Mayo Association Football League - History

History

The group of men who came together in the autumn of 1953 to form the Mayo Association Football League, were responding to the need to provide organised football within the county. But the league was not taken seriously in the early days, and did not establish a firm footing of respectability and authority for many years. Joe McCormack, the founder chairman, said the Mayo League was always destined to experience troubles in its formative years. He explained: "Economically and socially, the fifties was a grim period in the country. It was extremely hard for clubs to function like they do today.

Clubs did not have enough money to operate properly. If they could not pay for transport to a match on a particular Sunday, they might be given a few day's credit. But if they did not come up with the money before the next away game, then the bus operator would not entertain them. "Money was also scarce for the purchase of jerseys, shorts, boots and so on. Even calling a meeting was not as easy as it sounded. So it was hardly surprising that one crisis followed another.

The most frustrating problem, he remembered, was the anti-Mayo League feeling which emanated from the clubs, even through the clubs themselves had been instrumental in setting up the league. If a decision by the league did not suit a particular club, then they rejected the league," he explained. The founding fathers of the Mayo League met in a room owned by Castlebar businessman Michael Heverin at Shamble Lane in the town. Michael Heverin, who was chairman of the local Urban Council at the time, was a strong supporter of the game. He had a long and active association with Castlebar Celtic and held the position of president of the Connaught Football Association during the fifties. There was an ulterior motive behind the initial move to set up the league. The county was being denied representation on the F.A.I.'s Senior and Junior Councils because there was no organised league in Mayo, and officials involved in the game believed the situation was no longer acceptable. Galway and Sligo had representation at F.A.I. level since the thirties, and the feeling abounded that the game in Mayo could only benefit from similar status.

Senior Castlebar Celtic officials Robert Kilkelly, a travel agent and merchant by profession, and Joe McCormack, a respected building contractor, decided it was time for change. They were not alone in their views. Hughie McGartland, who came to Castlebar from Omagh, Co. Tyrone, in 1926, had long been campaigning, in his capacity as secretary of Castlebar Celtic, to have the game properly structured in the county. Hughie came to town to work in Hack Walsh's Barber Shop in Castle Street, where Ivy House now stands. He subsequently opened up his own gents hairdressing business in a different premises halfway down the street. At the annual general meeting of Celtic on March 8, 1953, he renewed his call for moves to be taken to set up a properly run league in the county for the first time. Speaking at the Celtic clubrooms in Market Square, he said: In Mayo we are handicapped by the lack of local competition like Galway and Sligo clubs have. But now that teams from Achill and Swinford have affiliated, the time has arrived for the formation of a Mayo League as competition is the lifeblood of any sport.

The inaugural meeting of the Mayo League was attended by Joe McCormack, Robert Kilkelly, Hughie McGartland, Chas. Guthrie, Tommy Ketterick, Andy Leonard, Paddy Gilligan, all of whom were members of Castlebar Celtic; John McGreal, John Staunton, and Brod Malone of Westport United; and Benny McAleer and John Foy of Quay Hearts. Joe McCormack accepted the position of chairman and Robert Kilkelly was appointed secretary. It took the league three years to win representation on the F.A.I. Senior Council, and it was Joe McCormack who achieved the distinction of being the first Mayo official to serve on the authority. He served as a member of the F.A.I. Senior Council for nine years, from 1957 to 1966. The initiative of the founder members in establishing a ruling soccer body in Mayo for the first time was singularly responsibly for the huge growth in the game that materialised in the seventies, eighties and nineties. Six clubs were operating in Mayo in 1953. They were Westport Town, Castlebar Celtic, Westport United, Quay Hearts, Dooniver Swifts of Achill, and Swinford. Westport Town was the oldest club in the county, having been formed in 1910. It is accepted, however, that the first soccer club in Westport had been set up some time earlier, in 1889.

Castlebar Celtic came into operation in 1928, but a soccer team had been existence in the town for a number of years before that. Swinford got their first taste of football in the Castlebar Junior Leagues in the early fifties, while Quay Hearts emerged during the thirties as a local league side in Westport. Dooniver Swifts had been set up during the forties, and Westport United was established in 1952. By the time the Mayo League first kicked off on Sunday, April 11, 1954, Barcastle, representing Castlebar Bacon Factory, had also been formed.