Limerick manager of famous Mayo hotel reveals priest's appeal for footballers
Mayo win coupled with Treaty triumph spells sheer emotion for Ashford Estate managing director
A LIMERICK hotelier, based in Mayo, has revealed how his local parish priest led his congregation in singing ‘The Green and Red’ at Sunday morning Mass – in the presence of a former Australian Prime Minister!
Niall Rochford, the managing director of the Ashford Estate, spoke of how on the morning of Mayo’s historic football win in Croke Park, his local priest, Fr Declan Carroll took every opportunity to pray for the western county.
"At the end, he got everybody from the altar to sing The Green and Red of Mayo. As it happened, a prominent former prime minister of Australia was staying with us. He happened to be at Mass, and he said to me, that all over the world, he’d seen lots of things, but never a religious experience like he had in Cong at Mass on a Sunday morning,” laughed Niall.
The managing director did not reveal who the former prime minister was – but it’s understood to be Kevin Rudd, who is in Ireland tracing his ancestry.
He was not the only famous person to stay at Ashford Castle this weekend, with former Manchester United star Gary Neville also in the hotel, posting on Instagram with a Mayo jersey which was left in his room.
Niall hails from Limerick city centre, with his father Eric and uncle Paddy both lining out for St Patrick’s GAA. His mother was from Foynes.
Although the family left Limerick at a young age, he’s always retained his love for his home county and was in Croke Park to witness John Kiely’s men win hurling’s holy grail.
Two of his children – son Niall and daughter Zoe - were lucky enough to be at GAA headquarters to witness Mayo make history on Sunday.
Niall was picked out of the crowd at full-time by RTÉ cameras.
Some 60,000 people welcomed the footballers back to McHale Park in Castlebar on Monday evening.