Football Sunday

Sunday the day before St. Patricks day we went to Castlebar to watch some hurling and some Gaelic football.  When first coming to Ireland I had no idea what either of these sports were but after watching the news I started to get an idea of the sports.  Both are very physical but hurling uses a stick and a small ball kind of like a baseball.  Gaelic football on the other hand used just a ball like a soccer ball and two soccer nets with goal post extending above them like a field goal in American Football.

We got to the stadium early to get good seats.  The hurling match didn't have many fans because it was a division 4 game.  It was still entertaining but our bus driver was telling us that if it was a division 1 game, there would be a lot more scoring and more exciting.  As the hurling game was coming to the end, the stands started to fill up to see the Gaelic football game.  The football game was County Mayo (the county we are calling home for 3 months over here) vs Cork who is ranked #1 in the league.  As the football game started Cork jumped out to 5 pints to nil (a pint is worth one point or over the goal but through the uprights and a goal is worth 3 points or in the net below the crossbar) .  Then Mayo woke up and tied it up 5 pints to 5 pints and they never looked back.  It was super fun and before you knew it you were just as into the game as the rest of the Irish crowd.  The final score was Mayo with 4 goals and 12 pints to Cork with 2 goals and 14 pints. 

It was nice to watch something physical, that was kind of like American Football and soccer in the winter on a Sunday.