History On and Off the Field

Street view of Dublin.

There is a growing list of things I didn’t know about Dublin until I came here, but the one that stands out the most is that Dublin’s official year of establishment is 988 A.D., though the city dates back even further than that.

With a thousand years to develop, you can imagine that Dublin is practically made of history. Walking through the city, the buildings flow from period to period. You see Georgian homes from the 1700s followed by monuments and statues representing a millennium’s worth of history.

But, as I learned Sunday, the history of Dublin, and Ireland as a whole, is not just found in the buildings and museums, but also on a 130 meter by 145 meter field.

On Sunday, I attended my first Gaelic football match and cheered a long with the crowd as Dublin took on, and defeated, Laois.

Dublin's Gaelic football team attempts to score on Laois.

Gaelic football dates back to the 17^th century and has been a regulated national sport since 1884 with the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association to preserve Irish sports. I’m so glad that they did because watching Gaelic football is entertaining to say the least.

The game is like a combination of rugby and football (soccer to us Americans) and is a part of the Irish traditions. I saw different generations coming together as Irishmen to watch the games as it has been for centuries. The game continues to be passed down from generation to generation and remains a part of Ireland.

I’m only a week and a half into my Ireland Maymester, and still have so much more to go.