Sneaking In

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On Sunday, we got ourselves moving early in order to make it to 9am mass. We met Tommie and Bernie at mass and in true Irish style the mass was over very quickly. Tommie then proceeded to give us the town tour…. This included a stop at the Flynn & O’Dea Family graves, a walk down main street where the Flynn Family Butcher shop was and over to the park. Tommie is a great tour guide and we heard lots of stories about my grandfather when he lived here. After our tour, we headed to the B&B for a quick freshening up and then met back up with the whole crew for lunch at 1pm. We were again eating at the Templemore Arms Hotel, as that is the only joint in town. Lunch was delicious and we all enjoyed the company. We were sad that Eileen and Jack Kelly were unable to join us, as Eileen was sick in bed. After lunch we said our goodbyes and took a few pictures then we headed back to the B&B. We had heard that their was a hurling match on in Thurles. We found out that the tickets might be quite “dear” but we should head over to at least look around a little. Thurles was a quick 10 minute ride and we realized as soon as we got close to the town that this match was a big deal. There was cars parked all over the place. We lucked out and found two parking spots close to town and then asked for directions to the pitch (field). On a back street in this normally sleepy little town we found a huge stadium. We were unsure if we would be able to get our hands on tickets, but we thought we should at least try. We walked up to what we thought was a gate, and Eileen and her Irish luck got us in for free. Tickets for this match ran 30 Euro and Eileen flashed a quick smile to the lad at the gate and we were in. We could not find any seats, but we were just happy to peek in at the match from the steps. Clare vs. Cork! Hurling is a very fast game similar to US Lacrosse, except it takes a lot more skill and speed. Clare was ahead in points when we arrived, but their defense in the second half suffered and then ended up losing to Cork. We were sad to see Clare lose, but happy that we all got a look at this very interesting sport. We joined the masses leaving the stadium which overwhelmed the small town. Cork fans were celebrating the win and the town was trashed. We ducked into a small pub on the outside of town… we were the only tourists in this pub. We were definitely outsiders, but the locals made us feel welcome. We even witnessed a rare sight… we were able to watch two “young” men fall completely asleep inside the noisy pub. I believe that the festivities with the match and all day drinking had taken a toll on these gentlemen and they were softly snoring while conversations went on around them. After we let the traffic calm down (which was just enough time for a pint), we loaded up the cars and headed back. Templemore’s main street was packed due to the local hurling match and we ducked into another pub for a quick sandwich before heading back to the B&B. Angie and Brent got Natalie settled and then I took the cousins out for a beer. We enjoyed our time away, but before we knew it our beds were calling and we headed back for the night.

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