Mayo ends 75-year championship drought, defeats Kerry in All-Ireland final

County Mayo defeated Kerry 1-20 to 1-17 in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final in Dublin on Sunday, winning the competition for the first time since 1951, according to ESPN. The victory ends a 75-year drought and closes the chapter on one of sport's most persistent legends.

Mayo reached 11 All-Ireland finals after 1951 without claiming the championship, per ESPN's reporting. Each loss accumulated into a narrative of futility that became known as the Curse of Mayo.

The curse legend emerged 75 years ago, tied to the 1951 championship celebration. According to the account circulated for decades, the team's open-top lorry procession passed a funeral ceremony, interrupting the service. In the version that took hold, a priest is said to have cursed Mayo to never win another All-Ireland as long as any member of the 1951 team remained alive, per ESPN.

However, no contemporary evidence has ever surfaced to prove the curse incident happened, and the account of what occurred on the day varies by historian and outlet, according to ESPN. Many researchers believe the curse tale only gained momentum decades later, fuelled by Mayo's remarkable sequence of final defeats rather than rooted in historical fact.

Paddy Prendergast, the last surviving member of Mayo's 1951 championship-winning side, died in 2021 aged 95, per ESPN. In 2021, two weeks before Prendergast's death, Mayo lost to Tyrone in the All-Ireland final. The county did not reach the final again until this year, per ESPN's reporting.

Kerry, described by ESPN as the league's most successful side, fell short in the final. Thousands of Mayo supporters celebrated at Croke Park as the county claimed the Sam Maguire Cup.