AN AWARD-WINNING GAA player made a special trip to Manchester to help promote the global Mayo Day celebration, which takes place on May 2.
Cillian O’Connor joined the Mayo Manchester organisation to spread the word at Old Trafford stadium to a capacity crowd of 75,000 who turned out for the Manchester United v Liverpool north-west derby.
The Mayo senior player, who plays his club football with Ballintubber, was joined by his three brothers Ruaidhri, Padraic and Diarmuid, plus Ballintuber teammate Danny Geraghty, and their Manchester-based cousin Paul Heneghan for the match. He also gave a sneak preview of the new Mayo GAA shirt, which has just been released in Ireland, which was shipped over by Mayo.ie.
Mayo Manchester Press Officer Tony Hennigan told The Irish Post: “We were delighted that Cillian and his brothers could help us promote the historic Mayo Day celebrations at the United v Liverpool derby. It is the game that all the Mayo Diaspora go to and Alan Keegan, the ‘voice of Old Trafford’, gave us a great mention to the 75,000 fans inside the ground.”
The Mayo Manchester organisations are already planning their 2015 Mayo Day celebrations.
“We have already booked the award-winning Ballina band Flatout to perform at a special concert in Levenshulme and hope Cillian might be able to make it over as well,” said Mr Hennigan.
For further information about taking part in the global Mayo Day celebrations, visit www.mayo.ie. For details about the Manchester celebrations visit www.mayomanchester.co.uk