Mayo team attend thanksgiving service at Knock Basilica in honour of All-Ireland victory

The All-Ireland-winning Mayo football team, their families, and hundreds of other worshippers attended a prayer service in Knock Basilica in honour of the team’s historic All-Ireland victory.

Fr Richard Gibbons, Parish Priest and Rector of Knock Shrine, told the Irish Independent that the service was attended by over 1,600 people.

Prior to that, the players attended the Apparition Chapel, where Fr Gibbons offered a prayer and lit a candle on the altar.

The team were then brought to Knock Basilica along with the Sam Maguire cup for the service.

Afterwards, the team mingled with worshippers before posing for a photograph in front of the basilica, which was lit up in green and red.

The service was organised by Knock Shrine, which invited the Mayo team to attend on September 8, the birthday of Our Lady of Knock.

Fr Gibbons said the Mayo team and Sam Maguire got a “fantastic reception” when they arrived for the service, which was concelebrated by the Archbishop of Tuam and Killala, Francis Duffy.

“The team were wonderful. They hung on, talked to everybody and liaised with everybody and just chatted and met all the people that were there,” Fr Gibbons said.

The service also included a prayer for 12-year-old Eoin Doyle, who was laid to rest in Ballyhaunis earlier that day.

Eoin had his picture taken with Sam Maguire days before he died after a train collided with the car he was travelling in at a level crossing.

A candle was lit in his memory during the service, which lasted for approximately 30 minutes.

Fr Gibbons credited Mayo’s All-Ireland victory with helping to popularise Lady of Knock, a song written in honour of the apparition at Knock on August 21, 1879.

“She was mentioned even by the President of the GAA at the time of the All- Ireland,” noted Fr Gibbons.

“And of course, we referenced the fact that the hymn to Our Lady of Knock exploded on the scene after the All-Ireland.

“I think it is the second anthem of the county after ‘The Green and Red of Mayo’. It was sung everywhere, including with the escorts of the Rose of Tralee in Kerry.”

Fr Gibbons rejected the suggestion that divine intervention was at play when Mayo captured Sam Maguire for the first time since 1951, when the Mayo team were reportedly cursed by a priest who said the county would not win another All-Ireland title until every member of the team was deceased.

“It’s down to skill, determination, support and indeed prayer. All of those things combined. Thinking God just designated 2026 as the year to win is not really the way to go. Nobody knows the mind of God. So, but definitely prayer is very powerful, and we just wanted to evoke a thanksgiving in prayer last night then for it.”

Fr Gibbons maintained that the ‘curse’ of 1951 “didn’t happen in the first place”.

“I’m not convinced that there was any. It’s time to put that to bed for all time,” he said.

“What wasn’t in the first place is not now anyway.”