A Subway Alumni Goes To Dublin

Sorry about the delay in reporting.  Between cracking a couple of ribs, closing down a house for the winter, helping a son get settled in new digs, Purdue, MSU and driving to Florida, it’s been busy.  Anyway, here goes……..

Tickets.

Got two tickets off the Navy website for $50 each.  Sat about half way up in the upper tier on the Navy side.  Exactly on the 50 yard line.  My seat was the last number of one sequence and the seat next to me started another.  Just great seats.  About 60% Navy and 40% Notre Dame fans in the section.  Interestingly the lady and man sitting next to us were Irish!  He explained the rules of play to her however she was more interested in the leprechaun and the Notre Dame band.  No idea where he learned American football.

The Aviva Stadium is enclosed so you don’t have to worry about the Irish weather.  Seats 50,000 however they had to give up 2,000 seats down close the field because of the teams and staff were blocking the view.  Beautiful venue, clean well supervised with ushers, modern restrooms and plenty of refreshment stands.  The 80,000 Croke Park where Notre Dame played last time was not available because of an Irish football match the next day.

Irish Pep Rally 02 Arena Dublin Ireland

 

Pep Rally.

Paid $50 for two tickets to the pep rally in the O2 Arena.  What the heck!  I thought pep rallies were free!  The rally lasted 90 minutes and was televised throughout Ireland.  It was actually more Irish music, dance and singing than pumping up the 9,000 Irish faithful on hand.  Mostly old Irish faithful at that, the young crowd was supporting the Irish economy at numerous pubs throughout Dublin.  For cryin out loud the Prime Minister of Ireland spoke for ten minutes.  Also interviews with Father Jenkins and AD Jack Swarbrick were conducted.  Only saw the band and cheerleaders for a total of 15 minutes or so.  No team or coaching staff.  Guess they were scheming on how to pound Navy.  Strangest thing.  9,000 thirsty Americans and what is the only beer being hawked in the stands?  Budweiser.  Needless to say, his sales were way off.  Most of us were sampling the Guinness on tap.

Bud Vendor 02 Arena Dublin

 

Game.

Our hotel lined up a bus, 5 Euro to get us to the stadium, mix of Navy and Irish fans.  There is zero parking at the stadium and almost no vehicle access areas to unload.   The driver while grinning dropped us off about ¾ of a mile away.  Walked with huge crowds to the stadium, passing numerous pubs filled with overflowing fans of all college colors.  Guinness must have been brewing overtime waiting on the Americans to show up.  The Irish people do a lot of walking and let me tell you they walk fast.

 

Pub Tailgating Dublin

Walked up 18 kilometers of steps to get to our seats.  Nice comfortable stadium types with arm rests and beverage holders.  Stopped first to check out the refreshments and load up.  Guinness, Carlsberg, Heinekens, Coors, Coors Light, Budweiser on tap.  No English beer.  Let me say that again, no English beer.  Saw no taps at the 02 Arena, or any pubs, guess they don’t like the English or Brit beer.  The Irish had a little bit of a harder time breaking away from England than our American forefathers did.

Aviva Stadium Dublin

I kept forgetting this was a Navy home game.  While the starting Navy offense and defense players were introduced over the PA system, ND players never were.  When a tackle was made by Navy you got the name, not so when the Irish did the pounding.  It went like that the whole game. 

 

 Nose Bleed Seats in Enemy Territory Aviva Stadium Dublin

The announcer was always hyping up Navy and they piped in music during all the stops in play.  This apparently is the state of college football.  The music did keep the Irish band (seniors) and the Navy band quiet most of the time.  I expect the same thing when I venture to ND for the Stanford game.

Irish Kick Return Practice

We have watched a ton of pregame warm ups but never specific punt and kick-off return drills.

The strangest thing!  Divot replacers!  Come half-time they swarmered all over the 'pitch' and replaced the divots.  I've seen it done at turf horse racing tracks but never during a football game.

Divot Replacers

Irish warm ups

The Irish stretching out, sure was nice to seem them again.

The Irish band was outstanding!  The Irish lady next to me really appreciated “Rakes of Mallow”, “Garry Owen”, and of course “Danny Boy”.  The shamrock and outline of Ireland didn’t hurt either. 

Irish Band Shamrock

 

Irish Band Ireland

Those pesky Bud vendors would not give up.  Why they imagined Americans would fly all the way to Ireland to drink Bud is beyond me.

Bud Vendor

Great game.  Wonderful pounding of Navy, don’t know if we can ever get even for the Navy bashing three years ago.  The team went over to the band and student section for the traditional salute to the fans and singing of Notre Dame Our Mother.

Team Salute to the Fans

It was a long walk to find a taxi with 50,000 fans having the same idea, except for those stopping off to recharge the battery.

Post Game Tailgating Dublin Ireland

These and other pictures are posted at the bottom of the Blog.

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