Kany’s happy to dye for her All-Ireland heroes

Kany Kazadi from Castlebar inspects her Mayo-coloured tresses after spending 10 hours in the hairdresser’s chair to support her county in Sunday’s All-Ireland final against Dublin in Croke Park.

IN THE Afro, Asian and Caribbean Store on Linenhall Street in Castlebar, the conversation is the very same as it is in businesses and households all over Mayo – of their belief that the Green and Red will triumph this time.

“We don’t want Dublin to hand it to us – we want to fight for it,” declares Kany Kazadi in conversation with her friend, Mariam Oladipo.

An Irish citizen born and raised in the Republic of Congo, Ms Kazadi (inset below) is a devoted Mayo woman to her very bones – and to the very roots of her hair.

She is stopping traffic in the run-up to the All-Ireland final with her extravagant green and red weave that took weeks to organise.

First, she had to ensure that shop owner Abimbola Anjorin ordered in the right shade of artificial hair.

“She only had a dark wine red – no good,” said Ms Kazadi.

Next, she had to endure 10 hours of waiting while her friend Esther Eyengui plaited the weave exactly.

“She is such a good friend,” said Ms Kazadi, explaining that she had her hair plaited in red and green wool for last year’s All-Ireland final.

If Mayo win, she plans to wear the weave for 66 days – representing the 66 years waiting for Sam.

“I feel very emotional about it – thinking of all the older fans who have never seen Mayo win and of all the players and their families who kept on trying all the years,” she said.

Ms Kazadi came to Ireland to seek asylum 12 years ago and spent the first few years living in Direct Provision in Ballyhaunis.

“That was tough,” she said. “It is not a good way to live.”

Now, Ms Kazadi is working with the Alzheimer’s Society in the day care centre, which she loves.

“It’s a very special job and I love it,” she said. “This is a new chapter of my life.”

She watched her first Mayo match in 2009 because she lived near MacHale Park but grew frustrated because she “couldn’t understand a point or a goal”.

In 2013, she watched the final between Mayo and Dublin but it was not until 2015 when her passion for Gaelic football really took off. She met her friend, Linda, a Filipina woman – another passionate Mayo fan since the 1990s when she married a Mayo man.

Now Ms Kazadi has launched an appeal on social media hoping that she lands a ticket for Sunday.