By Jackie Cahill

Frank Browne revealed how Mayo released a flood of hurt and emotion against Donegal in Saturday's TG4 All-Ireland Ladies senior football quarter-final at TEG Cusack Park in Mullingar.

The beaten Connacht finalists have returned to the stage where they stumbled in last year's competition - when Dublin edged past them by just a single point in a classic Kingspan Breffni Park encounter.

On the morning of that game, an interview with Browne was published where he revealed how his daughter Emma died from pneumonia, aged just six months and two days, back in 2003.

And Browne said: "You know what, we've been carrying a huge amount of hurt.

"I remember talking to you in Breffni Park, a hugely emotional day after an article in the paper.

"We've been storing up that hurt for the last, what is it now, almost a year ago? "We've been waiting for days like today.

"We said it in the dressing room, the winter nights we were in Ballyheane, driving down to Athlone to train as a group, all for today.

"It's a brilliant day for us. People doubt character sometimes, of the Mayo footballers, be it men or women.

"Whatever else we'll do, we'll die on our shield and we'll battle to the very end.

"We put in a massive performance. Fair play to Donegal, they've been an up and coming team but I don't even think Donegal expected what they got today."

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