It was such a good feeling, he hit the ceiling.
GAA is special and supporting your home county and watching them win a game can fill you with immense pride.
Some fans celebrate in different ways. Some roar and shout and jump until their throat and legs are burnt out.
Others analyse the game play-for-play and leave the vocals to others. Whatever kind of supporter you are, it would be hard not to lose yourself if your county won the coveted Sam Maguire.
As a Mayo fan, I don’t know what it’s like to win Sam (yet) but I assume that I and the thousands of Mayo fans that travel the length and breadth of the country to watch the team would react in a similar fashion.
I was in Taaffes pub in Galway on Friday night enjoying a pint of the black stuff.
The pub is an intimidating spot to be a Mayo fan in at the best of times and the small bar to the right as you come in the door is filled with Galway memorabilia from wall to wall.
Pictures of the ’88 hurlers and the ’98 and ’01 footballers fill the room but the most famous piece of Galway memorabilia is actually on the roof.
I got talking to Paddy Lally, a brother of the pub’s owner, Padraig, and as you do in a room filled with footballing memories, we started talking GAA.
Attention turned to the Mayo v Galway game on Sunday and I asked him what it felt like to see your county win an All-Ireland. He said it was indescribable and told me the story of Colie Keane’s hole.
He told me that Colie worked in Taaffes and unfortunately had drawn the short straw to work the day of the 1998 All-Ireland Final, when Galway were playing Kildare.
Colie managed to get off a bit early to watch the game and as he swapped sides of the bar, he watched Padraic Joyce score a goal that proved to be crucial as Galway edged the Lilywhites by four points.
It all got too much for Colie and as the ball struck the back of the net, he jumped up and struck the ceiling with his fist, putting a hole in the roof.
As Galway ran out victorious and the celebrations began, the hole was forgotten about until the next day when one of the locals wandered into the pub and said to the owner ‘You’d want to sort out that hole’.
However, instead of covering it up, Padraig the pub owner decided to frame it.
“What a story and what a treasure to have in the pub,” said I to Paddy.
“It’s almost perfect”, he said. There was such excitement in getting the frame up to mark Galway’s win, they left out the letter L in Kildare.
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