Dublin is a city with many sides and stories, I supposed it would be more appropriate to say raised on songs and stories to steal a phrase. There are many who could tell you secret spots and special tales of growing up in and around Dublin, and hopefully she will be guest posting soon, I on the other hand appreciate the different types of Dubliners one meets and this story revolves around them and American football.

 

Visiting my cousin during a buying trip in January, typically mirrored the NFL playoffs, this cousin moved to Ireland from the U.S. and looked forward to watching the games with some one from home. So he and a few other ex-pats  had watched the games before in a sports bar that was empty the week before and the bartender said they could watch the next weeks game too, if nothing else was on.

So I meet my cousin and his two friends at this sports bar that had at least a dozen tv’s showing the Madrid soccer league game. Now we know that American football in Ireland is way down on the list of viewing choices, but ask the fellow if he could turn one of the tv’s to sky sports. The bartender tells us that all the tv’s are on the same circuit and can’t set one different than the other. So we tell him not to worry about it, but it would have been nice to see the game. To prove there is a God, at the same time there is a fella at the bar who thinks the bartender is going to turn the tv’s from the soccer to watch that American football shite, and starts arguing with the bartender.

http://youtu.be/JoNJFvIXBW0

We watch the argument rage on until the bartender turns the tv’s every one of them from the soccer match to an American Football game, you could hear the groans throughout the place, and the bartender says in a loud tone ” I told these fellas they could watch their game, so stuff it.” Now in further proof of a divine power, we turn to the bartender and tell him its not that important of a game, since we wanted to get out of the bar alive. He is adamant and turns the volume of the American football game up. So since we weren’t going to survive for more than a minute or so we sit down and watch the game. A bunch of fellas come over and we figured this would be our escort out of the place with a bounce or two included, but instead one of the guys says “Gerry really p**d Jackie off how’s this game work?” So we spent the rest of the night watching football in a Dublin pub laughing and explaining American football with a bunch of great Dubs.

And yes this really happened.

Cheers.