Through the Rooms of Mayo Football
Keith Duggan
House of Pain by Keith Duggan (reissued) is the sweeping chronicle of 50 years of unrewarded endeavour which captures the spirit of Mayo football and Mayo football people. Mayo’s glorious but failed quest for All-Ireland honours has by now been woven into the nation’s sporting mythology.
House of Pain is an account of that long journey, but also of the personal lives of those who were in the vanguard of the battle, and whose stories are told with warmth and compassion. Keith Duggan’s obvious love for Mayo football is the cornerstone of House of Pain, an ode to Mayo football sadness, to half a century of bitter disappointments and might-have-beens.
When first published, House of Pain was hailed as a classic for the ages. It has lost none of its bitter sweet sparkle in this, its second iteration.