Mikie is a native islander but, as a 15-year-old, he took up a scholarship at Fr Griffin Road Vocational School, where Jack Mahon, the 1956 Galway centre-back, was his teacher. ``I went down to The Swamp, where they used to train, and I saw the school lads playing,'' he says.

``I was never a great footballer but I said to myself, I'm as good as most of those lads anyway. One of the lads got on to me to play.''

It was the start of a long relationship with formalised Gaelic football. He played with Fr Griffins, the club, from 1962 to 1974. He didn't make the three teams that won senior county titles 1967, '70 and '72 but his recollections are fond.

``The great thing about Fr Griffins then was that almost everybody was an outsider, bar the few lads from around the town. You could have an Aran man, a Westmeath man, and a Donegal man in the full-back line,'' he says.

Mikie will not be part of this weekend's mass spillage out of the Islands. About 100 are bound for Croke Park, many relying on ``a scout around Barry's Hotel'' to find a ticket.

Tomorrow, Mikie says, the Islands will be ``the same as if you go into Tuam, people watching in pubs, shouting, and flags around the place. They're crazier here about the football than anywhere else.''

Steve Kilmartin won't be in Croke Park either but he wishes he could be. He goes to most of the matches and is renowned on Inis Mor for his knowledge of football.

He is Second Mechanic on the RNLI Lifeboat on the island and the First Mechanic is away on holidays. Ergo, Stevie must stay at home, and by midweek he had resigned himself to it.

``I just can't go but we'll be watching it very closely here,'' he says, from behind his counter in Joe Mac's Bar. And what if an SOS goes up?

LIFEBOAT CALL

He smiles a wry smile. ``We were just settling down to watch Mayo play Kerry in the 1996 All-Ireland semi-final when we got a call-out. And out we went,'' he says.

And out they'll go next Sunday, too.

But, God is good.

Michael Gill and Ronan O'Flaherty will be in Croke Park, nothing surer. They were both in Croke Park as kids in 1954 for the All-Ireland hurling semi-finals and it has been planes, boats and automobiles ever since.

``We flew from Aran to Dublin for the 1971 All-Ireland football final between Galway and Offaly. It cost us £13 a man, a lot of money at the time.

``The price included sideline tickets and all. I would never go that way to Dublin for a match again. It was too rushed.

``I was building a new bungalow here. I wanted to be home for work on the following day. I had men working for me. We got drenched at the match. We dried ourselves with a couple of pints at the airport.

``Jack Lynch was flying to Chequers the same evening to talk about Northern Ireland. There was huge security around Dublin Airport.''

That summer, they flew to Castlebar twice for the Sligo/Galway Connacht final draw and replay. The fare was £4, Michael thinks.

Arthur O'Flaherty was on those trips, too, and he recalls meeting a disconsolate David Pugh of Sligo after the drawn game. ``They were very unlucky not to win that draw,'' says Arthur.

Aran Islands play in the West Galway Board Junior football league and championship. Inis Mor provides about ten players, Inis Thiar seven, and Inis Mean, the middle island, six. Most of the footballers are fishermen and this plays havoc with the team.

Twenty years ago, Inis Mor had their own team. They won the West Board League in 1980, trained by Mikie Hernon. The same year, they won the Connemara junior section in the Comortas Peil na Gaeltachta.

This entitled them to play in the national Comortas finals in An Fhairche (Clonbur), a north Connemara village where this week the names of the current Galway players are inscribed onto a maroon-and-white boat parked outside Tigh Burca.

Trainer Mikie Hernon couldn't make it out to Clonbur. As a Telecom Eireann employee, he was flat out preparing for the island's phone network going automatic a few weeks later.

That tournament weekend in Clonbur still rankles. They reckon a local referee didn't give them a break when when they played Baile a Skeilig.

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

Mike Muldoon was badly injured in that game, and spent a long time in hospital and the free was given against him they say, for handling the ball on the ground.

Diplomatic relations have since been restored with the referee, an indefatigable sort, whose business even sponsored a set of jerseys for the Island team a few years back.

The Aran Islands team plays their home games on Inis Thiar. With the improved ferry service, visiting teams enjoy the trip, the match, and the bit of craic afterwards.

On an island which attracts over 50 tourists every day of the year, bar a week around Christmas, there's a special welcome for footballers.

Billy Gillen is one of the lucky ones. He got his hands on one of the 37 tickets the club received from the Football Board. Billy and a few of his mates have been at all the games this year Castlebar, Carrick-on-Shannon, Tuam and Croke Park.

This weekend they will make their way to Dublin by boat, by bike, by car, by train, and by plane. They are Galway to the core, beside themselves with excitement and anticipation.

There is no evidence that the Islanders feel disconnected from Galway's voyage this season, but recognition is appreciated.

On the day Galway and Roscommon drew in Tuam, substitute goalkeeper Pat Comer was stuck for a lift back to Carraroe and he struck up with a few Islanders when he heard Irish being spoken in Gilligan's Pub. Comer relayed the story in The Irish Times last week and Michael, Ronan, Arthur and the lads were chuffed.

Val Daly, last year's Galway manager, is a son of a Kilronan man, Mickey Daly, who had a shop on the island. Val came in to present medals last year.

If Sam Maguire comes to Galway on Monday, he will be under pressure to follow in Val's footsteps. And, like many more before him, he might find it hard to get back once beguiled by Aran.

- LIAM HORAN