Rampaging Mayo GAA fan bursts onto social media

Five stewards needed to remove fan from field in dying minutes of crunch match

Stewards remove Mayo  fan Mick Barrett from the pitch during the  All Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final in Limerick. Photograph: Inpho
Stewards remove Mayo fan Mick Barrett from the pitch during the All Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final in Limerick. Photograph: Inpho

Blood, sweat and tears. Saturday's All Ireland football semi-final replay had it in buckets.

A spectacle for fans and neutrals, alike the capacity crowd at Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds heaved as the dying minutes approached and the match looked increasingly like it would slip away from Mayo’s hand and send Kerry to Croker for the final.

As the clock ticked by, one incident seemed to capture the mood - it was the sight of a solitary Mayo fan grappling with five stewards as he sought to confront the referee while a woman - believed to be his daughter - pleaded with him to calm down.

The man eventually left the field, Mayo eventually lost, but he has become a Twitter ‘star’.

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The Mayo fan, later identified as Mick Barrett from Castlebar, later said he went on to the pitch as he “just wanted to know what the referee was at”.