Rossies stage unforgettable late comeback to defeat Galway and complete historic provincial clean sweep
Connacht SFC Final
Roscommon 3-21 Galway 2-22
King & Moffatt Dr Hyde Park
Roscommon football had a day to remember at King & Moffatt Dr Hyde Park as the senior team produced a stirring late comeback to defeat Galway by 3-21 to 2-22 and claim the Connacht senior title.
In front of an attendance of 22,799, Roscommon trailed by six points with less than ten minutes remaining, but finished with extraordinary belief, composure and energy to deny Galway a fifth successive provincial crown.
It was Roscommon’s first Connacht senior title win on home soil since 2001, and completed a remarkable clean sweep for the county in 2026, following Connacht title wins at minor and U-20 level.
A classic Connacht final
This was a final that had almost everything: early goals, individual brilliance, momentum swings, two-pointers, late drama and an outpouring of emotion at the final whistle.
Galway made a dream start with an early goal from Robert Finnerty, but Roscommon responded superbly. Robert Heneghan and Darragh Heneghan both found the net in the first half, with Darragh’s finish bringing the Hyde to its feet.
Galway remained dangerous throughout, with Shane Walsh, John Maher, Cillian McDaid and, later, Damien Comer all making major contributions. Comer’s second-half goal appeared to have put Galway in control, and at that stage the Tribesmen looked set to close out another Connacht title.
Instead, Roscommon found one final surge.
Paul Carey’s two-pointer gave renewed hope. Daire Cregg followed with a superb two-pointer of his own. Conor Carroll landed a vital ’45, and Diarmuid Murtagh, Roscommon’s captain and one of the defining figures of the day, delivered the scores that helped push his side over the line.
The final whistle sparked emotional scenes as thousands of Roscommon supporters poured on to the pitch to acclaim a team that had delivered one of the great days in the county’s football history.
Dowd praises players’ composure
- Seamus Duke
Roscommon manager Mark Dowd said the win gave his players and management team belief that the work being done since the beginning of the year was bearing fruit.
“We wanted a physical team that was able to compete with the top teams,” he said afterwards. “We showed that today.”
Dowd said the most pleasing aspect was how Roscommon stayed composed when the game appeared to be slipping away.
“We wanted to ensure that we were going down the home straight in games and that we’re still going to be in it. We showed that today.
“We could have ended up on the losing side of it as well, but it showed massive composure from the lads in those last ten minutes. They just kept their wits about them, they took it play by play and we got our scores towards the end to just get over the line.”
Roscommon had chosen to play against the wind in the opening half, and Dowd said he was satisfied to be only three points behind at the break.
“There was a very strong breeze out there. I felt our structure was set up very well. Galway kicked two-pointers in that first half but we did limit them to scores as well. It was a case of sticking to the process and not letting the emotion get ahead of us either.”
Dowd also paid tribute to Galway’s quality, noting the calibre of the players they had on the pitch and on the bench.
“That just shows the class of that Galway side. There’s a lot of quality in that team. They have been in All-Ireland finals, they’re in the semis… we’re still trying to get there.”
Asked about the added motivation created by Roscommon’s minor and U-20 Connacht successes, Dowd said it had been significant.
“All we wanted to do was come and back it up with another performance. We’ve been shouting about it all year. We just need to give Roscommon supporters something to talk about. I felt we’d done that today.”
And how would the Roscommon manager celebrate? In typically understated fashion, he quipped: “I’m bringing the kids to Supermac’s for an ice cream.”
Joyce disappointed but gracious in defeat
- Seamus Duke
Galway manager Pádraic Joyce admitted that the defeat was a major disappointment, particularly given that Galway had led by six points late on.
“We are very disappointed to have lost, but what a great game of football it was and it was great to be involved in it,” he said.
Joyce felt Galway had made a strong start and had shown character after Roscommon’s first-half goals.
“We got off to a brilliant start with that early goal but Roscommon hit us with two great goals after that. We were only three ahead at half-time but I thought our lads really showed what they were about in the second half.”
However, he accepted that Galway should have closed the game out from the position they were in.
