I'm in an unusual position in Ireland. The first county a person lives in is usually the one they support until the end. I, on the other hand, have been wavering between two counties: Wicklow and Wexford. This may seem like a silly little thing to some people, but if you spent a week in Ireland you'd get the picture. There's no such thing as supporting TWO counties. It would be like saying you were a Red Sox and Yankees fan at the same time. It just isn't done.
To get an idea of the the whole county system over here, I found a handy little map (see left) that not only breaks the country into counties, but into Provinces as well. There are 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland (as well as another 6 counties in Northern Ireland). These counties are broken into 4 provinces (Leinster, Munster, Ulster, Connacht). Counties are a basically like states at home. There's a national government and then the counties have their own government and the towns/cities below that. All of this seems to exist for one real reason - the GAA. The two major GAA summer sports are Hurling and Gaelic Football. I'll explain more about them in a later post. Briefly: Hurling is a bit of a cross between lacrosse and field hockey. Football is a sort of cross between soccer, rugby, and basketball. At any rate, they are INSANELY popular over here.
To get an idea of just how popular - they are right up there with the NFL or NBA. Jerseys, flags, car decorations.. you name it - they've got it. And it's not like at home where my uncle can get away with being a Broncos fan in NY. It just wouldn't happen over here. If you live in Cork, you're a Cork fan. If you're team is not playing or they've already been eliminated, you can root for another team, but that's about as far as it goes. They've even got the parades. They don't break out the Duck Boats like the Sox, but they gather by the thousands (over 10,000 fans at the All-Ireland Football welcome home parade in Kerry last night), businesses close, and the entire county is out for the day.
Every weekend it seems like 'the BIG game' is on. There are county finals and province finals and then the provinces play each other and there's the all Ireland finals, which proves the greatest county in the country for that sport. I think it's a cleverly organised way for the Irish to ensure that they've always got an excuse to be at the pub. Not that they really need one, but it helps. I remember one weekend I was out on a Friday night and the normal chat and banter was going on when somebody realised there wasn't a game on that Saturday. Everybody stopped. 'Oh. But what are we going to do tomorrow?' I don't know - wait until 6pm instead of noon to go to the pub? But that would be crazy!!! :-)
Which leaves me wondering who to cheer for and what colors to wear on the weekends. I live in Wexford (purple and gold) but work and play Gaelic Football in Wicklow (blue and gold). Wexford occasionally wins things, Wicklow - not so much. I may just have to break my lease or quit my job to settle this... ;-)
To get an idea of the the whole county system over here, I found a handy little map (see left) that not only breaks the country into counties, but into Provinces as well. There are 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland (as well as another 6 counties in Northern Ireland). These counties are broken into 4 provinces (Leinster, Munster, Ulster, Connacht). Counties are a basically like states at home. There's a national government and then the counties have their own government and the towns/cities below that. All of this seems to exist for one real reason - the GAA. The two major GAA summer sports are Hurling and Gaelic Football. I'll explain more about them in a later post. Briefly: Hurling is a bit of a cross between lacrosse and field hockey. Football is a sort of cross between soccer, rugby, and basketball. At any rate, they are INSANELY popular over here.To get an idea of just how popular - they are right up there with the NFL or NBA. Jerseys, flags, car decorations.. you name it - they've got it. And it's not like at home where my uncle can get away with being a Broncos fan in NY. It just wouldn't happen over here. If you live in Cork, you're a Cork fan. If you're team is not playing or they've already been eliminated, you can root for another team, but that's about as far as it goes. They've even got the parades. They don't break out the Duck Boats like the Sox, but they gather by the thousands (over 10,000 fans at the All-Ireland Football welcome home parade in Kerry last night), businesses close, and the entire county is out for the day.
Every weekend it seems like 'the BIG game' is on. There are county finals and province finals and then the provinces play each other and there's the all Ireland finals, which proves the greatest county in the country for that sport. I think it's a cleverly organised way for the Irish to ensure that they've always got an excuse to be at the pub. Not that they really need one, but it helps. I remember one weekend I was out on a Friday night and the normal chat and banter was going on when somebody realised there wasn't a game on that Saturday. Everybody stopped. 'Oh. But what are we going to do tomorrow?' I don't know - wait until 6pm instead of noon to go to the pub? But that would be crazy!!! :-)
Which leaves me wondering who to cheer for and what colors to wear on the weekends. I live in Wexford (purple and gold) but work and play Gaelic Football in Wicklow (blue and gold). Wexford occasionally wins things, Wicklow - not so much. I may just have to break my lease or quit my job to settle this... ;-)
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