The All Ireland Hurling Championship game finished in a tie and it was "the best result, really"

Galway's Joe Canning celebrating after his early goal in last
Sunday's All Ireland Hurling Final
{Photo: StudentNews.ie}

Last Sunday Kilkenny and Galway played in the All Ireland Hurling Final and the game ended in a tie. A draw. A dead heat. No overtime or extra time or penalty shoot-out or anything. The final whistle sounded and the game ended with the teams even at 19 points. The result means the same two teams will meet again in a 'replay' on September 30 to decide the championship.

When I think about that it's incredible to me. A championship decider ending in a tie. Can you imagine the Super Bowl ending in a tie? No, of course not. Football fans wouldn't stand for it. The Super Bowl is the championship game and there must be a winner.

Of course, ties are almost non-existent in American sports now. When I was a kid baseball and basketball didn't allow for ties; games kept going until there was a winner. Football and hockey had ties, but gradually those too have been phased out. The legendary 10-10 tie between Notre Dame and Michigan State in 1966 could not happen today thanks to college football's (frankly strange) overtime system.

Europeans are more comfortable with ties. Anyone who regularly watches the English Premier League has seen plenty of games that ended with both teams even. However, even European soccer championship games are played to a conclusion these days with 'extra time' and, if necessary, the dreaded penalty shoot-out. I can't remember the last time an FA Cup Final finished in a tie and the two teams met again in a replay.

The Gaelic Athletic Association, which runs both hurling and Gaelic Football, hasn't allowed itself to be dragged along with the anti-tie philosophy sweeping other sports. Games regularly end in a tie, particularly Gaelic Football.

Ties in hurling are much rarer generally because there is more scoring. The last time the hurling final finished in a tie was 1959.

I have to admit that when I was a kid ties always felt unsatisfactory, a let down. Yet, somehow, Sunday's result didn't feel that way to me. Maybe it's a sign of age, but I was happy enough for the game to end with a tie. It's also possible that I just didn't want to see Galway fall one point short when they've waited so long for a title. They earned the tie with a last second point, which allowed them to live to fight another day.

I haven't heard much griping from fans about the final ending in a tie. Again, maybe it's just that I haven't spoken to teenage fans, but mostly I've heard "a draw was a fair result" or "It was the best result, really."

Seeing as the fans aren't complaining about the game ending in a tie there's no mystery as to why the GAA is happy enough to keep the replay system in place. The replay in three weeks means another 82,000 fan sell-out of Croke Park and a large television audience. An extra, unexpected, huge pay day for the GAA.

However, the pay day will not be as huge as it could have been. And this is another reason why the GAA engenders such devotion among Irish fans: the GAA has cut the ticket prices for the replay by 40%. Why? Because, according to GAA executive Feargal McGill, "We’ve had a tremendous year, with tremendous loyalty from all our supporters, across the country, and this was the chance, the gilded opportunity, to say thanks. The very scale of the reduction, we hope, shows people just how much we do genuinely appreciate their ongoing support, in ongoing difficult times."

Could you imagine any American sports organization doing the same? Certainly none of the professional franchises would forego 40% of the gate in order to say "thanks" to their fans. I can't even imagine the NCAA doing it. Same goes for any of the European professional soccer or rugby leagues. I don't know if the GAA is unique, but it has to be pretty close to it.

The GAA is an amateur organization, but it's more than that. The GAA is at the very heart of life in Irish cities, towns and villages. The people who play at the highest level live among the people who cheer them on Sunday.

There are no great distances between the star players and the volunteers who keep the local clubs going and go to stand along the sidelines to watch a small contest on a dark, damp February afternoon or who filled Croke Park to capacity on Sunday for the All Ireland Final. Same goes for the GAA executives. They understand what life is like for the average Irish sports fan these days because they are the average Irish sports fan. Hence the ticket price reduction.

So all the fans will be at Croke Park again on the 30th to enjoy another great day, hopefully see another great game and all at a reduced cost. Awesome. It's the best result, really.

Tough job for Irish police with 35,000 Americans in Dublin for Notre Dame vs Navy

Irish police provided excellent security during the 2011
visits of the Queen and President Obama.

Notre Dame and Navy have arrived in Dublin ahead of Saturday's opener to their college football seasons. Their fans are in town too. The papers say 35,000, but it seems like a lot more than that. There is a great, celebratory atmosphere in Dublin. It's fantastic.