“We were six up with less than ten minutes to go and we should have closed out the win. But Roscommon are a good side. They deserve their win and we move on.”
Joyce said Galway lost possession a few times in the closing stages and struggled to get their hands on the ball as Roscommon built momentum.
“Roscommon got the breaks in the end and fair play to them.”
He also pointed to positives for Galway, including game time for players returning from injury.
“We have room for improvement and we are disappointed not to have won the five-in-a-row, but we are going into a different competition now. We dust ourselves down and get ready.”
Players savour special victory
- Seamus Duke
For Roscommon’s players, the scenes at full-time reflected the scale of the achievement.
Dylan Ruane described it as “a savage win”.
“Look out at the field there… it’s unbelievable. These days don’t come around too often so we will enjoy it. Galway are savage champions and they kept coming back into it.
“We had a great bench there. Paul Carey came on, Daire Cregg kicked a two-pointer… we got a good push from the bench. The feeling is unreal.”
Enda Smith said the match was hard to analyse given the number of swings in momentum.
“Where do you start? It swung back and forward at different stages. But the way we wrestled back into it in the last six or seven minutes makes it a real special one to win.”
Smith said that even after Comer’s goal, Roscommon did not panic.
“When Comer got that goal it probably looked like we were in trouble on the outside, but I never felt we were panicking and the subs had a massive impact.”
Senan Lambe said the first-half goals were crucial in keeping Roscommon in touch.
“Galway are a great side. They never lie down and they came at us hard… but we dug deep and we came out on top in the end.”
Captain Diarmuid Murtagh said Roscommon’s commitment to playing right to the end had paid off.
“It was looking bad with eight minutes to go but the one thing we have been sticking to all year is we play for the whole game and not worry about the outcome until it’s over – and it paid off again today.
“To captain Roscommon to win a Connacht title… it doesn’t get any better than that.”
An unforgettable day that wrote its own crazy rules
- Paul Healy
‘Ravenous for what was suddenly dangling before them, the team surged towards its destiny’
At an underage match in Lisnamult on Sunday morning, two dogs briefly quarrelled – I wondered if one of them was visiting from Galway.
On the main pitch, Roscommon Gaels and Four Roads had a terrific tussle in the Hurling Junior League final (Four Roads won narrowly). The game dripped in honest endeavour and heart.
We chatted about the day’s main course, unsure whether to dream aloud or to dutifully carry the weight of fruitless yesterdays.
By 1 pm, fans from both counties were breathing excitement and anticipation into the town square, circles of spectators forming, lightness of step evident, cheer in abundance. The sun smiled approvingly. Someone was singing Galway Girl. Someone else shouted ‘Up Mayo’.
On the way home, the hats, scarves and flags wrapped the early afternoon in vibrant colour. A thin, wiry vendor approvingly took a selfie beside his stall.
Later, as the hour neared, we joined the teems of people zig-zagging outside our theatre of dreams. There were familiar faces and unfamiliar ones. My old friend – the man with the Swedish flag (Paddy Joe) – was greeted by young and old. Good humour at every pace. Nobody knew what script would be revealed, what mystery lay behind those turnstiles.
We squeezed into Row Something. I thought of 1989, and 2001. It was difficult not to be moved by the magical atmosphere, this colourful, joyous vision of something like the past. Almost 23,000 people… sharing hope, nervous energy, expectancy, banter.
Galway looked ominously good, Shane Walsh a fleet-footed assassin of underdogs’ dreams. The Rossies were a touch subdued, but then the Heneghans sprinkled gold dust on our hallowed ground. First Rob goaled, then Darragh did the same, the latter’s audacious finish straight from schoolyards where 23,000 people aren’t watching.
The second half was non-stop thrills, some glorious fusion of many of the great matches we’ve seen over the years. John Maher powered across the pitch, directing the rhythm of his team’s attacks. Every time Walsh got the ball, a collective shiver seemed to shimmy down the backs of the Roscommon faithful in the packed stands. But by now our own fearless heroes were showing all their quality, all their belief. From the beginning of this epic final, the outstanding Colm Neary had been in his familiar dynamic form, running directly into the heart of the opposition, unnerving each new backpeddling foe. Darragh Heneghan, a joy to watch, was thrilling the huge home following. Diarmuid Murtagh’s class was modestly stamped all over this absorbing battle, and Enda Smith… well, what can one say? He is simply majestic.
