He's known as Fionn The Terrier and on Sunday afternoons, you'll see him donning his GAA gear and entertaining the masses in Croke Park. But behind the fur, lies a man with a myriad of talents who began his mascot career on the back of a dare.
27 year-old Mark Langtry has been working for Croke Park for the past seven years in various roles before transferring into the role of entertainer role at the start of the season.
A bunch of us were asked who’d be mad enough to get into the costume and I said, ‘You bet your ass I’d do it. I’ve worked in Croke Park for the past seven years or so, from doing the turnstiles to different event management jobs around big events
Beyond the boundaries of the pitch, Mark Langtry is a busy man. He's a model, he does some acting on occasion and he also teaches theoretical physics. He even finds the time to play soccer for UCD and enjoyed some Europa League action this season against players with World Cup experience.
Speaking to The Irish Daily Star today, Langtry confessed that only a select number of people knew about his role as a mascot.
Most of my (UCD) teammates knew about it, but aside from them only my housemates and my mam and dad knew. Up to now, that is. I’ve been in Croke Park for all the games this year. Even in between games in the Europa League this summer, I was on mascot duty
The Kildare native has learned to seamlessly drift between each of his diverse roles. And even though it was their arch nemesis who lifted the Sam Maguire on Sunday, Langtry held his resolve to keep impartial throughout.
One of the things as Croke Park mascot is you have to be neutral. It might have looked like I was screaming, cheering and throwing my hands in the air, but under the costume I was throwing dogs’ abuse at the Dublin fans on the Hill. Luckily they couldn’t hear a thing
Langtry will reappear as Fionn The Terrier this weekend at the All-Ireland Ladies Final and his next gig will be at the International Rules tournament in November.
