There is a tourism program in Ireland for the next year called The Gathering Ireland. The purpose is to get the 70,000,000 people across the world of Irish heritage to head back to Ireland to spend some money and help Ireland grow their economy out of the state they are in. One of the first events of this was the Emerald Island Classic, which most in the states probably saw something about as it was the kickoff of the college football season for Notre Dame and Navy. We knew quite a bit about this game for a long time, but in our attempts to find tickets, we decided we'd rather send a child to college for a term than acquire tickets. They sold out immediately and the secondary market was rich at EUR 150/ticket. We decided we'd watch on TV. The town was full of Americans during the week. A person we met related to a tour group said that 35,000 came in for the events this weekend.
On Friday, one of the guys at work mentioned that there was an American football game in Donnybrook. Donnybrook is the local stadium where the Bective Rangers and Old Wesley Rugby Football clubs call home. It's a small stadium with about 2500 seats on one side, so kind of like a decent high school stadium. I did a bit of research and found out that there were going to be two football games there on Friday as part of The Gathering Ireland events around the Emerald Island Classic. The tickets were much more reasonable at EUR 15, with kids under 12 free. Worked for us.
The first game was a high school game between Loyala Academy (Wilmette, IL) and Jesuit Prep (Dallas, TX). It was actually a great game with Jesuit winning on a field goal with 50 seconds remaining, 30-29. Here's the story from the Chicago newspaper. It was a capacity crowd.
The second game was between John Carroll (Ohio) and St. Norberts (Wisconsin). This was less of a game with John Carroll winning 40-3. This was Division III football.
We arrived at half-time of the first game as it started pretty early (4PM and Joe was still working). We found some bad seats near one end zone. After the conclusion of the high school game, we moved toward the 50 yard line as the high school crowd moved on. We found a great set of seats right at mid-field and sat down, only to have a security guys stop by and tell us we couldn't sit there as they were reserved. The row behind was open, so we hopped up a row and waited. It turns out that seats were reserved for a special guest, the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney. To those with football knowledge (or political knowledge), Dan Rooney will be a familiar name. He is from the Rooney family in Pittsburgh, the owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was also a political supporter of Barack Obama and was appointed Ambassador to Ireland. He showed up around the kickoff of the 2nd game and was part of the coin toss. He and his wife came up in the stands for the 1st quarter before they moved on to another event. He's 80 years old. He was very pleasant to the many kids and adults that came up looking for autographs, although the Rames clan didn't pester him.
Joe came from work on his bike and the rest of the clan came into Dublin by bike. So after the game, we all jumped on the bikes and rode home. We looked like a moving construction team with all our flashing lights and yellow vests, but managed to get home safely.
As Joe roots for Michigan State and whoever is playing Notre Dame, the outcome of Saturday's game was not ideal, although the nap during the 2nd half was priceless.
On Friday, one of the guys at work mentioned that there was an American football game in Donnybrook. Donnybrook is the local stadium where the Bective Rangers and Old Wesley Rugby Football clubs call home. It's a small stadium with about 2500 seats on one side, so kind of like a decent high school stadium. I did a bit of research and found out that there were going to be two football games there on Friday as part of The Gathering Ireland events around the Emerald Island Classic. The tickets were much more reasonable at EUR 15, with kids under 12 free. Worked for us.
The first game was a high school game between Loyala Academy (Wilmette, IL) and Jesuit Prep (Dallas, TX). It was actually a great game with Jesuit winning on a field goal with 50 seconds remaining, 30-29. Here's the story from the Chicago newspaper. It was a capacity crowd.
The second game was between John Carroll (Ohio) and St. Norberts (Wisconsin). This was less of a game with John Carroll winning 40-3. This was Division III football.
We arrived at half-time of the first game as it started pretty early (4PM and Joe was still working). We found some bad seats near one end zone. After the conclusion of the high school game, we moved toward the 50 yard line as the high school crowd moved on. We found a great set of seats right at mid-field and sat down, only to have a security guys stop by and tell us we couldn't sit there as they were reserved. The row behind was open, so we hopped up a row and waited. It turns out that seats were reserved for a special guest, the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney. To those with football knowledge (or political knowledge), Dan Rooney will be a familiar name. He is from the Rooney family in Pittsburgh, the owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was also a political supporter of Barack Obama and was appointed Ambassador to Ireland. He showed up around the kickoff of the 2nd game and was part of the coin toss. He and his wife came up in the stands for the 1st quarter before they moved on to another event. He's 80 years old. He was very pleasant to the many kids and adults that came up looking for autographs, although the Rames clan didn't pester him.
Joe came from work on his bike and the rest of the clan came into Dublin by bike. So after the game, we all jumped on the bikes and rode home. We looked like a moving construction team with all our flashing lights and yellow vests, but managed to get home safely.
As Joe roots for Michigan State and whoever is playing Notre Dame, the outcome of Saturday's game was not ideal, although the nap during the 2nd half was priceless.
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