Allez les Verts
February 28th, 2007
Last saturday morning I woke up and made myself some porridge – lovely lovely stuff. Bought a packet of Flavans organic oats along with 2 litres of milk friday night. One cup of oats, 2 cups of milk – bring to the boil and stir for 10 minutes. Serve with some honey and cold milk – so so so so good. Last saturday was about much more than me making some lovely stirabout. It will always go down as one of the greatest days in irish sport, the day an english team was invited into Croke Park for the first time in history. For those of you that don’t know – Croke Park is the home to the GAA which stands for the Gaelic Athletic Association. Its an association set up in 1888 to promote Irish culture, the irish language and more specifically Irish sport. The association was from the start the focal point of the irish community and something which was regarded with deep suspicion by the then occupying british forces – tensions came to a head in 1920 on a day forever known as Bloody Sunday. IRA leader Michael Collins ordered the assasination of a number of British Agents. In retaliation the British Forces (Black and Tans) marched into Croke Park in the middle of Game between Dublin and Tipperary and opened fire on the crowd and players killing 14 innocent civilians. Ever since there has been a ban on ‘Foreign’ (Essentially British) sports being played in Croke Park.
Back to the modern day a couple of years back the GAA decided to relax the ban on foreign sports namely rugby and soccer as their own ground – Lansdowne Road – was dilapidated and in need of repair. Which leads us once more to Saturday and why is was so significant. The playing of God Save the Queen in croke park, given the history was always going to be a massive moment – the anthem asking for the saving of the person in whos name all those people were murdered all those years ago.
Back to my own personal story, after absorbing the entire sports section of the days newspapers I set off with Barry (my housemate) to find a suitable watering hole to watch the game – Tickets for the game were impossible to come by so we headed down to the rugby hotspot of Ballsbridge with the hope of getting into Searsons pub on Baggot st/Pembroke rd. No chance, the place was packed and it was pissing rain – people queueing up outside!! God knows what a tourist would’ve made off it. We headed on in towards town back to where we saw a sign ‘Match on Big Screen’ – upstairs in a pub called the wellington we gave up all hope of getting food and settled for 2 bar stools at arms reach to the bar itself and more importantly eagle eye view on proceedings across the river liffey in good old croker. The pints were nice, exceptional – this day was shaping up nicely. A few more friends joined us in the increasingly jammed packed pub – this is what its all about.
First of all the english team come out – they recieve a generous applause from the crowd. Fair Dues!!! Time passes, almost an enternity. Out comes the irish teams, the place goes crazy. Next the big moment, the anthems. The pub, the country is glued to their tvs in deathly silence – they are playing god save the queen in croke park, no one would ever think they would see the day – they all wait with baited breath waiting at the merest hint of rebuke – thankfully the anthem was given total respect, former english captain Martin Corry broke ranks with his team to openly applaude the irish Crowd – a deed he will forever be remembered for. A great man he is. So the irish Anthem – you really have to youtube it. It has never been sung so lustily ever, grown men moved to tears (seriously youtube it). At this stage you could entirely forget there was a rugby game gonna go on. The English took an early lead, always useful to quieten down a home support. Not this one, scores from Dempsey, Wallace, Horgan and Isaac Boss gave ireland their most emphatic victory ever over an english team. What a day to be an irish man. We left the pub and out onto the rain soaked streets of dublin, everyone simply everyone had a smile on their face and a song in their heart. Onwards we marched feeling like kings of the world we went from pub to pub drinking beers and then whiskey, we walked from the Wellington down across baggot street bridge where the beggar on the street had a coca-cola cup full of change filled up with generous proceeds from the happy irish men. Down Baggot street we passed Toners, O’Donoghues and Doheny and Nesbitts, across St Stephens green down Grafton Street the place was full of happy people the visitors were having a laugh. Eventually we stopped into sheehans pub not far from grafton street where we drank the night away.
Allez les verts
Phil Gill
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