06/05/08

Our final day Ireland greated us with yet another absolutely fantastic
day. So fantastic that Marea thinks her dreaded heat rash is back!
With the poor unfortunate rest of the world having to go to work
(yesterday was May bank holiday), we tourists took the bussed into
town to visit the famous Croke Park.
Only Ireland aand its emigrants play Hurling or Gaelic Football and
this country of 5 million people have built an 80 thousand seat
stadium for just those two sports that only involve provincial games
and do not have any international matches. Whats more, they pretty
much sell out the ground every week!!
There are exceptions to every rule though and for 2 years (and 2 years
only, our guide assures us), for the first time ever, English sports
in the form of Rugby and Soccer will be allowed to sully hallowed
ground whilst Landsdowne Road is re-built. We were lucky enough to
go behind the scenes and into a corporate box, take a seat on the row
where the prime minister sits (these seats are alot less comfortable
looking than the 'more important reserves' 'bench') and we also got go
into the visitors dressing room. So don't worry any All Blacks that
are reading this blog - I've done a thorough inspection, and the
dressing room facilities should be up to scratch for the big match in
November!!
What was quite fascinating to us was the politics involved in Croke
Park and the Gaelic Games. For a period around the turn of the last
century the British banned Gaelic Games as it was seen as a way of
meeting and planning pro-independence strategies. Of course this ban
wasn't very effective, then in 1921 a day after some informers were
excecuted by the IRA, during a Gaelic football game at Croke Park the
British Army entered the ground and opened fire indiscriminatley on
the players and crowd, killing many including one player - crazy.
With that it was back to Carmel and Chris' place to reunite ourselves
with the van, and head for the port!!