I crossed the Liffey on a pedestrian bridge, on of the many built by the city council to help people get across the river, as the original crossings were struggling to take the influx of pedestrian traffic as tourism to Dublin grew. I walked through the Central shopping area with its large department stores and specialty shops and onto O'Connell Street, which is the main street of Dublin. It is a wide boulevard with a large central pedestrian island to help cross the roadway.
It was still four hours before the match so I found a pub to shelter in from the rain and sat down to watch the Arsenal V's West Bromwich Albion game which was the opening game of the English Premier League season. As time moved on the pub filled with Dublin supporters priming themselves with enough fluids to get them through the match.
It continued to rain outside and as I took off for Croke Park the rain actually got heavier.
Walking along all the pubs were full of supporters all with Dublin colours and I was beginning to wonder if any Tyrone supporters were in the city. Tyrone is a team from Northern Ireland and all their supporters travelled down for the day and seamed to go straight to the stadium and were drinking there as I arrived.
The stadium is very large with both sides and one end covered by a large roof which extends to the edge of the field. The other end is open and is like the old hill at the SCG.
As the stadium filled the open end filled with Dublin Supporters who were absolutely drowned by the rain. I bought a program which is written in both English and Gaelic and then I went to my seat and found it wet as the rain was being blown in onto the seating. I went and bought two plastic rain poncho's, one I put on the seat and the other I covered my soaked backpack. It kept the water on the concrete floor from soaking up into the bottom of it.
A local even joined in the fun about the wet weather
The seat was on the half way line in row W (23 rows from the front). I had a great seat, specially as I had only purchased it yesterday, that would never happened in Sydney. I had two young blokes who were Tyrone Supporters on one side of me and an older couple who were Dublin supporters on the other side so it should be an interesting game.
A minutes silence was held for a couple of ex-players who had passed away and the national anthem was sung before the game began.National Anthem in Gaelic
Just as the anthem was being introduced a huge clap of thunder rung out, which seamed appropriate for the battle just about to commence.The game started with Tyrone (wearing white) getting the first minor score. The goal posts are like rugby posts but under the crossbar there is a net like in soccer. Each team has a goalkeeper. A score under the cross bar into the net is worth three points and between the posts over the crossbar is worth one point. Dublin (wearing blue) were favorites for the match ( 3 to 1 on favorites) but were slow to start as Tyrone (3 to 1) scored another minor score.
By half time Tyrone were leading 2-5 (11 points) to 1-3 (6 points) and were clearly the better team shocking the mainly Dublin crowd. Just before half time it stopped raining and the sun actually came out for a while in the second half. At half time the had a match between two of the local junior teams.
The marking contests from the kick in to play are similar to Aussie Rules but there are a lot more elbows and rough play than in Aussie Rules. There is also a lot of off the ball collisions and a few good shoulder charges thrown in for good measure.As the game went on Tyrone continued to be the dominant side and everything seamed to bounce their way. By the end of the match Tyrone were in complete control and ran out winners 3-14 (23 points) to 1-8 (11 points). The crowd was posted at 70,877.
The crowd dispersed quite quickly and I walked back into the city to see if I could buy some video film as I had used the last of it before the match even started. I just managed to get some before the shops closed at 7.00pm. I then got some dinner and headed back to the hotel to rest my back which has been sore for a few days now.I went back out again about 10pm to do some filming of Temple Bar nightlife. It was raining again and I got a bit of film but not many of the buskers were out in the rain. I did not stay out long in the rain and went back to get a good nights sleep prior to going to the Hurling semi final tomorrow which is also being played at Croke Park.
Collecting:
Guinness Hurling Coaster
Three Guinness Lighters with built in bottle openers.
Book 'The Goodness of Guinness"
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