is a sin" to which someone replied "Wow bigoted and homophobic , you wouldnt be from , oh lets say , Mayo" which i thought was funny. Bit undeserved though.

**paul_oshea** · 19/04/2006, 10:03 AM

good man mayo sheep, i never thought i would be agreeing with someone from mayo about well anything, but i agree here. thunderblaster, you keep blasting gaelic, in the "same" way you say that mayo people bombast people who play soccer, which i have never seen either to be honest, nor in roscommon which would be even more of a gaelic stronghold.

and i can tell a mile off that you have never ever ever lived outside of ireland, bar maybe on an extended holiday. if you had, all those things that you have said, you would realise how great they make ireland to be, and how they sell ireland as a the number 1 place to visit as a tourist spot abroad.

**Thunderblaster** · 19/04/2006, 11:03 PM

I love the sophisticated urban life and my holiday destinations are preferably cities. I don't like the GAA.

**CollegeTillIDie** · 23/04/2006, 7:47 AM

Thunderblaster has on another thread accused this country of being responsible for the acts of single individuals from here who were acting on behalf of the British Empire. Methinks he has an identity crisis.
Speaking personally I have no time for Gaelic football myself.

I am involved in administration of Women's Soccer in my spare time and some of those involved in Women's Gaelic football have reintroduced the ban in some parts of the country especially applying to soccer players who happen to make their county panels. I was delighted that TG4 covered the first Women's Soccer international shown live on Irish TV last night. I didn't see the coverage... I was at the game.

Hurling on the other hand is one of the most skillful games ever conceived of. Shame so many unsavoury incidents are occurring in it lately. Mayo is as I recall one of a very few counties in Connacht that attempt to play Hurling. And also straying back on topic, Mayo is not the only part of Ireland where the sun never shines!

**Poor Student** · 23/04/2006, 2:01 PM

I don't know how much of this is taking the p1ss but I'll just give my input anyway. My father's side of the family is all Mayo. My father and his brothers all come from a GAA background and some of his brothers are pretty heavily involved in the GAA. He's the man who instilled the love of soccer in me and never minded my indifference to GAA in the slightest and his brothers all love the sport too. My cousin who is involved in the county setup also loves soccer. With my roots and time spent there I've never come across this alleged close minded anti-soccer attitude. One thing I do know however is that here in Dublin we have GAA clubs conspiring to stifle this country's most successful soccer club.

**Partizan** · 23/04/2006, 8:16 PM

Originally Posted by Thunderblaster

The county has a strong conservative, Catholic ethos.

I beg to differ Thunderblaster.

**shakermaker1982** · 24/04/2006, 11:33 AM

the best county in Ireland

I have to say that though because that is where my mam and dad are from!

**Wiseguy** · 24/04/2006, 4:15 PM

Mayo is a great spot.Great fishing,great people,great pubs and great scenery.

**hamish** · 25/04/2006, 12:04 AM

Great posts from CollegeTillIDie and Poor Student. Sadly, there have been moves to downgrade (for want of a better word) participation in girls footie in parts of the country -as I discovered in my time in the game. There is absolutely no need for this - plenty of room for all codes to be played.
I will say this - it's amazing how many hurlers are keen (and play/have played) soccer. I think it's because they recognise the skill in the game from their own love and experience of hurling - another game I loved playing and also saturated with skill. For example, I believe Nicky English was a fine footie player (and a footie fan too) and he's only one example.
TBF to Mayo - when I was involved with the Primary Schools scene up there, many, if not most, of the teachers came from a GAA background but were the very personification of sportsmanship (should that be sportspersonship

). They appreciated the kids getting the chance to play soccer and the fact that we tried to organised it properly.
We used to get huge numbers of schools coming to Manulla ever year and each year had to add more days/venues to cope with the demand.
Regardless of their background, in my heart of hearts, I couldn't say a bad word against them.
Bravo County Mayo.

- and thanks for some great memories.