Frank Shouldice
speaker
59 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 26 Jul
Frank Shouldice’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Mayo, back in an All-Ireland final.
I think of all the ghosts tuning in.
Ghosts who witnessed some or all of the 11 disappointments since 1951.
I think of family and close friends from Mayo, whose dear departed never quite got to savour the winning moment.
I think of my late uncle, Jack Scholdeis, whose childhood pals from Balahadrian made September pilgrimages back from Chicago and New York, whenever Mayo reached the final, each time hoping this would be the year.
It got to the point they couldn't risk missing out on the possibility of triumph, which, it turned out, never came to pass.
Instead, the unwelcome ritual of a Monday morning taxi to the airport, bound together by hangovers and communal grief, to fly back across the Atlantic, muttering a plane load of perishable vows, never again.
At least, until next time.
My own connections lie with my grandfather, Frank Scholdeis, who was born in Balhadrine when the town belonged to Mayo.
Although it transitioned into County Roscommon, the town GAA club remains green and red to this day.
How fitting that local talisman Andy Moran manages the county team this afternoon.
Grandpa's older brother Jack actually won an All-Ireland medal in 1908, the first Mayo man to do so.
Except he was playing in blue, for Dublin, having moved to the capital to live and work.
In fact, Frank and Jack both played with Dublin seniors right up to 1916, until the Easter Rising and War of Independence scuppered their football careers.
By the time things settled down, Grandpa was in his early 30s, squeezing in a couple of seasons to play junior football for Mayo.
But when the ball is thrown in today, I will think most keenly of September 11, 2021, Mayo's last big outing.
My father, also Frank, had just landed in the Mater Hospital two months shy of his 90th birthday.
A worrisome spike in readings for the prostate necessitated further tests.
Dad's most pressing concern was that he wouldn't get home in time to watch the All-Ireland.
The matter at that point was still grappling with the fallout from Covid.
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