Croke Park

Today we had lectures on current events in Irish history (damn the Anglo-Irish Bank!), the history and architecture of the College, and on Irish literature - particularly Jonathan Swift. After lunch at Cafe Togo we played tourist for a bit and finally took pictures around campus.

Following lunch, we walked to Croke Park, the stadium, museum, and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The walk took us up O’Connell Street, a wide boulevard with 18th century, seemingly nondescript brick buildings (but with incredibly ornate interiors), lining the sides. A large pedestrian “mall” splits the opposing lanes of traffic, and shortly before we made the turn towards the stadium, we passed the “Spire of Dublin” – a stainless steel monument with a lit top – completed in 2003 to replace the Nelson’s pillar destroyed in 1966 by former members of the IRA.

Croke Park

At Croke Park our tour guide informed us that each county, city, and town hosts a branch of the GAA (including those in Northern Ireland, one in NYC, and one in London), with Gaelic Football and Hurling the two main sports. Our orientation group had a private tour of the grounds and the museum, including the Players' Lounge, primary locker room (with every county’s jersey displayed), pitch and upper stands.

Primary Locker Room

The area where the modern stadium now stands is of particular importance to Irish revolutionary history. During a gaelic football match on November 21, 1920 British police and soldiers entered the ground and indiscriminately shot and killed 14 spectators. The attack was retaliation against the killing of 14 British intelligence officers, as ordered by Michael Collins, early that morning.

Nevertheless, our tour guide assured us that Croke Park is incredibly peaceful today, with rival spectators sitting side-by-side and without incident. He suggested that the amateur nature of the sport (which can still fill the 81,000 seat stadium) encourages such civility. Even so, I noticed that alcohol could only be consumed on the concourses.

The final portion of the museum included a testing ground with various dexterity and strength exercises - I set the high score for one of the hurling challenges (think three-sided and wall-sized wack-a-mole).

After the tour, the gang had fully intended to go grocery shopping, but decided to grab dinner first at Madigan's Pub (my 7th so far - including the literary pub crawl of course). It was an authentic Irish meal, and by the looks of it, an authentic and not touristy pub (later confirmed by one of our SSP professors).

By the time we left, it had started to rain, and we lost our resolve to go shopping - but we have recommitted to going tomorrow... after our morning lectures, setting up bank accounts, before lunch, and before we head to the Abbey Theatre for Arrah na Pogue.