Far too quickly, our Irish visit was coming to a close and there were still a few items on our to-do list that hadn't been to-do'd yet. There are a number of national sports in Ireland that are unique to Ireland and, for the most part, played only inside Ireland. We had seen some of the hard hitting action associated with Gaelic Football (think Aussie Rules with a soccer ball) and we picked up tickets for the opening game of the Irish Hurling season. We did have to write off the idea of catching a Road Bowling game- an Irish sport in which competitors attempt to take the fewest throws to propel a metal ball along a predetermined course of country roads- sort of an extended version of lawn bowling with a steel cannonball. Apparently the advent of the automobile seriously cut into their playing fields and to see any Road Bowling, you need to be very lucky or attend certain county fairs. We weren't likely to see any steel cannonballs flying around Dublin (although we saw just about everything else in the Temple Bar area), so we knew we'd have to save bowling for the next time around. 

DH's to-do list was more focused on trying to track down a miracle cure to her growing list of physical ailments. Given that it's common knowledge that if captured by a human, the leprechaun has the magical power to grant three wishes in exchange for their freedom, DH thought that grabbing one of these little dudes with the green hat and jacket would be a great alternative to the Canadian Health Care system. She had crawled under a few stone bridges as we traveled through the Irish countryside, but given that Dublin was our last stop, she thought that the best place to search would be within the Dublin Leprechaun Museum. As museums go, the Leprechaun museum probably doesn't reach the high standards of the Butter Museum in Cork, but it was mildly interesting even if DH was unable to make contact with any of the Irish fairies.

While driving through most of Ireland, it often seemed like we were the only ones traveling the laneways of the Emerald Isle but there were no such illusions in Dublin. I'm guessing that the Temple Bar area has the highest concentration of pubs in Ireland (and that's saying something) but I'm not sure any locals bother drinking here. It seemed to be the purview of an endless stream of bachelourette and bachelour parties and people with an undefined need to dress up in costumes. And of course we all ended up in the Guinness Factory.

St. James's Gate Brewery is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness- it goes without saying that the main product of the brewery is Guinness Draught. It became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838, and the largest in the world by 1886, with an annual output of 1.2 million barrels. Although it's not the biggest anymore, it's still the largest brewer of stout in the world. The factory tour is one of the better ones we've done and it even ended up in a classroom where we picked up a diploma for learning to pour the perfect glass of Guinness. Of course I ended up with both drinks but I'm still struggling to see the magic in a dark stout (was that Paddy McLaughlin hitting the floor??).

Dublin has always been the capital of the Free Irish State since 1922 and has a tremendous amount of history tied up in various churches, jails, pubs, and municipal buildings but perhaps the history of recent Ireland is best told by a stadium- Croke Park is an 83,000 seat stadium that was the site of the Bloody Sunday Massacre in 1920 when the Brits entered the ground, shooting indiscriminately into the crowd killing or fatally wounding 14 during a Dublin-Tipperary Gaelic football match. From that date forward until 2006 no 'British' sports were allowed to be played in the stadium- in 2007 "God Save The Queen" was sung with great concern but ultimately the anthem was sung without interruption or incident, and applauded by both sets of supporters at the match. Tragedy to tolerance- is this a permanent bridge?

Our last day in Ireland saw us on a train from Dublin to Kildare to take in a Senior Hurling match between Limerick and Claire. As we've wandered the planet we've tried taking in any local sports where possible and most of the time it can be something of an acquired taste. Hurling does not fall into that category- this was a fast, tough, and exciting game to watch even if some of the rules took a while to figure out. Picture a soccer-sized pitch and lacrosse players using stubby hockey sticks, along with a big net and field goal posts and you may get some idea as to the organized mayhem we witnessed. A hockey player could appreciate this game- this was no soccer game where a little magic spray would bring a player back from a near-death experience- if you were dragged off of the hurling field, you weren't coming back (apparently security forces in Northern Ireland were banned from playing hurling due to the possibility of 'accidental' contact). Rabid supporters all around us added to the enjoyment and the neighbours were constantly clarifying the rules. I don't understand why this sport isn't played outside of Ireland??

We said goodbye to Spud, Dublin, and Ireland. With DH spinning both emotionally and physically, I wasn't sure we should continue our travels but the warmth and comfort of Ireland was probably as good as any medicine we could have injected her with (although admittedly the mystery pain pills we picked up in Mexico have become something of a BFF for her).