I had seen gaelic football in San Francisco, and on tv, but while I was in Ireland, the All Ireland series was up to the semi finals. I really wanted to go see the hurling, but I missed it by a week.
So I went and saw two northern ireland teams, Tyrone and Armagh, play against each other in Dublin. Very good game to watch, and €40 got me a seat 5 rows from the field. Of course, I was buried in a sea of Armagh supporters, when I couldn't really care less who actually won :) Tyrone eventually won, by one point, which I was happy with, as they had a lot less supporters in the crowd.
Then home again, which was an adventure. The train to Malahide decided that it wouldn't be coming for another 2 hours, so I went to another place, where there was meant to be a bus. Of course, the bus doesn't run on Sundays. So I had a good walk home.
This was about the low point of my stay in Ireland. It was grey and dreary all the time, Dublin is just a big crumbling run down heap, and where I was staying, despite assurances of beauty, was just a rather soulless suburb by the "sea" which was really a tidal mud flat. The game was good, but the pubs were SERIOUS FANS only. I stood out like a sore thumb not wearing a jersey of some description. Girls, boys, young, old, all wearing jerseys, or at the very least very obvious team colours.
Oh well, it got better later on.