Rugby - Ireland vs. England

"Oh flower of Scotland, when will we see thee rise again..." rings out over the "telly" and I sort of double take thinking wait a minute I thought this was Ireland England we were here to watch, but no this is the pre-Ireland England match that nobody in the pub really cared about between Scotland and Italy, which you had to see just in order to secure a good position for the game that really mattered. And that's not the only benefit of going early, here in the pub there is a real sense of international curiosity as our American and not-American accents are revealed, and we're fielded with questions of ice-hockey and American football, and of course the locals curiosity continues to explore the various ales and lagers of the world particularly Germany and Holland. I listened to my cousins Niall and Myles and there good friend Barry shed light on the fact that "Irish beer is for s**t" and that the Germans really knew what they were doing when it came to beer whereas "the Irish simply push pint after pint of s**t" across the top of the bar". Even England has wonderful micro-brews in all the little towns that they are happy to pour anyone a sample from, but that will be the last nice word I hear of England this evening.


Every day in the papers since we've arrived there has been a debate about whether or not "God Save The Queen" should be played at Croke Park, where the last time an English team played was on Black Sunday in 1920 when the Black and Tans marched into the stadium and started shooting players and fans. 14 People were killed and now here was England to come into Croke Park on the north side of Dublin, the press was speculating about the reaction that stood to come from such a gesture. It was interesting at times and made for some entertaining reading these past few days.


But as the game started and the song was played the Irish cheered and it was clear that day was behind them. One major point in favor of the Irish.

Without getting into the details of the match, the atmosphere was awesome, 100-150 people yelling at a 20-inch "telly". I won't tell you who won, because Brian Fleeton back in Canada has likely searched the TV guide for a station that played the game and again after 37 years of residing in North American countries will learn it isn't being shown, so he'll download as many games as he can get his hands on from the internet which takes a few days.