Ó Cuiv joins greens (and reds) in search of Mayo support

There’re no flies on Gaelic football fanatic Éamon Ó Cuív – and if there are, they must be paying rent! The Galway West deputy was this week revealed to be something of a chameleon when it comes to which football team he supports, when he was spotted wearing a Mayo jersey on a walk in Achill. 

The photograph of the Fianna Fáil TD and former deputy leader of the party, who’s adopted county is Galway – fierce rivals of Mayo – donning the green and red of Mayo during the charity walk got tongues wagging as to why.

“I had a Mayo jersey on all right – a lot of my constituents are Mayo people and they’re getting very excited about the All-Ireland semi-final this weekend so I’m supporting them. But if you look closely enough at the photograph you’ll notice that I was wearing a Galway tracksuit – the tracksuit top and bottoms I was wearing was Galway,” he said, spoken like a true politician keeping his options open.

Of course, following the constituency boundary review, the extending of the Galway West constituency at the next General Election to include parts of South Mayo, on the border with his political base is in Corr Na Móna, would also have played its part in the former Government minister’s choice of attire last week.

About 6,000 voters in South Mayo will be eligible to vote in Galway West and he reckons about 4,000 of these will actually cast their vote.

But despite his support of Galway, Mayo and London and, locally, of course, Clonbur, Ó Cuív, who was born in the capital, is still very much a ‘Dublin Jackeen’ at heart.

He’ll be shouting for Mayo against Tyrone on Sunday but if they win and face Dublin in the final, then there’ll be no contest as to who he’ll be shouting for.

“I’m very much a Dub supporter and have always been but I’m also an ABK fan – Anyone But Kerry! So if Kerry beat Dublin I’ll then certainly be supporting Mayo,” he said.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.