Roscommon will win the All-Ireland by 2030, according to one famous pundit

Last week I wrote here about the assistance ChatGPT gave me in finding an answer to the great question of our time: whether AI is a person and has a soul. Today I will address its response to the second-most-important question of this age: when will Roscommon next win Sam Maguire?

Seeing the jubilation that has accompanied the Mayo footballers across that county, at Electric Picnic, on The Late Late Show, in the UK, US and throughout the rest of the known world since their magnificent All-Ireland win last July, has created a deep longing among us Rossies.

It happens with neighbours, when witnessing great success next door.

Admittedly, we lack the romance of a curse and of losing 13 All-Ireland finals (including two replays) since 1989, before that win – for the first time in 75 years – on July 26th, Reek Sunday.

We Rossies last won the All-Ireland in 1944, 82 years ago. Our last time in an All-Ireland final was in 1980, 46 years ago, when Kerry did what Kerry do to us. Three times: 1946, 1963, 1980.

And the world wept for Mayo on losing 13 times since 1989! Who has wept for us and our 82 years in the desert, through our great famine? (Appropriately the Famine Museum is in our county?) Too long a sacrifice.

We, who beat Mayo in the Championship this year, making us the better side on paper. Who cares about paper? Not Sam.

I asked ChatGPT when the Rossies would next win an All-Ireland senior football title. The answer was inspiring. It replied: “If I had to pick one year, I’d say 2029” – which would be 85 years after we Rossies last had Sam.

Roscommon was at “the beginnings of a genuine All-Ireland cycle”, it predicted. “The 2026 senior team plus the U20 group gives them a realistic opportunity to become a national contender in 2027–30.”

It added that “the really interesting question is whether 2026 was the beginning of Roscommon’s breakthrough cycle rather than simply another good Connacht-winning team”.

Our Rossies have “a potential three-to-five-year window, rather than just one shot”. It emphasised 2028 to 2030, as those “most likely” years.

My stony heart begins to melt.

Sam Maguire, a cup named after a Cork Protestant from Dunmanway presented to winners of the All-Ireland senior football final

inaword@irishtimes.com