Dublin, Ireland

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DAY 12 - TUESDAY 31 AUGUST

Arrived at Heathrow Airport at approximately 6am. I was very tired at this stage but had to transfer to Gatwick, another London airport (there are 4 in total). Caught the shuttle bus to Gatwick and tried to get some sleep in the departure lounge (with a Sherrin as my pillow) but again it was impossible.

The flight to Dublin departed at 11am, arriving in about 12.30pm. I was exhausted but that was the least of my problems. British Airways (God bless them) had managed to lose my suitcase and I was not impressed. I reported it missing and was given a contact phone number and reference number.

A word of warning here. I was told at the Dublin airport that luggage is lost between Heathrow and Gatwick all the time. So if you?re ever catching a Gatwick flight via Heathrow, my advice would be to check your luggage through to Heathrow and then physically take it to Gatwick. I know I will be in future.

Colm Cronin met me at the airport. He lives in Galway (about 3 hours drive from Dublin) in County Mayo and had come to Dublin to meet me, which was very good of him. We caught a bus into town and stopped at Burger King in Grafton Street for a feed. Grafton Street is an extremely busy pedestrian mall in the heart of the city and has to be seen to be believed. It is literally awash with people and has a great feel to it.

After lunch we went to Croke Park, the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and the venue of the International Rules matches between Australia and Ireland in 1998. We visited the GAA Museum, which contains lots of interesting info about Gaelic football, hurling and other Gaelic sports. There?s a brief amount of info on the International Rules concept, including a signed Sherrin by one of the Australian teams. Croke Park is currently in the middle of an extensive redevelopment, as you may have noticed if you saw the International Rules matches on television.

We had a look around the stadium as well and were keen to have a kick of the footy on the ground, but access to the field was not allowed. We had to settle for the carpark instead.

By this stage I was at the point of total collapse and we headed for Heidi?s place (Colm?s sister), where we were staying. I was supposed to go out for a drink at the Palace Bar on Fleet Street with Colm, Mick McCormick, Trevor Lawless and Kieran O?Hara but exhaustion finally caught up with me.

The four blokes mentioned above are all Irish and the get together for drinks was actually the inaugural meeting of the Dublin Demons Football Club. This is a fantastic initiative and one which should be fully supported. If they play Gaelic football in Australia there is no reason why they cannot play footy in Ireland.

DAY 13 - WEDNESDAY 1 SEPTEMBER
Colm had to go back to Galway at 11am, so spent the morning talking to him about footy. I learnt that Colm is a man of many talents.

Colm Cronin is 22 and has just finished studying at the National University of Ireland Galway. He played his first game of Gaelic football at 10 for the Knockmore club in Mayo. He played at all levels before being picked for the County Under 16 team in the Ted Webb Cup. His playing position was left corner back, which is a defensive position. In Gaelic football there are 3 on the last line of defence - the fullback, the left corner back and the right corner back. The goalkeeper is actually behind these three.

County Mayo is one of the five counties in the province of Connacht. The other 3 provinces are Leinster, Ulster and Munster.

At the same time he started playing Rugby for Ballina as a second centre and really enjoyed it as it was something different. He had a trial with the Provincial team, Connacht Youth. He ended up playing for that team against the other three provinces.

After that Colm received a letter from the IRFU asking him to attend the Under 18 Irish National Team trials. He was on the squad of 35 but missed out on a final spot. Still he was very happy to get that far.

Colm started college at 18. He took up judo and was part of the team that won the National Intervarsity All-Ireland Judo title.

In 1997 he decided to do something to promote the International Rules games between Australian and Ireland by setting up a web site. He had seen the games on TV and thought they were fantastic. It was great to see an Irish team competing in Gaelic football, although modified.

He had planned to go to London and play for one of the teams in the British league. Instead he went to the USA in the summer of 1998 and played for the Boston Demons.

He actually played Gaelic football first for Boston Mayo. He played only one game as he didn?t like the small pitch, as it was played on an American football field.

Gaelic football is so strong in the US that North America (along with London) has representation on the GAA Congress in Ireland. There are two boards: the North American County Board and the New York County Board. There are about 30 teams in Boston alone. The Boston GAA League has just opened a ?10 million Cultural Centre, with a library, museum, function rooms and football and hurling fields. This year the winners of both the GAA football and hurling All-Ireland finals will be playing exhibition games in Boston. These matches are at the same time as the International Rules series, but the top footballers will go to Australia.

Colm got in contact with the Boston Demons and went to his first training session. They were really helpful with showing him the skills of the game and seemed to be impressed with some of his Gaelic skills. The team travelled a lot and his first game was actually for the Nashville Kangaroos, as they were short of numbers for their game against Boston. Colm played in the forwards and didn?t get a touch, although he got a few bruises. He enjoyed the game though and wanted to play again.

Colm played about 3 games before travelling to Cincinnati for the second United States American Football Association (USAFA) National Championships. He had been shifted to rover and was loving it. The Demons went undefeated and won the tournament. Soon after Colm returned to Ireland to resume his studies.

In April 1998 he attended the Connacht v Australian juniors (AIS/AFL) match, which was played at Tuam Stadium in County Galway. There was a big crowd and it was a great match. The match was won by Connacht, the only province to defeat Australia on their tour.