Around the same time that Mark Dowd was finally releasing his bench aces, a ghost of derbies past emerged. Damien Comer’s superb goal seemed to end the ding-dong element of this contest and replace ding (and dong) with ‘done’. Comer’s celebration – an understandable one – suggested he thought the same… that it was (finally) done. Most people did. Briefly, the stands fell quiet, the clock ticking, Roscommon edging towards honourable defeat, Galway set for a five-in-a-row.
Then… the fairytale of Hyde Park revealed itself. The Roscommon bench edited the script in real time. The entire team showed its hunger and belief. Men stood tall and morphed into the heroes of ’26. A Paul Carey two-pointer hinted that all wasn’t lost. Daire Cregg’s inspirational two-pointer lifted everyone. Conor Carroll drilled a great ’45 over. Diarmuid Murtagh and Enda Smith sensed the potential for a massive late momentum swing, their leadership magnificent.
Ravenous for what was suddenly dangling before them, the team surged towards its destiny. Now we needed Diarmuid Murtagh’s composure – and skill. He delivered. Yeah, not all heroes wear capes; this hero wears the Roscommon number 13 jersey. Roscommon supporters stood and willed their men over the line. The adrenaline rush was extraordinary. A 25-year wait since Roscommon last won Connacht in the Hyde ended in a tumult of noise, emotion, tears.
Thousands of supporters acclaimed the players on the pitch. For many younger fans, this was a first taste of the incomparable magic of such moments. It might have been Galway’s day. There was little or nothing in it. But Roscommon wrote their own destiny, heroically. It was a day of colour, joy, tension, emotion, beauty, football purity even, one that will live long in the memory.
Leaving the stadium (eventually), descending the steps and merging into a crowd moving to a soundtrack that ranged from murmured analysis to ecstatic releases of pent-up, joyous emotion, there was the option of talking to strangers or merely smiling at friends. Both worked. Mostly, I just thought to myself. This unforgettable day had written its own crazy rules.
A win for passion and bravery – before a spellbound audience
- Kevin Egan
This was a success that belonged to the nation, because it came from a place of heart, of hope, of positivity
It started out as a celebration of people from one particular corner of the country, but if you’ve lived anywhere close to Galway city in the last 20 years, or even if you’ve studied anywhere within a 100 mile radius of Eyre Square, you’re familiar with the concept of Donegal Tuesday.
For the 1% of Roscommon People readers who don’t fall into either of those two brackets, Donegal Tuesday was held in the local university’s ‘Rag Week’ and it began as a day in one particular pub in town for people from Donegal to wear their colours. It turned into arguably one of the biggest days on the calendar in the city, with people from every corner of the country and beyond pulling on yellow and green colours to join the bandwagon, until like all good things in life, marketing and corporate people got involved and it went into terminal decline.
When something beautiful springs up organically, it’s natural for everybody to want a piece of it or to feel part of it, and that’s what has happened in the aftermath of Roscommon’s Connacht final win last Sunday. Roscommon are everyone’s second team this week – even Galway people are finding it hard to begrudge the county. What little bitterness they might have retained was washed away by Diarmuid Murtagh thoughtfully including Michael Lyster alongside the three gone-but-not-forgotten heroes of 2001 in his post-match speech, namely Conor Connelly, Don Connellan and Ger Michael Grogan.
Style of play
As a game with a story, Sunday’s final was almost cartoonishly exaggerated. Mark Dowd, who has become to these young Roscommon footballers what Mr Miyagi was to the Karate Kid, or Master Splinter was to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, has encouraged a style of play that is equal parts wholesome and entertaining, and it kept the nation spellbound.
