Galway continued to come up short in the Championship, and by the time the team lost three finals in a decade being runners up in 1953, 1955 and again in 1958, it had been 35 years since their only triumph. Like many counties that had previously experienced success before enduring a lengthy spell without titles, Galway became the subject of rumours of a curse, as has also happened to Mayo in football and Clare in hurling. In 1969 Connacht reached the final of the interprovincial Railway Cup for the first time in ten years with a team drawn primarily from Galway, and held Munster to a draw before being beaten in the replay, and this boosted the game in the county. However, a disastrous All-Ireland campaign followed for Galway, with the team losing to London in the 1969 championship and the following year Connacht lost at home to Ulster in the preliminary round of the 1970 Railway Cup, running up 20 wides. By the time the Galway hurlers were heavily beaten in 1975 and 1979 finals the curse was part of folklore.