Everyone in Ireland is obsessed with football

I had pretty much figured that the Irish are crazy, but tonight I got to see first-hand the local insanity centered completely around football. Yesterday I met up with Gill and spent the night with her at her parent's place (we went walking around a fab park with cool old churches and lots of leprochaun trees, then watched movies). Then today she brought me to her place to drop off our things and we headed into the chaos thaat was Dublin. Apparently I have the best travel-kharma ever and happened to stumble into Ireland not only for the Dublin Fringe Fest, but also for the final game of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. The two teams playing were from the far North (Tyrone) vs the far South (Kerry) so fans from all parts of Ireland swarmed Dublin to be near the action (not including the 90,000 or so fans in the stadium itself). Gill and I made some roadies, as we are very classy and also poor, then took the bus into Dublin.

The city was packed full of excited and most likely inebriated football fans. We met up with a friend of Gill's, got some bracelets for the team I was informed that we were supporting (Tyrone) and headed to a pub right by the stadium. Words cannot possibly describe the chaotic energy of a 3 level bar packed up to the tits with drunken Irish football fans. We met up with some of Gill's friends at the bar (including 2 I'd met in Canada, woo!) and started drinking around noon or so (again, classy). Most people had gotten there and started drinking before us, and the wreckless, sloppy energy was contagious. The game itself was actually really interesting (it's crazy to admit that, because I normally loathe watching sports) with the teams neck and neck up until the last few minutes. I would cheer whenever Tyrone got a point, drink whenever I wasn't cheering, make best friends with strangers, and near the end of the game, by god, I was a drunken Irish football loving wreck! Tyrone won and the place went right to hell (but in a good way, like rock and roll kind of hell). We all cheered and screamed and hugged, and then they started playing a bunch of Irish songs. Everyone was singing at the top of their lungs, climbing on the chairs, climbing on the tables, climbing on each other! It was amazing! Afterwards we had to go get food because all that drinking and cheering really works up an apetite. I must say, though, I've probably spent the most Irish day one can possibly spend. So now when people ask if I took in the local culture, I can say that I took it in, and even though I felt a little queezy, I held it down!