Roots.It was nearly twilight last Sunday evening when Achill’s five pipe bands lined up on the mainland side of Michael Davitt Bridge. Jack Carney, Donnacha McHugh and Diarmuid O’Connor stepped in behind them. Carney held the Sam Maguire Cup in both hands. Behind him were his grandfather Pat and his father Peter, two men who had left Achill and who had never left it.Achill GAA pitch is on the mainland side of the parish and, hours earlier, they had made their grand entrance there. When Pat Carney landed in Achill as a Garda sergeant decades ago, the family lived in the Garda barracks next door, and when Peter was a child the GAA pitch was his back garden. On Sunday night, in a living daydream, he drove his son through the gates of the GAA grounds, the Sam Maguire held aloft through the sunroof.“If you wanted a definition of pride, that was it,” says Ed McGreal, the journalist and author, who lives on the island. “When Peter got out of the car, his face was red with tears.”The players were interviewed on the balcony of the clubhouse in front of the adoring throng and they sat for nearly three hours on the pitch, posing for photographs and signing autographs. But, in a sense, all of that was a prologue. The evening revolved around the bridge.“We live in a place where emigration has been such a big part of life for generations,” says Colm Cafferkey, the chair of Achill GAA, “and that bridge is a symbol of leaving and coming home.“And then you’re adding in the five pipe bands. A lot of those pipers live away – they might be living in England or America – but there’s a huge homecoming every St Patrick’s Day. Whenever I lived away, football was what made me come home and for the pipers it’s the same thing. It keeps them connected to the community.This was something else ... Sam Maguire and All Ireland champions Jack Carney, Donnacha McHugh and Diarmuid O Connor piped onto Achill Island by local pipe bands. The place was heaving. It was emotional and evocative. The gift that keeps on giving 💚❤️ pic.twitter.com/nGlum9FoRb— Edwin McGreal (@edmcgreal) August 23, 2026