But what is the All-Ireland? It's the championship match in Gaelic Football, on a Super Bowl-like scale. It's played annually in Croke Park in front of a crowd of 83,000. Tickets are send to every Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) around the world. 18,000 tickets went to Dublin clubs and 11,000 tickets went to Kerry clubs (the two counties competing for the trophy they call the Sam Maguire.) On the radio leading up to the big match, callers were complaining how true fans were struggling to come up with a ticket, whose face value was 80 Euros, while people with deep pockets could just go online and pay the going price of 400 Euros. Others were calling in with tips on which pubs to go into last minute to try and get tickets. One person had a couple tickets mailed to him from his cousin in California.
Of course, the rules are different to American football or even soccer, it's an incredibly fast-paced, compelling game. The Gaelic games here are so historically connected to the people, it's not a stretch to say that the GAA is an integral part of Irish culture.
As a result, there are two major differences between the All-Ireland and the Superbowl: the game was televised on national public television without commercials and all the players are amateurs. That's right, they balance full-time jobs on top of all their practices and games. On Monday, one player went back to teaching high school science. Another carried on as an architect.
There was another notable difference: the acceptance speech. It was given by the team captain, not the coach or team manager. I must say it was the most gracious, eloquent speech I've heard after a game win.
But aside from those characteristics, the 2011 All-Ireland match stood out from past years and will be talked about for many years to come. Dublin, who hadn't won the All-Ireland for 16 years, was playing Kerry, whose team has a long tradition of Gaelic football and has often won the All-Ireland. Neck and neck the whole way, we were on the edge of our seats the whole match.
With 7 minutes left to go, it looked like Dublin was going to lose to Kerry. But they pulled it out and the game was ultimately decided in the last 10 seconds. I've put links to the game and acceptance speech below and I highly recommend you watch both.
We watched the match at Alan's cousin's house, and of course we got into the spirit of things. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1Gpir6kQXASet the player to start at 26:12 and go from there. I won't go into all the details about rules and score keeping, I'll just let you follow along and I think you'll see how it works. I will just tell you that a match is 70 minutes in length, with any time from injuries added on afterwards.
Captain Bryan Cullen's acceptance speech. I wish all players back home would carry themselves with such poise and grace.
Click here to read about the Gaelic Athletic Association.
Enjoy!
