ROF= Ring of Fire Odyssey
MEF-H = Marine Expeditionary Force- Hargus
Eire= Ireland journey
Tuesday April 30, 2019
Croke Park is Irish sacred ground !
To scout out Dublin and determine what we wanted to go back and see... jumped on the Hop on- Hop off bus. They're good. You find out quick what you don't want to waste any time on.
North of downtown square we're riding on a street of residential apartments/ flats. & I get a glimpse of a modern sports stadium.
Bus goes right up to the parking lot at the stadium.
Wow!!!
?you have watched some of the European Soccer league games? ?Seen the modern European sports facilities?
This is fantastic!
This stadium puts American football stadiums in 2nd place.
This is Croke Park. HQ of the GAA, the Gaelic Athletic Association. Host stadium for the big Irish football games, rugby, soccer,... even some concerts.
You can see the steep seating angle so everyone has a great view of the field. Now this is a stadium for fans!
I would love to see a real Irish soccer finals game here. Maybe someday.
Now,... read back in the history of Croke Park... This place is a historical shrine in Ireland.
Not only just just for the love of Irish football/ soccer... Croke Park was the historical site of the 1916 Easter Rising rebellion. from wiki: The Easter Rising (Irish: Éirí Amach na Cásca),[2] also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week, April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans to end British rule in Ireland and establish an independent Irish Republic while the United Kingdom was heavily engaged in the First World War. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798, and the first armed action of the Irish revolutionary period.
It's enough of a history.... but 4 years later in 1920... Bloody Sunday. Wiki: During the Irish War of Independence on 21 November 1920 Croke Park was the scene of a massacre by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). The Police, supported by the British Auxiliary Division, entered the ground and began shooting into the crowd, killing or fatally wounding 14 civilians during a Dublin-Tipperary Gaelic football match. The dead included 13 spectators and Tipperary player Michael Hogan. Posthumously, the Hogan stand built in 1924 was named in his honour. These shootings, on the day which became known as Bloody Sunday, were a reprisal for the killing of 15 people associated with the Cairo Gang, a group of British Intelligence officers, by Michael Collins' 'squad' earlier that day.
So,.... it's not enough that the Irish have fought and revolted for centuries under british rule... The Irish have fought off invasions by the Vikings, The Norse, Pagans, The English, ... famine, living in poverty in an aristocratic feudal, peonage/ indentured servant economic system, they've fought the North Sea cold winds for ions of time.... and they have fight, and struggle, and revolution in their blood. They've suffered centuries under impossible survival and every Irishman I met had a hearty heart and was full of life; ready to go and revolt again if need be... The elections were soon and the political posters were all over the place.
So when the Irish play football, soccer, rugby, hurling... These guys play with ALL their heart; ALL they've got. The Irish play and leave it ALL on the field!!! They don't hold back for next week, next year; fight and revolution is in their blood.
Croke Park is an Irish shrine of history. Glad to see this today. If I knew I was going to be in a fight....I'd want some Irish guys with me. ERIN go BRAGH !
You never drink twice from the same stream.
Just because you wander doesn't mean you're lost.
Uncle Hargus: Last of the Independents
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