I never doubted that those traveling from America would enjoy themselves in Dublin. It's not hard to entice Irish people to join in when a party arrives on their doorstep. There may not be a million college football fans in Dublin, but everybody here understands pre-game and post-game enjoyment. The Irish are famous in soccer and rugby circles for knowing exactly how to do these things.

The mood couldn't be lighter and I'm certainly not of a mind to dampen down that mood. However I want to spare a thought for the few people in and around Dublin who are probably feeling a lot more tense thanks to the presence of all these Americans, including thousands of United States Navy personnel - those charged with guaranteeing security over this weekend.

Obviously, there'll no real trouble from any of the visiting Americans and no serious trouble from Irish people either. That's one of the key reasons why the atmosphere around Dublin is good. Everybody knows there will be no trouble.

However, Ireland is part of Europe and as easily as the American fans traveled to Ireland so could those twisted few who belong to groups like al Qaeda. Of course, Ireland has had its own, so far thankfully light, brush with al Qaeda terrorism.
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Irish people have great faith in the gardaí and with good reason. Last year's visits of the Queen and President Obama went off without a hitch. Security was tight and effective. I'm sure the gardaí, Ireland's police force, with help from their colleagues in other European police forces have been working on their security arrangements for this weekend since this game was formally announced.

Yet, protecting one very important visitor is a different proposition to protecting thousands of visitors, especially when they're scattered throughout the city. The fact that the Americans will be so easy to identify, especially those in green pants or Navy uniforms, doesn't help the gardaí.

Tomorrow's game would be an obvious target if you were up to no good, but I expect security to be very tight around the stadium. I'm sure the gardaí have that well in hand. Same goes for the area around the USS Fort McHenry, which is in town as part of the Navy's Emerald Isle Classic celebration. Plus, the Navy knows how to protect its ships when in a foreign port.

I'm sure the gardaí are so prepared the they're unworried by either the game or the ship. No, I bet if anything is causing them restlessness it's all those fans wandering around Dublin, with the words "We're Americans" pretty much tattooed on their foreheads.

I expect the eyes under those peaked blue police caps will be keenly focused wherever groups of Americans gather. And come Monday morning I expect no one will be happier to see the American visitors happily on their way than those charged with protecting them this weekend.

{Photo thanks to the Irish Independent.}

Navy should be celebrating Irish links ahead of Saturday's game in Dublin vs Notre Dame

John King, who was from County Mayo,
 won 2 Medals of Honor.
{Photo thanks to HistoricalBallinrobe.com}

Navy plays Notre Dame this weekend in Dublin. Compared with the last time Dublin played host to a college football game - the same two teams - there is a lot more interest here in Ireland. The Irish media is paying a lot more attention and there is a lot more general awareness about the game.

There are many reasons for this, including the fact that the game is being tied to the government's plans for a big Irish family reunion in 2013, but also thanks to the interest in football generally thanks to the presence of the NFL (especially) and college football on cable television.

Of course Notre Dame is the key to much of the local interest. In fact, it's all about Notre Dame, which isn't all that surprising.

The Fighting Irish are bringing most of the visiting (and spending!) fans, but the college has done a lot to develop its Irish links over the past 20 years. Although you might not realize it, the name Notre Dame didn't mean all that much to most people here until recently. Now many - most? - Irish people know Notre Dame and know it's an important institution in Irish America.
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So Notre Dame is coming to Dublin and will overwhelmingly be the 'home team,' although it's officially a Navy home game. That was always going to be the case, but the Navy could have, should have, done more to promote its Irish links, which are a lot older than Notre Dame's.

They could have started with John Barry, "the father of the American Navy," who was from Wexford. Barry's story is too little known here and in America and the Navy missed an opportunity to give a boost to the man George Washington trusted to be the first to lead the United States Navy. {I've mentioned this before, but I had hoped that Saturday's game would be known as the John Barry Bowl, but such a name doesn't have the same marketing appeal as the Emerald Isle Classic. I guess.}

There is also the fact that it was just off the coast of Ireland, near Carrickfergus, that John Paul Jones captured HMS Drake, the first British ship captured by the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War. Surely the Navy could have marked the occasion with a lot of fanfare and a little ceremony celebrating Jones up in County Antrim.

