Croke Park

Saturday was a VERY busy day for me!

First up: Stadium tour of Croke Park- the National Stadium for the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Since their remodelling they have begun host a lot of events at the the Park but it is still mainly used for the Irish sports of Gaelic Football and Hurling. I learned that the two games actually have the same basic rules just different equipment. For Gaelic Football you use what looks like a soccer ball but the players can pick it up and dribble it or throw it. Hurling uses a stick and smaller ball... I tried it out and can honestly say I am not good at it. We were told that anyone can play Gaelic Football but Hurling takes a lot of skill and most of the best players start playing when they are 3 or 4 at their local GAA clubs. So I started out a little too late.

Croke Park is the 4th largest stadium in Europe.... and it is for a club organisation! (notice the lack of z, haha!) It holds 82,300 people!! An interesting fact is that all the players are unpaid. They play because they really love the game.

The tour guide was telling us about how the GAA is an identity here. Everyone supports their local team and usually if something is going on in the town, it is at the GAA club. We watched a short video about their sports so we could see them being played. Then we walked through the service tunnels and into the players lounge, dressing rooms, practice rooms, and then onto the pitch and up into the very top of the stands. We basically covered it all. They even played sound effects of cheering and screaming fans when we walked out of the tunnel onto the pitch, haha! One of the teams that was playing that night was on the pitch and they all laughed at us as we walked out. Then we sat in the stands to hear some more info and the team went and pressed the sound effect button 2 more times, haha!

Players Lounge: the winning and losing team usually comes in here after a game. Since they are unpaid they get free drinks and food. The light fixture is made from Waterford Crystal and symbolizes the hurling ball and football. The lights change to the color of the winning team.