"Up Mayo, Up Mayo, let everybody know" - says TR Dallas
Legendary Westmeath country and western artist, TR Dallas, is hoping that the words “Up Mayo, Up Mayo, let everybody know” will be heard ringing out all the way from New York to Singapore – and everywhere in between - as the Mayo footballers prepareto face Tyrone in the All-Ireland football final in Croke Park on Saturday week, September 11.
TR (aka Tom Allen) from Moate admits to having written the catchy tune “a couple of years ago” but says he decided to “give it a lash again” in advance of this year’s Final. He is hoping that the song might bring “a bit of good luck” to the county which has, remarkably, appeared in ten All-Ireland Finals since they winning their last title in 1951, and have lost them all.
Tom Allen is hoping that the release of his song “Up Mayo” may be the catalyst for the Sam Maguire Cup to finally return to the county after an absence of seventy years!
“I know a lot of Mayo people all over the world, and God, they are so passionate about their football so it would be a wonderful occasion to see them lift the Sam Maguire Cup” says TR, who adds that the Midlands is “full of Mayo people, they are in every town and village in Ireland, as well as being in every country around the world.”
The country and western star says Mayo have been “knocking on the door” for so long that nobody could begrudge them an All-Ireland title. “I mean no disrespect to Tyrone when I say that, but they have tasted All-Ireland success in the last few years and I think they will give Mayo a very good game and they will be tough opponents.
The catchy little tune penned by Tom Allen, with his trademark accordion accompaniment, has a memorable chorus which is tailor-made to be sung by passionate Mayo people and their supporters in bars, pubs and clubs all over the world.
It goes like this:
“Up Mayo, Up Mayo, let everybody know, they’re the greatest team in Connaught and to Dublin now they go. To collect the Sam Maguire and then to bring it home, to its new home in the West in the county of Mayo.”