SOWING THE SEED In Mayo in the 1880's valiant efforts were being made to put some organisational order into the GAA and these efforts were rewarded with the holding of a successful Convention on November 1st1888 when 26 clubs were represented, each of them with their official colours. Among these were Ballyglass William O'Brien's who had chosen The Green above the Red colours that were later to be associated with the Mayo county team. P.G. Smyth from Ballina became the first Chairman of Mayo GAA and he was later succeeded by J.B. Kelly. Despite the large number of clubs, there appeared to be very little competitive activity and in fact by 1892 only one club-Claremorris, was affiliated to the County Board. This led to the Claremorris Secretary, Conor Kelly, appealing to The Western People for the re-establishment of the GAA in Mayo and announcing a special tournament to which Ballyhaunis, Caherlistrane and Tuam had been invited. Conor Kelly was later to become an M.P. While games may have been few, they certainly were contested with vigour, as there were reports of 'barbarous kicks… Violent collisions and good falls from which the prostate arose rather invigorated to push on with renewed energy…' There were disputes, objections, appeals and gamesmanship that included 'pulling the goalposts out of the ground'. But the GAA did survive in Mayo, thanks to the effort of hard-working officials throughout the county and a remarkable feature was the organisation, in these early and unsettled years, of Juvenile competitions and tournaments. Handball was also popular in the county with 'a suit of Foxford tweed' as one of the prizes for the Handball Championship played in Foxford in June 1901. The tweed suit had been sponsored by the Superioress of Foxford Convent! T teams from Swinford, Kiltimagh, Ballyvary, Pontoon, Westport, Ballina, Foxford, Castlerea, Castlebar and Balla had taken part. Hurling was also gradually taking a foothold in the county. GAA President F B Dineen and Central Council Secretary Luke O'Toole attended a meeting in Claremorris on April 26th 1902 to re-form the Mayo County committee. Eight clubs were officially represented and they elected James Cotter (Castlebar) as Chairman, P.J. Carroll (Ballina) as Secretary and Frank Swift (Claremorris) as Treasurer. The GAA was now back on a very firm footing in the county. StáIR CLG CHONNACHT 1902-2002 International Dimension In the late Spring Mayo accepted an offer to tour the United States They were the first team from the West to cross the Atlantic and the trip caused great excitement both at home and abroad. So the 'International dimension' in the province, later to be so much part and parcel of Connacht GAA affairs had its origins with this tour when Mayo departed from Castlebar on Wednesday May 4th 1932. They took the train to Dublin where they were feted in Barrys hotel by members of the Central Council. The next day they sailed to Southampton and thence to New York. With emigration in the West rife at the time they were merely following in the footsteps of the many thousands of their colleagues who had emigrated in the preceding decade. In all, Mayo played seven games in the States, including three 'test matches' against New York. The first was in the famed Polo grounds where an estimated 45,000 crowd gave them a warm ovation. The ball was thrown in by former heavyweight boxing champion Gentleman Jim Corbett, but New York won the match 2-7 to 1-9. Mayo also lost the second and third tests at Yankee Stadium. Throughout their trip Mayo were welcomed and feted by the Gaels of New York, the highlight of which was a banquet in their honour at Bradford Hotel in Boston, where they were given a state welcome by Mayor Curley. The Mayo touring party was: S Moran, G Courel, J Egan, P Moclair, P Quinn, P Culkin, J Kenny, T Tunney, T Burke, S O Malley (Capt), P Munnelly, P Hoban, T Kelly, M Mulderrig, J Curran, P Flannery, J Forde, J O'Dwyer, S Lavin, M Moran & R Hearns.