GAELIC  GAMES: Keith Duggan talks to Charlestown player-manager Stephen Healy about the Mayo town's reawakening as a football force

Traffic was Charlestown's saving grace in the bad years. As Stephen Healy attests, "it is a well-appointed town, with all the main routes running through it. Even when it was quiet, there was always a bit of life about it because of the traffic."

Charlestown holds a curious place in Mayo affections. Situated hard against the Sligo border - you can actually cross into Yeats County by walking up the main street - it became illustrative of the economic and social disintegration that stalked the western seaboard in the decades before the '90s as portrayed in John Healy's No One Shouted Stop.

"I suppose John gave a fairly bleak portrayal of the place at that time," acknowledges Stephen Healy, a nephew of the legendary journalist, "but thankfully things have improved a lot since that time. I mean, it is true, even using football as an example, that Charlestown would have been able to field stronger football teams in London or the American cities than at home for many years."

Charlestown's problems were not unique. People simply left, sometimes reluctantly, sometimes happily, sometimes with an index finger cocked to all behind them. Those that stayed maintained the spirit of community and even if that took a buffeting during the particularly mean years, Healy is reluctant to associate hard times with the town's impoverished football history of 99 years without a county title.

"Emigration obviously played a part, we lost many fine footballers because of that. But I think also that our discipline and commitment simply were not at the requisite level. We always had reasonably good underage success, but had a difficulty in fostering that in the senior championship."

It was a repetitive history as far as the 2000 championship when Charlestown was, as predicted, annihilated in the championship. That loss convinced the manager that it was time to go and when a number of players, including Healy, approached a list of individuals about taking up the post, "nobody would touch it".

Although he won't go so far as to say the club was in danger of disintegration, Healy admits that they "reached a crossing".

"You have to remember things were going fine at juvenile level. But we really had to take a hard look at ourselves with the senior set-up." After a little cajoling, Healy agreed to take on the post of manager.

"My aims were fairly straightforward," he says now. "That we didn't get relegated, and that we'd win one game in the championship, something we hadn't done in years."

The problem was that in the Mayo they were drawn against Crossmolina, the reigning All-Ireland club title holders.

"The funny thing was that we really should have beaten them by more than the three points that day," says Healy. "We played some really good football, we were cohesive, and really dug for one another. Everybody had written us off beforehand, which was totally understandable."

But at some point in that game, history was flipped and the town that couldn't win suddenly forgot how to lose.

"It all happened quite fast and even after we won the county title, while it gave the town an enormous lift, we still had some business to take care of in that we had a vital relegation game against Castlebar the week after. So that really helped us keep our feet on the ground."

In the provincial final, Charlestown met Annaghdown, the rural side that surprisingly triumphed in Galway. "They emerged from relative obscurity somewhat like ourselves and that was possibly a help in that the whole situation was new to them also. Winning that was just unbelievable. The one downside has been that the game was almost three months ago and, since then, we have been trying to keep fresh by playing challenges."

The other drawback, from Healy's point of view, is that he is primarily a player and his dual commitment means that he has to content himself with life as a substitute this year. "I actually played the last league game prior to the championship. Once we beat Crossmolina, there was no question of changing the team. I suppose a part of me wishes I was playing, but still, to have a county and Connacht medal in one season is a great feeling."

Today, the town that is the great story of the 2002 All-Ireland club championship meet the competition's great aristocrats, Nemo Rangers of Cork, last year's defeated finalists.

"I suppose many people feel it is a question of how many they beat us by. There is nothing to say about Nemo, they have done it all. I am not going to make any predictions; we don't know what to expect as this is new to us. I'd say, though, that even if you asked our supporters, deep down they don't expect us to win, they are going down for a good weekend. And again, that is perfectly understandable."

But the entire county of Mayo found last year's win by Crossmolina deeply resuscitative. Charlestown will draw upon that today. The town has rediscovered itself anyway. The exodus has long stopped and many are moving back. Glamour arrived in the form of the Gallagher brothers of Oasis, who came to find their roots and eat Tayto.

"Unfortunately, they didn't have a whole lot of Gaelic football in them," laughs the latest Healy to shine the light on Charlestown.