Three years ago, a body called the Longford Business Forum sought to rebrand Longford Town as 'Little Mayo' in the week approaching the All-Ireland final.
Underneath the 'Welcome to Longford' sign on the entrance to the town, they had affixed a ''Welcome to Little Mayo' sign.
Longford becomes Little Mayo in lead up to All-Ireland Final. Check out @littlemayo2013 & @Longford_Leader pic.twitter.com/ySQAUMSKf0
— Alan Walsh (@Dingero) September 5, 2013
The idea was to persuade travelling Mayo supporters to take a pit-stop in Longford Town on the morning of the game.
Town streets were apparently renamed after Mayo footballers. Thus, Mayo supporters who wished to stop off in Luigi's - now universally regarded as the greatest fast food shop on the planet - for a bag of chips would be walking not through 'Main Street' but instead through 'Aidan O'Shea Boulevard'.
The Longford Leader reported that the plan received a 'mixed' reception from locals on twitter, although on typing the words 'Little Mayo' and 'Longford' into twitter nowadays one finds only uniform negativity. Comments like 'can we not hold onto whatever dignity we have left?' were not in short supply.
Have to go to Longford today to get something but genuinely dunno if I can face this Little Mayo bullsh!te #embarrassing #mortified
— therealbigmc (@TheRealBigMc) September 21, 2013
No doubt some defended the plan as a worthwhile attempt to drum up some business in the town by a chamber of commerce who have been forced to get very creative in recent years. See Longford's prominent role in Richard Curran's documentary 'The Battle for Rural Ireland' for more background on this.
We don't know what this says about Mayo's crop of 2016 but, three years on, the attitude in Longford Town is very different.
The Leader report that Longford County Council have gone so far as to remove roadside signs wishing Mayo luck in the final. Derek Sheridan of Sherpak Ltd told Aisling Kiernan in the Leader that he believed the council's decision to remove his 'Good Luck Mayo' sign was 'mean-spirited'. Sheridan's father is from Mayo so this isn't some hard-headed business move.
As far as I’m concerned it was a petty thing to do to remove the signs - all of this is a bit of banter, to try and generate a bit of business locally and to wish Mayo good luck - I think that we would all like to see them winning an All-Ireland. (Read the rest of the report here).
We can only presume that the local authorities wish to banish the memory of 'Little Mayo' for ever more.
It's a wonder why Mayo people want to stop in the place at all, considering the bad memories. For, as we never tire of pointing out, Mayo experienced one of their blackest hours in Longford in 2010.
John O'Mahony's underwhelming second stint in charge came to an end on a blindingly sunny Saturday evening in late June 2010, when Longford, then swimming with the little fish in Division 4, downed them by a point in a First Round Qualifier.
To date it is their only meeting in the championship history. Little Mayo enjoy a 100% championship record over actual Mayo.
But then James Horan was appointed manager that autumn.
They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn.