Sure, there are defensive structures, set plays, ball control, and all that boring stuff. But more than that, this Roscommon team was laced with that most watchable of weapons – blinding speed. Whether it’s Senan Lambe or Paddy Gavin breaking forward from the back, Rob Heneghan taking on his man, Colm Neary bursting into a sprint from pretty much any corner of the field, or the county’s emerging cult hero Darragh Heneghan, it felt like every Roscommon player was able to turn into a modern day Flash, just a primrose and blue blur devouring the ground in front of him.
31 years ago, current Roscommon coach Jason Sherlock made his debut for the Dubs and he went on to become the Hero of Hill 16 that year as Dublin won the All-Ireland.
We’re not sure what Roscommon supporters will sing about Darragh Heneghan that will rival ‘Boom, boom, boom, let me hear you say JAYO!…’ but after scoring 4-6 from play in three championship games so far, including 2-2 in Sunday’s final, he’s earned something, so it’s time for them to step up. A remake of the chorus from Kneecap’s current hit Fenian would certainly work (Da-rragh, Da-rragh, Da-rragh, HE-NE-GHAN, HE-NE-GHAN!) so we’ll keep an ear out for that from the press box on Sunday week. By round two of the All-Ireland series, yellow and blue balaclavas will be all the rage.
After the Glaveys man fired in his second goal, it looked like Roscommon might just coast to the finish line and do to Galway something similar to what they did to Mayo in Castlebar.
Incredible drama
But then it wouldn’t have the makings of a Hollywood script unless there was incredible drama, with lots of ups and downs – and we certainly had that. After Roscommon fell into a hole in the first quarter and it fell to their hero to provide the electricity for the county’s defibrillation, then a new villain (Damien Comer) emerged on the scene, and almost poetically, the skies darkened as Comer, Cillian McDaid and John Maher began to take control.
The rain was falling when the bulldozing full-forward crashed the ball to the net, but two minutes later there was a rainbow in the Roscommon sky and in keeping with nature’s symbol of transition and hope, Paul Carey was sending over a two-pointer and the game’s momentum was shifting once again.
Comer, the pantomime villain, met his comeuppance when he was the guilty party that prevented Cian McKeon from taking a quick tap-and-go free, and once the final whistle was blown by Seán Hurson, the raw emotion in the stadium was palpable. The players of both teams emitted tears and screams, even if the sources of their visceral reactions were very different. And then there were the supporters.
The crowd’s dash onto the pitch wasn’t just one of elation, it was done with the fervour of a parent who has just seen their lost child across a crowded shopping centre. Add in the uniquely Roscommon celebration of chairing the players across the pitch, or even into each other, and all of that produced a panoramic shot at the end that was so cinematic, all it lacked was rolling credits and the MGM lion to roar at the end.
Clips of celebrations on the streets and all across the pubs and house parties littered our social media feeds on Monday and Tuesday, Donie Smith was rolled out on RTE radio to try and explain why Roscommon are so popular, and countless think-pieces were written across the national media, essentially saying that between Louth last year and Roscommon at the weekend, these two counties have combined to save the provincial championships from extinction.
Pure passion
It was a success that belonged to the nation, because it came from a place of heart, of hope, of positivity. The history of the GAA is littered with teams that have been successful on the back of figuring out how to wrestle and gnarl their opponents into submission. Roscommon conceded 18 scores, a mere one of those coming from a free.
Roscommon dared Galway to play football, backing themselves to be just that bit better at it than the Tribesmen – and it worked.
More than this, it was a success that belonged to the nation because it was attainable. For years, the country looked at Dublin ruling over the landscape like kings, and they knew that this wasn’t something that they could aspire to match. What county could realistically dream of having millions of euro spill in the door every year in the form of commercial income, or of having every education and career opportunity imaginable on your doorstep to ensure that no player would have to move away?
Then there was Kerry, who finally made the breakthrough after winning five All-Ireland minor titles in a row, with perhaps the greatest footballer of all time in amongst that ludicrously bountiful crop.
To ordinary counties, those paths to success are closed. Roscommon, however, have just won a provincial title and cemented their place as a worthy Division One county on the back of pure passion and commitment, with local men steering the ship. On population stats alone, Roscommon should be Division Four, but they choose not to be tethered by the ropes of reality, instead scolding Icarus for not being brave enough to really get a good look at the sun.
