Among the most glorious moments from the history of the GAA came in the 1971 All-Ireland hurling final, when Babs Keating shed both boots and socks to play the final in bare feet. There's some glorious footage below.
While that was done on purpose, Donie Vaughan found himself in somewhat of a similar situation, albeit accidentally. At some stage of today's victory over Donegal, Vaughan found lost one of his boots. He marauded forward nonetheless, and ended up cracking a shot on goal, despite being shorn of a boot.
There is a deep irony at play here. Vaughan's day job? He only runs a bloody shoe shop. This fact earned a reasonable level of eminence last month, when he sold Enda Kenny a pair of shoes to wear to the White House, in an act of profound Irishness.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny buys shoes from Mayo footballer for trip to US President Donald Trump on St Patrick's Dayhttps://t.co/vbvdT6SZNP pic.twitter.com/QvT4ivlaee
— The Mayo News (@themayonews) March 9, 2017
Vaughan acknowledged the irony after the game, along with squeezing in some solid advertising:
If anyone finds my other boot would they mind returning it to customer service @ Vaughan shoes.ie #finddoniesshoe 🙊👠👞🙈@TheSISMClinic pic.twitter.com/bg7XTXothV
— Donie Vaughan (@VaughanShoes) April 2, 2017
In more serious matters, a narrow Mayo win secured Division One status for another year.
