They ‘will rank in history amongst the greatest teams that have contested the Championship’, so read the report of a contemporary journalist after witnessing Mayo rout Laois in the 1936 All-Ireland Football Final and claim the county’s first senior football championship. Mayo senior football was peaking that year. The planets had begun their alignment four years earlier when Mayo contested only their third All-Ireland final. A narrow loss to Kerry in 1932 was crushing but oil had been struck and it did not just flow, it gushed throughout the 1930s and Mayo fans bathed in it. The 1932 final was the incendiary event that sparked an era of magnificence in Mayo football. The green and red would eventually see out the decade with a record six consecutive National Football League titles won between 1934 and 1939. With three of the six NFL crowns secured by the first game of Mayo’s championship campaign in May 1936, the aligning planets must have appeared as leather footballs to the success-spoiled county.
The Connacht semi-final against Sligo in Ballina, Mayo’s preliminary game, was of little preparatory use. The first twenty minutes were laced with sweet shows of exhibition football from both sides. A pitch side reporter waxed lyrical, ‘Homer, looking for fresh Troys to chronicle, would have smiled to have seen the first half of that game’. But that is where the epic poetry ended, for the Yeats County at least, as Sligo put up poor opposition in the second half. Even without their general in attack, Paddy Moclair, and with past captain Gerald Courell having an off-day, Mayo brushed aside their northern neighbours in the last thirty five minutes. The full-time score of 5-6 to 0-4 comfortably secured Mayo’s passage to the provincial final against the winners of Galway and Roscommon. After a needlessly long rest of almost two months, Mayo would finally face Galway on July 19. Mayo had claimed quite a scalp in the 1935 Connacht final when they defeated Galway, then All-Ireland champions. 20,000 supporters turned out in Roscommon to watch the sequel.
The hard, but not high quality, football reflected the tense atmosphere in the grounds. Mayo faced almost all of the 1934 All-Ireland winning Galway team and a stiff breeze in the first half but remarkably kept themselves in contention and by halftime they were only one point in arrears, 0-6 to 1-2. Courell made amends for his semi-final performance and scored his second goal shortly after resumption of play. Keeper Tom Burke had another excellent game. His dependable talents would be called upon time and time again during the campaign. Galway annulled the threat of a major Mayo playmaker by containing midfielder Henry Kenny for much of the game. With a minute to fulltime remaining and Mayo holding a three point lead, a melee broke out in front of the Mayo goal and the ball drifted over the goal line. The ball was immediately punched back into play and while the umpires hesitated on a call, Galway’s Brendan Nestor grabbed the green flag and waived it aloft. Nestor’s bravado incensed the crowd who then invaded the pitch. It took stewards and police to clear the grass. The goal finally stood and a final score of 2-4 to 1-7 meant the teams were destined to do it all again two weeks later. Patsy Flannelly was the Mayo star in the replay, which was again played in Roscommon. Flannelly was the green and red’s free taker and on a day when Galway were leaking free kicks, Flannelly mopped them up. One of his long range efforts sailed through two Galway defenders and their keeper, Ned Mulholland, and wind assisted, rested in the net. Flannelly’s midfield partner, Henry Kenny, was not to be restricted this time and he posted a big game. Like the first final, the game was a tough contest but could hardly boast any scientific football. Lack of discipline proved costly to Galway as they went down 2-7 to 1-4. Mayo’s 1936 All-Ireland semi-final match against Munster champions Kerry, again in Roscommon, was played on 9th August. For the third time in three weeks, Mayo would run out to contest a pressurised knock-out game. This time, much like Galway’s approach in their previous match, revenge was a theme in the build-up as Mayo had been beaten by Kerry in the All-Ireland final four years earlier. This was a game to be relished by the 11,000 in attendance. Except for a short easing off in vigour after the break, this was a competitive, skilful and evenly matched clash. An interesting fact for the political junkies among you; Dan Spring, father of future Tánaiste Dick Spring, played for Kerry that day against Henry Kenny, father of current Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Both Spring senior and Kenny senior would themselves go on to do battle on the floor of the Dáil as both later became TDs.
Place kicker extraordinaire Patsy Flannelly was again a key cog in the Mayo machine. Flannelly replicated his fortunate long range goal against Galway when a standard free bypassed Kerry defenders and keeper and found the corner of the net. Had there been All Star Awards in 1936, Flannelly, his midfield partner Kenny, keeper Tom Burke and effectual forward Josie Munnelly, were fast playing themselves into automatic selection. An all-round performance meant Mayo went in with a two point lead, 1-2 to 0-3, at the break of play. Kerry upped their game in the second half and Burke was called on to make at least five important saves during his patrol. Tellingly, Mayo saw out the game in defensive mode with Jim ‘Tot’ McGowan, Paddy Quinn and Purty Kelly running on reserves to ensure Burke’s goal was shielded. At the final whistle, and despite having played two Connacht finals and an All-Ireland semi-final in 21 days, Mayo showed hunger by defeating Kerry for the first time ever in the Championship on a scoreline of 1-5 to 0-6.
The county entered the All-Ireland final as favourites despite their Laois opponents having seen off reigning champions Cavan in the second semi-final. Neither county had won football’s premier competition and yet anticipation was high as both teams had talent that was chomping at the bit. Mayo had winning knowledge over Laois as they had beaten them en route to claiming the 1935-36 league title. Perhaps it was the big stage, but in front of 50,168 spectators in Croke Park, Laois failed to leave the traps and from the whistle Mayo dominated the men from The O’Moore County in every department. Mayo played through a productive channel throughout; Flannelly to Kenny or Peter Laffey, then to Munnelly and on to Moclair. Two Mayo goals in as many minutes left the halftime score at 2-5 to 0-2. The Mayo pressure persisted in the second half and within twenty minutes the score was 3-7 to 0-3 and Laois were all but buried. Forcing home Mayo’s supremacy, Josie Munnelly banged in a goal with a minute remaining and the game ended on the one-sided scoreline of 4-11 to 0-5.
The Mayo team that beat Laois and took Sam in style was; T. Burke, P. Quinn, J. McGowan, P. Kelly, J. O’Malley (captain ), T. Regan, G. Ormsby, P. Flannelly, H. Kenny, J. Carney, P. Laffey, T. Grier, P. Moclair, J. Munnelly and P. Munnelly. The win was classed as a new landmark in the records of the GAA and earned Mayo the boast of having won a football championship in all three grades, with junior honours accomplished in 1933 and minor in 1935. It is 80 years since that immortal campaign in 1936 and 65 years since Mayo last took the senior title. There is plenty of room in the Mayo record book for a new landmark, for new immortals.
