AS IF we needed a reminder, they’ve only gone and written a book about it. Journalist Eric Haughan — once of this parish — has penned the tale of Dublin’s six in a row. The rollercoaster ride from their 2014 All-Ireland semi-final spanking by Donegal right up to last year’s Sam Maguire triumph has so many twists and turns.
Haughan starts on that fateful August Sunday a decade ago when Colm McFadden gleefully rattled the Dublin net and Ryan McHugh obliged twice. It was a seismic day for so many reasons. Jim Gavin’s men crumbled but that was the foundation on which the empire would be built — with gripping narratives at every turn.
The ‘Unbeatable’ Dubs would not lose another Championship game for 2,540 DAYS. Dublin came back with a vengeance a year after their capitulation against Donegal, toppling Kerry in a gritty, wet final. Little did anyone know that it was the first of six Sams on the bounce.
But Dublin’s semi-final that summer sparked was another chapter in their fascinating rivalry with Connacht giants Mayo. If they haunted teams in Leinster and taunted the Kingdom, they absolutely tortured the Green and Red. The westerners were banished after a replay in the last four of that 2015 campaign and those clashes took on epic proportions.
Lee Keegan against Diarmuid Connolly and Cillian O’Connor versus Hill 16. Mayo’s luck ran out at every single turn. The Sky Blues always knew how to extend their anguish, no matter how close the challengers came to .
