What readers are saying about I Can See It Still
Writing I Can See It Still has involved going back over decades of Mayo football from a vantage point none of us had before 2026.
There were matches I remembered clearly, others I had partly forgotten, trips, people, places and incidents that came back to me once I started looking. And, inevitably, there were days I might happily have left where they were.
So I was particularly interested to see what early readers made of the book, and whether they recognised the Mayo football world I was trying to capture.
Jonathan Mullin, former RTÉ GAA Correspondent, picked up on something that means a lot to me: namely, that the book is about much more than what happened during the matches.
He said: ‘Horan carries the reader through the highs and lows of Mayo football with pace, humour and a sharp eye for detail. The people, places and small moments matter every bit as much as what happens on the field. Lively, original and beautifully observed.’
That reference to the people, places and small moments particularly pleased me. They are a large part of I Can See It Still. Following Mayo was never confined to the seventy minutes. It was who you travelled with, where you stopped on the way, who you bumped into, what you talked about afterwards, what you avoided talking about and all the other things that somehow attached themselves to the football.
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For Frank Roche, Irish Independent Gaelic Games Correspondent, it was the significance of 2026 that stood out: ‘2026 changed the way Mayo people looked back on the previous fifty years. Horan uses that new vantage point to revisit the triumphs, disappointments and near misses.’
The All-Ireland victory of 2026 didn’t erase what happened before it. The defeats are still defeats, the near misses remain near misses and all those journeys home still happened. But we can look at them differently now because, finally, we know where the road led. I was happy that Frank referenced that.
Seán Moran, Irish Times GAA Correspondent from 1994 to 2026, came at the book from another angle. He said: ‘I can say without ambiguity that the breadth of Liam Horan’s involvement in Mayo football is impressively and dauntingly admirable.’
I’ve certainly seen Mayo football from a few different places over the years. I’ve followed the team as a supporter, covered Gaelic games as a journalist, spent five years as communications officer with the Mayo senior team, been involved with Ballinrobe GAA and chaired the process that produced the Mayo GAA Strategic Plan.
I Can See It Still charts what it was like to follow Mayo through all those years. And now, for the first time, to look back on them knowing that in 2026 Mayo finally won the All-Ireland.
