Mayo Football Talk

There is certainly no shortage of books available for Mayo supporters to choose from in the wake of the All-Ireland success. 

One of the most striking examples is 'The Boys of Summer' — a pictorial record of how Mayo's footballers with their young guns lit up the 2026 championship, upset the odds and captured the Sam Maguire Cup. This book, which has been endorsed by Mayo GAA, is a collection of superb photographs from Ray McManus' team at Sportsfile with the words written by Mike Finnerty of this parish. 

Andy Moran also penned the impressive foreword. 

Rob chatted to Mike about a beautiful publication that looks like being an ideal gift this Christmas, and for any special occasion for the Mayo supporter in your life. 

The book is available in all good book shops, at Elverys stores nationwide, and from sportsfile.com/mayo

Mayo's Sam Maguire success in July this year provides the backdrop to an event being held by Oral History Network Ireland (OHNI) at the TF Royal Hotel in Castlebar this Saturday. This event has a strong focus on sport and oral history, exploring how physical objects, sporting achievements and lived experiences unlock local history and collective memory. 

Joining Rob and John on the show to chat about Saturday's event is long-time friend of the podcast and DCU academic Daniel Carey, who will be introducing at the event a GAA-focused oral history project involving the sharing of audio clips reflecting on Mayo's rich sporting culture. As Daniel explains, the event will also include an interactive sporting 'bring and tell' session, enabling those attending to bring with them a sporting keepsake of importance to them and share its story. 

OHNI's free community event 'Magic Moments, Medals & Memorabilia: Sport & Oral History' takes places at the TF Royal Hotel, Castlebar on Saturday 9am-5pm. This is a free event but registration is required, full details on which are HERE.   

The Dublin launch of John Gunnigan's Keeping the Faith took place at Books Upstairs in D'Olier Street on Monday evening. Former Mayo great Alan Dillon was on stage with John and Rob in front of a capacity crowd at the venue to launch the book on the east coast. 

In this pod, Rob and John reflect on the evening at the book launch and we also hear them in conversation after the event with Ciarán Murphy of Second Captains. 

The lads also provide a heads-up on upcoming podcast coverage, which includes a forthcoming show with Liam Horan, whose book I Can See it Still is being launched this Friday, a Stateside pod from Mike who is currently with the Mayo team and management in the USA and preview shows looking ahead to the upcoming senior, intermediate and junior county finals. 

Another book focusing on Mayo's All-Ireland victory was launched this week at the Wild Atlantic Words literary festival. Published by Mayo Books Press, 'Never Stop Dreaming', which details the story of Mayo's All-Ireland glory in 2026, was launched at the festival on Thursday evening.

Rob is joined at the festival dome in Castlebar by the book's authors Edwin McGreal and Anthony Hennigan and by picture editor Michael McLaughlin to chat about the development of a book that is destined to become a collector's item for Mayo fans everywhere. 

We also hear a few snippets from the launch event, in which MC Stephen Grealis chats with All-Ireland-winning Mayo player Aidan O'Shea and with Martina Jennings of the Mayo Roscommon Hospice, as the book proudly supports the Hospice Foundation's Sunflower Children's Hospice project in Castlebar. 

The launch of John Gunnigan's book 'Keeping the Faith' took place in front of a large attendance in the festival dome at the Wild Atlantic Words literary festival in Castlebar yesterday evening. Mike Finnerty was MC for the event and the book was launched by former Mayo great and renowned broadcaster Martin Carney. 

In this show we provide a flavour of the last night's event, including parts of Martin's address in launching the book, as well as some of the discussion that took place between Mike and John. 

Rob catches up with MFT columnist Anne-Marie Flynn and Mayo fan Ann-Marie Kenny, as well as with Martin Carney and Edwin McGreal. The show finishes with some post-event chat between Rob and John. 

'Keeping the Faith' by MFT's John Gunnigan is now available in all good bookshops, as well as online from Mayo Books. It's a personal account of his years following Mayo, the development of the Mayo GAA Blog, the transition to MFT and Mayo's march to the All-Ireland in July this year.

The Mayo launch of the book takes place at the Wild Atlantic Words literary festival in Castlebar on Tuesday 6th October from 8-9pm and the Dublin launch is on Monday 12th October at Books Upstairs on D'Olier Street from 6.30-8pm, with a post-launch gathering afterwards in Bowe's pub around the corner on Fleet Street.  

In this pod John chats with Rob about the book and the plans for the forthcoming launch events. They also provide a heads-up about a competition for a signed copy of the book, which club members will be notified about shortly in the usual way.  

As the county prepares for a winter in the company of Sam Maguire, Rob and John are joined on the pod by Edwin McGreal and historian Liam Heffron to assess how Mayo's All-Ireland win has the potential to be a game-changer for the county more widely.

The lads discuss how the exploits of the Mayo team that came so close to glory a decade ago helped to alter the perception Mayo people had about themselves and the place they come from and how that impact is so much greater now that the promised land has been reached. 

They chat about how Mayo's story, economically as well as on the football field, has been about battling against the odds and demonstrating resilience in the face of repeated setbacks. Using the analogy of the building of Knock airport, the lads consider how Mayo's All-Ireland victory sets a template for the county to consider what it could do itself to facilitate greater economic progress locally in the years ahead. 

With the Sam Maguire set to winter in the county this year for the first time since 1951, Rob is joined by good friends of the podcast Mick Foley and Ciarán O'Hara from the Gaelic games history podcast Over The Bar to chat about where Mayo's All-Ireland victory this year fits in relation to some of the great wins of the past and to consider what made 2026 so significant.

The lads chat about the impact of social media and how it made the story about Mayo's All-Ireland success go right around the world, contrasting this with the more limited impact of Offaly's hugely historic 1982 title win. They also discuss how, to those outside of Ireland, Mayo ended up representing every corner of the island in the wake of the win over Kerry.

Mick and Ciarán lean into their deep knowledge of Gaelic games history to talk about alternative jerseys worn by Mayo down the years and they also have a look at the history of the Sam Maguire trophy. 

The month that has now passed since Mayo's historic All-Ireland title success has been a whirlwind of activity.  In this show, which is a free episode available on all podcast platforms, Rob, Mike and John reflect on what's been a hectic few weeks for everyone. 

The lads chat about all of podcast content on MFT over the past month, which has included interviews with the likes of Andy Moran, Colm Boyle, James Carr, Tommy Conroy, Darren McHale and Jack Carney, as well chats with US sports journalist Dave McKenna and Cahair O'Kane of the Irish News, while our club championship coverage has got back up and running too.

John talks about his forthcoming book, Keeping the Faith, which is being published by Mayo Books Press and is available to pre-order now. The book is an account of John's many years as a Mayo supporter, interweaved with the story of the development of the Mayo GAA Blog and, more recently, MFT, while, on the field, Andy Moran's Mayo were on the march to capturing Sam. 

The lads also reflect on what has changed for Mayo people everywhere in the wake of the All-Ireland win and how we'll all think about football and the place we come from in a different way from here on. 

As the dust settles on the first round of the Mayo club championships, we hear from some of the people who were involved across last weekend’s matches and spoke to us after their games had ended.
Mike, John and our roving reporter, Paddy Finnegan were all out and about and spoke to Crossmolina manager, Brian Benson; Paddy Durcan of Castlebar Mitchels; Fintan Forde, one of the Garrymore management team; Westport's Rory Brickenden; Liam Lavin of Aghamore; Claremorris manager Kevin Beirne; and Breaffy manager Seán Deane.