Irish Invasion of Ireland

It would take a football game to get me to leave the country for the first time.  As you probably know, I went to Ireland for the Notre Dame-Navy season opener.  Thanks to Jon and Erin for some suggestions about what to do besides the game.  Before I get to the details, I have to say that jet lag has no effect on me.  I've been out west a few times now and the three hour time difference has not affected me at all.  Now I've been five hours ahead and that didn't affect me either.  I should really go to Australia and see what a 14-hour time difference would do to me.

One more thing before I get to the game:  the Irish people were awesome.  They seemed very happy to have all the Americans there (and with good reason, we were spending lots and lots of euros in their country).  Even though I have very mixed feelings about Ireland (on the one hand, it's a truly Catholic country, but on the other hand you have the IRA), I'm glad my first trip out of the country was to Ireland.

Anyway, this post will just be about game day and I'll have another one about how Henry VIII messed up my Sunday in Dublin.  I started the day by going to a 9:00 mass celebrated by the bishop of Dublin at Dublin Castle.  It was quite crowded, but it was outdoors and the weather was nice so it was a good way to start the football season.  Father Jenkins walked right past me when he was about to give out communion.  I resisted the temptation to try to shake his hand for his admirable defense of religious freedom. Mass ended with the band leading everybody out on a parade from Dublin Castle to Temple Bar.  This was absolutely amazing.  It was so cool being surrounded by Notre Dame fans in a foreign country and seeing the American flag displayed in many Dublin establishments.

Mass at Dublin Castle.

I loved seeing this in Dublin.

Notre Dame parade down Dame Street in Dublin.

The whole Temple Bar area is really cool.  I went to the actual Temple Bar itself and started drinking at 10:30 in the morning.  That was 5:30 in the morning my time.  Notre Dame won later in the day by forty points.  So, should I start drinking at 5:30 on Saturday mornings from now on?  Probably, but I'm not going to get up that early.  I had a Guinness and a Kilkenny beer.  I'll have more on my thoughts on Guinness in my next post, but Kilkenny was interesting.  It's from the makers of Guinness and like Guinness, it's nitrogenated so it has that creamy head.  But unlike Guinness, it has the same color as a regular beer.  I've never seen it in the US, but apparently it's popular in Canada and Australia (another reason to go to Australia).  As I was about to leave Temple Bar, I ran into Cris Collinsworth.  I'm pretty sure it was my first random encounter with a celebrity (yes, I consider Cris Collinsworth a celebrity, I'd rather meet him than the vast majority of Hollywood celebrities).  Anyway, he was very nice and I got a picture with him.  Hopefully his son will be healthy next season and be a contributor for the Irish.

The band marching outside of Temple Bar.

From there, I was on my way to Aviva Stadium for the game.  It was a 50,000 seat stadium and it was sold out.  I read that there were 35,000 Americans at the game.  The stadium was built recently and it was nice, but one difference between Aviva and American stadiums was the lack of scoreboards.  There were only two in the stadium and I could only see part of one of them from where I was sitting.  I could see down and distance and maybe the game clock, but I couldn't see the score anywhere.  It wasn't really a big deal since I was paying attention so I knew what the score was, but I did think about how American stadiums have many more scoreboards.  Actually, Notre Dame Stadium only has two also, but they're placed in much better locations.  You can always see at least one of them.

One thing that I enjoyed was the national anthem.  There's something really awesome about belting out the Star Spangled Banner with lots of fellow Americans in another country.  After that, the Irish national anthem was performed.  I stood politely, but was my hand over my heart?  Of course not.  My allegiance is to the USA.

It wasn't an exciting game for neutral observers, with Notre Dame dominating Navy for the entire game and winning 50-10.  So I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I've seen enough losses to Navy for a lifetime.  Theo Riddick and George Atkinson III ran for a combined 206 yards and 4 touchdowns on 28 carries.  That's an average of 7.4 per carry, so of course Brian Kelly gave them a total of 16 carries in the next game against Purdue which we almost found a way to lose.  Everett Golson was solid in his first college game and Manti Te'o came up with his first fumble recovery and interception in his college career.

Opening kickoff.

If I remember correctly, Notre Dame and Navy announced this game in Dublin when I was still in college.  I remember thinking at the time that I had to go.  When I found out that my school was closing, that caused a problem.  Many schools on Long Island start for the kids on the Wednesday after Labor Day and the teachers have to be there the day before.  But some schools start for the kids on the Tuesday after Labor Day and the teachers have to be there for a day or two the week before Labor Day.  So I was worried that I might get offered a job at a school like that.  About a month before I was finally offered a job, I just decided that I was going to do it.  I don't know if Notre Dame will ever do this again and I didn't want to miss it.  Fortunately, it all worked out that it wasn't a problem when I was offered a job.  But either way, I'm glad I decided to go.  I've got two more games this year.  I'll be there next week for the Michigan game and I'll also be at the BYU game in October.  Hopefully Notre Dame will win both of those games by 40 points also.  Go Irish!