Colm also attended the first match of senior International Rules at Croke Park in Dublin. "It was an excellent game of football and there were heaps of Australians in the crowd. It was great to see that the victory meant a lot to the Australian players. It was strange to see the Aussie supporters kick the footy on Croke Park after the game, it?s not normally done after a Gaelic game."

Afterwards Colm saw a message on the BARFL website from Michael McCormick, a former Wandsworth Demons player, stating that he was back in Ireland and missing his footy. Colm emailed him and suggested they form a team in Ireland. Mick emailed him back and said let?s do it. Colm then posted messages on some electronic bulletin boards about forming a team and started to get some responses. This just demonstrates the power of the internet, and just how crucial it has been in the development of international footy.

After seeing Colm off I paid a visit to the Australian Embassy, where I had a meeting with the Third Secretary, Michael Roche. I informed him that an Australian football team was being formed in Ireland and gave him some background info on international footy and the IAFC. He was very keen to assist, including inviting the boys to the Embassy Bar Night (held on the first Friday of every month), as well as offering the opportunity to place literature in the Embassy. The most important assistance however was the provision of a contact list for Australian businesses involved in Ireland, including the Australia Ireland Business Association (AIBA).

An important point needs to be made here. The assistance of staff from the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT) and Austrade has been and will continue to be invaluable in the push to make Australian football a global sport. To anyone who is interested in starting a team in a new region, and to anyone who has not already done so, I strongly suggest you contact and befriend DFAT and Austrade staff in your country.

My next meeting was with Kieran O?Hara from Setanta Sports, the company which has the rights to televise all GAA games. Setanta also broadcasts worldwide to pubs outside Ireland. Another production is Clash, a Gaelic games highlight package, which is shown on SBS (Australia), Fox Sports (USA) and Sky (England).

Kieran is the Assistant Producer of Breaking Ball, which is shown every Friday night on RTE1 and is the main preview program for GAA in Ireland. It is a 30 minute program but will expand to 40 minutes for the International Rules series.

Tnag is a Gaelic channel, although it broadcasts Aussie rules 3 times a week in English, on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

It was interesting to learn the differing structures of Gaelic and Australian football. The basic unit of Irish life is the parish. Unlike any other sport in Ireland every parish has a Gaelic football club. Parish rivalry is huge and playing for your parish is about family and representing your club, rather than money. Football is much more important than life and death. If you win your match, your community functions better for a week.

The next level is the County. There are 32 counties involved in the All-Ireland Championship. New York and London compete in the Connacht Football Championship. A series of knockout matches then produces the 4 winners of the Provincial Championship, who all go to the All-Ireland Championship.

So the hierarchy is structured in this way: Parish - County - Province. Therefore in order to win the All-Ireland final a team will have to win a County Championship, Provincial Championship, All-Ireland semi-final and final. It?s a knockout system so it?s pretty tough.

After the meeting I walked back to the city centre and bought a ticket on a Double Decker Bus to do some sightseeing. The trip takes 1 hour and 20 minutes and you can hop on and off as often as you please. Full commentary is provided and it?s good value at ?8.

Got off at St. Stephen?s Green, a beautiful public park with plenty of lush grass, trees, ponds and flowers - a great spot to relax and soak up some sun. It was donated to the Dublin public by Sir Arthur Edward Guinness in 1877 and is a must see if you?re ever in this part of the world.

Next stop was Trinity College, home of the famous Book of Kells. The College was founded by Queen Elizabeth in 1592. Highly recommended is a really good walking tour which costs just ?5, including admission to the Book. It?s famous because it was written in the 9th century and is in great condition. At the conclusion of the tour I had a look at the College?s cricket oval, which has a very good surface and is big enough to play footy on. And the College could be handy source for players. It would be great if the Dublin Demons could get access to the field.

After the College I visited the General Post Office, scene of the infamous 1916 uprising against English rule. This started when Patrick Pearse read aloud a Proclamation of Independence outside the GPO on 24 April 1916. Unfortunately this led to the shedding of blood and you can still see the bullet holes 83 years later. There?s also a statue of Cuchulainn, an Irish national hero. His enemies feared him so much that they still feared him in death - they only dared approach him when they saw a raven land on his shoulders.

Near the GPO there?s a few interesting monuments, including Molly Malone (known by the locals as ?the tart with the cart?) and the River Liffey (similarly ?the floozie in the Jacuzzi?). The River Liffey (also known as the ?iffy Liffey?) is a tidal river which divides North and South Dublin and it?s quite polluted. It?s only 80km long and its waters were once used in the production of Guinness. Thankfully that?s no longer the case.

Met Trevor Lawless at 6.15pm as I was spending the night at his place. Trevor is Irish and had just moved back to Dublin from London, where he had been the last 10 years. Whilst there he played for the Wandsworth Demons in the BARFL and was missing his footy.

Rang the airport from Trevor?s place (a very nice bachelor pad) and was finally informed my luggage had been found. We drove out to the airport and fetched my worldly possessions.

To be sure we weren?t thirsty, headed out to the Temple Bar district for a pint of Guinness or two, ending up at one of Dublin?s 850 pubs. This was one of the highlights of my trip. The meals were huge, the Guinness and beer were superb and the traditional music performed by the live band was simply awesome. It was a great atmosphere and I found myself wondering why I had only booked two days in Dublin.

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