Dope Irish Events - Hurling/Gaelic Football Match

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to go to Croke Park Stadium in Dublin for both hurling and gaelic football games. Croke Park is the official stadium for the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) and it seats about 90,000 people. YEAH, that's a lot of people and the place is HUGE. We didn't know exactly which stop to get off at when we were on the bus, but realized that once we saw the huge stadium looming out behind some residential apartments that we found the right place. We found it. 

We researched before we got there that Dublin's colors were sky blue and navy blue, therefore we tried coordinating our outfits as much as possible trying to show off our Dublin pride! I only own a navy blue sweater and nothing sky blue, but I tried my best! Luckily enough, when we got there, Vodafone (I believe) was giving out free Dublin supporter flags and huge paper hands. I kept the flag because I've grown to really like flags (it's like my father's habits and interests are finally rubbing off on me) but some little kid stole my hand from me. I obviously didn't have the heart to fix her mistake and take the hand back. That would have been cruel. But at least Caitlan and I got pictures with them in the stadium before we didn't have them anymore! 

The games we saw were hurling (Dublin vs. Tipperary) and gaelic football (Dublin vs. Donegal). 

What we probably should have researched was exactly how the games were played. Our friend Chris roughly told Rachel how his personal favorite is played (hurling), but we still spent the majority of the game trying to figure out exactly how to play because it's something completely foreign to us. By the end, we saw the similarities between hurling and gaelic football and were actively cheering on the Dublin team! Both sports have hardly any padding at all to protect the players and it is common in hurling to beat the other team's players with their sticks in order to get the ball back in your team's possession. The first game actually ended on a tie.. who knew that could happen? Usually everything ends with one winner, not two. But when I asked my dad, he guaranteed that the players went in the locker room to properly settle it out (by fighting amongst themselves, of course). That's what he thought at least. 

We had the lovely opportunity to be sitting essentially in the first row. The team warmed up and stretched right in front of us. What a show it was for us! 

Personal favorite, maybe?

After being mesmerized by how in shape these players were, we realized something. There was no net or anything protecting us in case the softball sized ball came hurling towards us. Fortunately for us, we weren't located right behind the goal (where it was allowed to make a point over the net worth 1 point) and also fortunate for us, the hurling players were really good at catching the balls. It's like they do it professionally or something. Either way, we made it out of the stadium unharmed!

Above are some of the players of hurling in action. I believe one of them is rolling around on the floor after being hit by some of the sticks. At least hurling has helmets involved. Gaelic football was a mixture of basketball, volleyball, soccer, football with no protective padding at all. All in all, since we didn't really understand what we were watching and basically only rooted for Dublin when the other avid fans were cheering, it's difficult for me to actually describe how the games are played. The overall feeling and emotion of everyone around us is what we enjoyed the most! 

Go Dublin!

Our friend Emma had told us about this event that she went to last spring semester when she was studying abroad and mentioned the possibility of a halftime show. Never in our wildest dreams did we think that we'd see an instrumental group as big as the Dubliners, but guess who we saw? THE DUBLINERS. This years marks their 50th anniversary of originally forming the group. They didn't have a very long halftime show since the hurling match went a little bit overtime, but they still played some crowd favorites including "Whiskey in the Jar" and "Molly Malone". All of them were there, alive and kicking, playing all the instruments they've been playing for most of their lives. They were located on the other side of the field, but we got to see them on the big screens and as little people across the field.

After spending the day outside watching all of these games, we decided to eat at Eddie Rocket's (Yes, Eddie's not Johnny's like in the states) and spend the night relaxing at a couple of pubs with some live Irish music. I have a video from the Merchant's Arch that I took.. Not sure how great the quality will come out to be, but I was trying to capture the general atmosphere so that people back at home can truly feel what the pub atmosphere is like here.