The 1997 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final was the 110th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the

1997 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The 1997 Bank of Ireland All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the 111th staging of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the Gaelic Athletic Association's premier inter-county Gaelic football tournament. The championship began on ...

, an inter-county

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

tournament for the top teams in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Kerry bridged an 11-year gap, the longest in their history, helped by nine Maurice Fitzgerald points. Fitzgerald also broke Billy O'Shea's leg on the pitch. Mayo in their second Final appearance in a row, were hoping to bridge a gap that stretched all the way back to their All-Ireland football title winning team of

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

. They failed, and would lose again to Kerry in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and 2006. Subsequent All-Ireland finals defeats followed for Mayo at the hands of Donegal in 2012 and Dublin in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2020 and Tyrone in 2021.

References

External links

Liam Hassett's 1997 All-Ireland winning speech
{{All-Ireland Senior Football Championship All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, 1997

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Finals All-Ireland (sometimes All-Island) refers to all of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Ireland" is most frequently used to refer to sporting teams or events for the entire islan ...

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Finals Kerry county football team matches Mayo county football team matches