GlobalSport - Ireland: Croke Park, Dublin Walking Tour, & University College Dublin

It was a long day for the Baldwin Wallace University Global Sport Adventurers as they traveled from Cleveland to Chicago to Dublin, Ireland, but spirits were high as the students who initially departed Cleveland at 2:45 p.m. on Tues., May 16^th arrived in Dublin at 7:45 a.m. on Wed., May 17^th.

Upon arriving the students were greeted by former BW Sport Management faculty member, Dublin native, and former member of the Irish national women’s soccer team Dr. Alvy Styles, who greeted all of the students and faculty warmly.

Styles, along with Declan, the group’s tour bus driver, quickly loaded the group for their visit to Croke Park, the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). The GAA is Ireland's largest sporting and cultural organization and Croke Park is the stadium it calls home.

The GAA oversees Gaelic games such as Hurling, Gaelic Football, Handball and Rounders and works with sister organisations to promote Ladies Football and Camogie. It also assists in the promotion of Irish music, song, dance, and the Irish language as part of its objectives.

Additionally, while the inter-county All-Ireland Championships in hurling, football and camogie capture the attention of the Irish public every summer and Croke Park, the third largest stadium in all of Europe is packed with over 80,000 fans, the GAA players are all amateurs competing solely for local and regional pride.

While the first finals played at what is now Croke Park took place in March 1896, the site and stadium have undergone extensive evolutions over the past 120 years. Traditionally the home of the Gaelic Games, Croke Park has also played host to several international sports including rugby, soccer and American football in recent years and served as the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2003 Special Olympics.

As the students learned about the history of Croke Park and the GAA, they visited the various elements of the stadium (field, locker room, suites, etc.) and received a tour that was robust with the keys to any great sports facility tour, facts, fandom, and feeling. The tour guide shared his own personal memories of experiences at the stadium and clued the students into some of the recent seminal moments in Croke Park History, notably Bloody Sunday, the national anthems during the Ireland vs. England Six Nations Rugby match in 2007, and the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championships (this is Gaelic Football, not American Football or Soccer), when the Dublin side won after a significant drought.

Following the visit to Croke Park, the students took a guided walking tour of Dublin, which was led by Dr. Gavin Finlay, who has a Ph.D. in Irish History. It was an exceptional tour that included visits to Trinity College, Old Parliament House, Dublin Castle and Christ Church Cathedral. It helped the students understand the story of the city of Dublin from its Viking origins to the present post-Celtic Tiger era.

With Croke Park and a knowledge of the GAA and the city of Dublin marinating in their brains, Thursday, May 18^th was a day for the students to solidify their understanding of the intersection of Irish politics, sport, and identity. With the help of Dr. James Matthews, Dr. Seamus Kelly, Dr. Mike Cronin, Dr. Paul Rouse, and Eamon Wallace, a Gaelic football player for Ratoath GAA Club. The topics covered included Sport in Ireland, The Gaelic Athletic Association, Sport & Politics: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, and Gaelic Sport and Amateurism.

The presentations were informative for the students and provided interesting comparisons and contrasts between the American sport system and the Irish sport system. Most interesting to the students was the similarity of the Gaelic Athletic Association and the NCAA in the United States. The professionalization of the GAA was apparent in every facet of the organization except for the athletes, who were amateurs, like the NCAA.

With the presentations and questions and answer sessions wrapped up the students were free to enjoy the evening and anticipated their Friday, May 19^th adventures which include a visit to the Irish Sport Campus, which is similar to the United States Olympic Committee facilities in Colorado and Lake Placid, a tour of Aviva Stadium, which host the Irish national rugby and soccer teams, and a visit to Leinster Professional Rugby Club, and a PRO12 Rugby playoff game between Leinster and Scarlets.

For more information on the Baldwin Wallace University Sport Management program, please contact Asst. Professor Dr. Charles Campisi at ccampisi@bw.edu or visit https://www.bw.edu/academics/undergraduate/sport-management/.

Baldwin Wallace University Sport Management: Experiential Learning from Day One!