There are many other links, including Clare's John Holland, who invented the submarine. And what about Mayo's John King, who won two Medals of Honor during the early years of the 20th century. There is a statue of King in Ballinrobe. The Navy could have gone to Mayo to honor King. After all they named a ship after him in the 70s so sending a small party to his hometown would have been entirely appropriate.

But the strongest link of all is in County Cork, where the United States Navy had a base during WW1. For two years the United States Navy called Queenstown (now Cobh) home while it waged war on the Kaiser's reich. Although Cobh was the primary base for the Navy, American ships were also based at Berehaven. There were also Naval Air bases all along the south coast and an American Naval hospital at Cobh (Queenstown).

Saturday's game is in Dublin. Dublin is getting most of the attention from the arriving fans. Cork would have been thrilled to get a Navy delegation - or two! The people of Cork would have adopted the Navy for the game. It would have been a case of "Fighting Irish" be damned if only to be different than Dublin.

I know there are all sorts of political, geopolitical even, concerns when it comes to the Navy, but they're coming here to play a football game. It's a great opportunity to for some soft power, light diplomacy and a little bit of a history lesson, one that both Irish and American people could get something from. There should be more to the Navy's mission in Ireland than a "W" on Saturday.

{Let me add, if the Navy is doing any of these things they're doing it with almost no publicity.}

New Year's with Notre Dame football

Notre Dame plays in the
Champs Sports Bowl  on Thursday

By New Year's Day Notre Dame's season will be over. Again. Yet when I was growing up Notre Dame seasons didn't end until New Year's Day and that was at a time when New Year's Day was the last day on the college football calendar, unlike today when it seems to drag on through half of January.

Like all the best memories, mine are pretty vague. In my mind, Notre Dame played in one of the big four bowl games each year. Of course, it couldn't be the Rose Bowl, but ND played in one of the other three - the Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl or Orange Bowl - annually. And, again in my mind, although Notre Dame was never on top of the polls themselves, they were more often than not playing the Number 1 team in the country in the bowl game.

As I said, my happy memories are vague and I'm refusing to allow Google spoil them with facts. That's the trouble with the internet - stats and facts can ruin what you "know to be true."

My memories of New Year's Day with Notre Dame are also tied up in family memories, the kind that can't be ruined by Google, only by other family members with clearer memories. Some of my best memories from childhood are from Christmas time. In our house, not only did we look forward to a visit from Santa, but also from another old man - Father Edmund Murray or, as he was known to us, Father Ed.

Father Ed taught Irish History at Notre Dame. He loved that place and instilled that in each of us. He hoped we would go to college there and we did too, even if when we were young it was because we thought we would get to see even more of Father Ed.

On paper Father Ed would appear to be a distant relative - he was my grandmother's first cousin - but in reality he was like our grandfather and every year he would come to us to spend Christmas with us. For the four of us growing up Father Ed's arrival at Christmas was a very close second to Santa's in terms of excitement and anticipation.

Father Ed didn't lavish us with gifts, but we all had plenty of Notre Dame tee-shirts, sweatshirts and hats. He was a lively, jolly man who loved listening to us, telling us stories, playing cards with us or taking us out for ice creams or whatever. And he liked watching football, especially, of course, Notre Dame.

One game in particular stands out for me - the 1973 Sugar Bowl. The game was actually on New Year's Eve 1973 and not New Year's Day, but it was the biggest game of the year. Alabama was undefeated and Number 1 and Notre Dame was undefeated and Number 2.

My parents were out at a New Year's Eve dance and Father Ed was baby-sitting. I was the oldest in the family and Father Ed let me stay up to watch the game with him. I was only nine. I had never stayed up so late in my life. Although I have only vague memories of the game now, there are a few plays I can still see clearly - in black and white.

I remember being over the moon when Notre Dame had held on for a 24-23 victory. I can't remember anything Father Ed said the whole night, but I can still remember the loud clap of his hands each time Notre Dame scored or made a big play and especially when the game ended. In fact, I think he jumped out of his chair. I'm sure he'd have had more fun watching with a group of alumni or even my father, but he never let on and as far as I'm still concerned that's one of the best nights of my life.

A few weeks after that game a gold Notre Dame National Champions banner arrived at our house. That banner hung in my brother's and my bedroom for years afterwards.

Father Ed is a long time dead, but I still think about him a lot at this time of year. I still root for Notre Dame, although I rarely see them. I'm hoping I can watch the Champs Sports Bowl - whatever that is - this week, although it would be better if ND was playing on New Year's Day where they belong.