Emigration is as much a part of the story and fabric of Co Mayo as football. So much so that the Mayo diaspora across the world was mentioned in county football captain Jack Coyne’s speech before he lifted the Sam Maguire Cup on Sunday. The subject was even part of post-match interviews, with Kobe McDonald asked about his move to Australia. The 18-year-old Mayo star is due to join Australia Football League club St Kilda later this year. We asked Mayo people abroad and those with Mayo roots what it finally meant to see a sea of red and green celebrations after the All-Ireland football final whistle. Siobhan Summerville, MelbourneI’m from The Neale in Mayo and have been living in Melbourne for 15 years. The game started at half past midnight, so I watched at home with my Galway husband. So many years I’ve watched and gone to bed upset. But at half time, I woke up my two daughters (aged 7 and 9) so they could watch the rest of the game (and munch on crisps). We screamed at the TV, cried and had uncontrollable shaking after the final whistle – so much so we had to tell the neighbours what was going on.Abroad: Siobhan Summerville and family in Melbourne watching the Mayo match. I took a “Mayo Day” on Monday, and continued to shed tears all day watching and listening to the highlights and details of the celebrations. It even made the evening news, explaining the Mayo curse. There are so many Irish living here, and GAA players with the AFL, that everyone has been talking about it. It’s been a night and a day after to remember forever.Angela O’Neill, EnglandMy father and brothers have always been huge followers of Mayo football, and my brothers have been to watch Mayo in the final many times.I moved from England to near Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, when I was young and grew up there, returning to the UK in my 20s. I got really emotional with 10 minutes to go in the match, as I started to realise we had a realistic chance of winning. The closer it got to the whistle the more I sobbed, and I couldn’t believe when it was over that we had actually won. I couldn’t stop crying even when it was over.[ ‘Marty Morrissey is a social media sensation’: How the world reported Mayo’s All-Ireland winOpens in new window ]I really liked that the speeches acknowledged people from Mayo no longer living there, and what it means to us too. I’ve explained to all of my English friends that this for us is the equivalent of England winning the World Cup (it’s actually bigger, but I suppose you can’t really say that) so that they can understand the significance of it. And lots here have heard of the “Mayo curse”, so they get it.John Hogan, Hobart, TasmaniaMy late father was from Derragh, near Crossmolina, Co Mayo. I grew up in the UK but have lived in Australia for 50 years. I paid €30 for the GAA+ app so my wife Tina and I could watch the game live. It started at 12.30am here and we watched while keeping in touch by text with cousin Mary Hogan in Crossmolina and brothers Paul and Pat in the UK. We were blown away to see the win and footage shown on our local Channel 7 news, telling the whole story of the curse. We did enjoy a Guinness or two to celebrate, but wish were we were doing this with our family in Crossmolina.Tina Hogan: Kobe McDonald is coming to play for St Kilda, who haven’t won a final [VFL/AFL grand finals] since 1966, so we’re hoping he will bring the luck of the Irish. My father (88) is a St Kilda supporter – he really wants to see them win in his lifetime. Abroad: Mayo man Willie Molloy in Nottingham Tara Molloy, Nottingham, England My Dad Willie Molloy is from Claremorris and my late Mum Eithne (nee Sheridan) was from Ballina. They moved to Nottingham and started their family, three daughters – me, Rosanna and Sinead. We had an All-Ireland viewing party in Rosanna’s house.Dad was beaming ear-to-ear and he jumped for joy as he watched Mayo get Sam. He’s in his 70s and has been waiting this whole life for this day. As kids we would hear about the curse, but we never really understood what it meant. Rosanna Carney, Willie Molloy and Tara Molloy watching the All-Ireland result unfold for Mayo. He has been homesick for Claremorris since the day he left. My lovely Mum sadly passed in 2022, and she would have loved to see the happiness that the Mayo team handed to my Dad, the mighty man from Mayo. Unless you have a direct Irish connection here, people don’t really know about the All-Ireland. Though I showing my colleagues the commentary at the end and they were roaring laughing at the passion of it. Éilis Healy, Brussels, Belgium On Saturday, we had to tell our habitual Sunday visitor that we would be indisposed. Glued to the Tour de France? Non. An online funeral? Non plus. She thinks highly of Foxford in Mayo and its quality woven goods, especially the downy lambswool scarves. Do we talk her through the sorry timeline of the town, the priest, the funeral, the curse, the annual hazing ritual? Pas la peine. Nous ne serons pas disponibles, désolé.[ Decades of hurt, hope and loss melt away as Mayo win sweetest All-Ireland title imaginableOpens in new window ]The Mayo flag is in Foxford, behind the door of the utility room in my mother’s house. I think of a Portuguese deli I’ve visited here in Brussels and wonder how a flag might be purloined and repurposed (the two flags look similar). Our apartment building is quiet on Sundays. We’ve pulled our curtains against the afternoon light and the judgment of the Fíor-Gael, for we lack all the markers of tribal identity. No Mayo shirts, headbands, or wristbands. No flag of convenience. No history of match attendance, no insider lore. We’re not even up to speed on these two-pointer scores. When did they happen?With bated breath until the VPN gives us the nod and lifts the velvet rope... We’re in.At what point did a win begin to look like a possibility? A few weeks of mild interest in the World Cup and I’d come to expect hydration breaks and insufferable bombast. These players manage without either. So do we, watching, flinching, groaning, yelping, roaring into the cushions. So that’s how a two-pointer works. I get it now. I like them.It was over before we knew it. Habituated by my World Cup exposure, I dreaded what Kerry might do in extra time. How many endless minutes would be added? Oh, none. Golden lads were transformed into gods before our eyes. I made a restorative cup of Barry’s tea with Brussels’ finest tap-water, forming a dun-coloured film that shatters at the first touch of a spoon. My lovely Kerry friends congratulate me. All I did was keep the faith.Are you Irish and living in another country? 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