But for all that this success belonged to the nation, it belonged to the people of this county most of all, and they treasured it. They honoured it, they appreciated it. Perhaps there are more sunny days around the corner, perhaps reality will decide that it’s no longer on lunch break and come back to work.
Either way, the Roscommon players and the Roscommon people made sure that whatever is written on the next page of the script, this was their Donegal Tuesday. Everybody is welcome to celebrate with them, but it means more to those who feel their homeland in their bones.
Six takeaways from a famous final
- Seamus Duke
1. The hoodoo is broken
Roscommon had not won a Connacht senior football title at home since 2001. Fittingly, members of that great team were honoured at half-time before the class of 2026 went out and created their own chapter in county history.
2. The Hyde delivered
Dr Hyde Park looked and felt like the home of a great occasion. A packed house, a superb atmosphere and a fine playing surface helped create one of the most memorable Connacht final days in years.
3. Roscommon have real squad depth
Roscommon’s bench made a decisive impact. Daire Cregg, Paul Carey, Shane Cunnane, Cian McKeon, Ruaidhrí Fallon and Conor Hand all underlined the strength of the panel. That depth could be hugely important as the championship continues.
4. Fitness and belief are now major strengths
Roscommon’s ability to finish strongly has been a clear feature this year. The team were running as hard in the closing minutes as they had been at the start, and that late energy was central to the comeback.
5. Captain Murtagh led from the front
Diarmuid Murtagh has been in outstanding form, but his leadership and post-match words also stood out. He paid tribute to the present-day minor and U-20 teams, remembered Roscommon figures who have passed away, and included Galway-born broadcaster Michael Lyster in a thoughtful speech.
6. The future looks very interesting
No team will relish facing Roscommon in this form. The All-Ireland series will bring major tests, but this team has momentum, belief and the backing of a county that now has plenty to talk about.
Stat attack
Roscommon People Sport
Red cards: 0
Black cards: 0
Yellow cards: Roscommon 2: Senan Lambe, Paddy Gavin; Galway 0
Wides: Roscommon 7; Galway 11
Two-pointers: Roscommon 4: Conor Ryan, Paul Carey, Daire Cregg, Diarmuid Murtagh; Galway 6: Shane Walsh 3, Paul Conroy 2, Kieran Molloy
Man of the Match: Darragh Heneghan, Roscommon
Attendance: 22,799
Teams and scorers
Roscommon People Sport
Roscommon: Conor Carroll (0-1, ’45); Paddy Gavin, Caelim Keogh, Eoin McCormack; Eoin Ward, Ronan Daly, Senan Lambe (0-1); Keith Doyle (0-1), Conor Ryan (0-2, 1tp); Dylan Ruane (0-1), Enda Smith (0-1), Darragh Heneghan (2-2); Diarmuid Murtagh (0-7, 2 frees, 1tpf), Colm Neary, Robert Heneghan (1-0).
Subs: Daire Cregg (0-3, 1tp, 1 free) for Robert Heneghan (46), Ruaidhrí Fallon for Ward (50), Paul Carey (0-2, 2p) for Gavin (56), Conor Hand for Neary (62), Shane Cunnane for Ryan (62), Cian McKeon for Darragh Heneghan (66).
Galway: Conor Flaherty; Johnny McGrath, Seán Kelly (0-2), Jack Glynn; Dylan McHugh (0-1), Kieran Molloy (0-2, tp), Liam Silke; Paul Conroy (0-4, 2 x tp), John Maher; Daniel O’Flaherty, Cillian McDaid, Céin D’Arcy (0-1); Robert Finnerty (1-1), Shane Walsh (0-9, 2 x tp, 1 free, ’45), Ryan Roche.
Subs: Finnian Ó Laoi for O’Flaherty (half-time), Damien Comer (1-2) for Roche (42), Cian Hernon for Conroy (50), John Daly for Kieran Molloy (50), Matthew Tierney for Finnerty (59), Shane McGrath for McDaid (60).
Referee: Sean Hurson, Tyrone.