Glendalough and GAA

Buenas noches mi familia y amigos (especialmente a mi hermana, por quien este blog es para). I had no intention of writing tonight but I got a request (again) from my sister Rachel, so for the seven and a half people who still read this, you can thank her. I apologize for not being more consistent with the blog updates, but here’s the thing: as master of this webpage I can see how many hits it gets, and there just aren’t many. Somewhere between August 27^th and September 21^st I lost 67 readers. Ahh well. If you’re still reading, thank you! And if by chance this is your first visit, sorry for such a lame introduction (as I said, I wasn’t planning to write anything tonight). Now, back to Ireland:

Since I am essentially writing this entire post for Rachel I may as well talk about things that will entertain her (the rest of you should start putting in requests if you want personal shout outs). Here goes…this past Sunday I went to Glendalough with the Trinity Hiking Club. Yup folks, Lauren Russell paid 3€ to join a hiking society. Glendalough will probably end up being my first and last excursion since all future hikes require hiking boots (which I absolutely will not be purchasing) but it was a grand time all the same. Funny enough, I’d say 80% of the group were either international students like myself, or first year Trinity kids. The whole hike was a bit under four hours and it wasn’t very difficult. And to be honest, the small sweat I broke on the uphill portion was worth it for the view. Glendalough is a famous tourist destination in County Wicklow known as “the valley of the two lakes” (according to the travel website I’m scamming this info off of). To summarize, it is beautiful, majestic and perhaps even magical. My pictures honestly don’t do it justice, but please peruse them anyways. Also in the vicinity is an ancient round tower (on Facebook Rachel dubbed it “Rapunzel’s Tower”). I hadn’t made the connection, but in hindsight that would be a good way to describe it…there is no entrance into the tower, only windows. Round towers are pretty unique to Ireland; we learned about them in our Intro to Ireland course a few weeks ago. Historians aren’t sure what their original purpose was, but the general consensus is that they were probably early Christian bell towers. They aren’t practical for much, but they do make for a great picture.  

The one downside of my Glendalough trip was that I missed the All Ireland Football Championship. I’m not really complaining; I am a pretty notorious bandwagon fan of all sporting events. I’ll watch the Super Bowl if the Patriots are playing, the Stanley Cup Finals if the Bruins are in, etc. Other than that I’m hardly a devoted follower. I would have liked to see the Mayo-Donegal game though. The night before the match I met Mayo locals who had flown in from New York City to be here for it. I mean, that’s dedication. Donegal ended up with the Sam Maguire Cup (which by the way is modelled after the Ardagh Chalice…I learned a lot of factoids this August). Clearly the game wasn’t important to me on a personal level, but here’s what I did take away from the whole thing: admiration for the Gaelic Athletic Association. Considering the whole purpose of the organisation is to preserve and promote Irish culture (namely, athletics) it’s not surprising that there’s a lot a history tied up in the GAA. What struck me most is that it is amateur-only. The athletes lead real lives outside of the sport, and they aren’t paid. They don’t even wear their names on their jerseys. They train at the level of professionals but they do it for love of the game and love of their county. It makes you think… as much as we adore our star athletes in the States, it only takes an attractive contract to lose them to a rival team. I think the reason Gaelic Football has remained the most popular sport in Ireland is because the emphasis is truly on the team and on the county; each county has something to rally for as a community.  

That’s all for tonight kids. I’ll try to step up my game with the blogging but I’m not making any promises.

XOXO,

Lauren

 

 

 

 

 

  

I WANT IT. sigh. It's a Waterford chandelier in the
Player's Room at Croke Park (football & hurling inspired)





Croke Park



 

HAHA. stern faces