Despite a population of just over 4.5 million people, Ireland has shown its ability to compete on a global stage in a vast number of sports. Such sporting prowess is primarily fueled by the passion and pride shown by our sporting heroes, both past and present. Whether it is playing in the local club and becoming a part of the community or joining as a nation to cheer on “The Boys in Green”, sport in Ireland truly is an integral part of society. The 3 most popular sports in Ireland, based on attendance, are the Gaelic games, soccer and rugby. Although, in recent times, sports including cricket, rowing, equestrian and golf have grown vastly in popularity. I invite you to continue reading the section below as we discuss these national sports in greater detail. 1. Gaelic Games
2. SoccerSecond to the popularity of the Gaelic Games is soccer or, as it is more commonly known in Ireland, football. The ‘Beautiful Game’ is a huge part of the Irish sporting scene. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), a body that oversees both the domestic leagues and the national teams. The top tier of Irish Club Football is known as the SSE Airtricty League and is comprised of two separate divisions. Dublin alone has four teams across both divisions; Bohemians, Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne and St. Patricks Athletic. Statistically, Shamrock Rovers are the country’s most successful club, winning a total of 17 titles. Another notable team within the division is Dundalk FC, who, in recent years, have dominated the Irish domestic league and are currently competing in one of Europe’s most prestigious competitions – The Europa League. Irish domestic football is very competitive and provides a great evening’s entertainment for a small price. For information of tickets, fixtures and locations of the stadium see http://www.fai.ie/ or www.ticketmaster.ie/Airtricity-League-tickets.
The Aviva Stadium, home to the national team, is located just a short walk for Dublin’s City centre. It really is a must visit attraction with daily tours available from just €7 per student. http://www.avivastadium.ie/tours 3. Rugby Union The Irish Rugby Football Union, or the IRFU, was founded in 1879 for the sole purpose of governing Rugby Union in the country. Within the IRFU there are four provincial branches, one for each province; Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht. All of the provinces listed above compete at European level in the Guinness Pro 12 competition as well as in the European Champions Cup. In recent years the provinces have witnessed significant success in the aforementioned competitions, with Munster and Leinster being crowned European Champions five times in 7 years from 2005-2012. In more recent times, Connacht have grown significantly and are currently the Guinness Pro 12 reigning champions. Leinster Rugby is based in Dublin with their home ground situated in the RDS arena and their bigger games being played in the Aviva Stadium. In the last decade or so, Leinster have been one of the strongest European teams with a star-studded team including Irish heroes Brian O’Driscoll, Dennis Hickey, Rob Kearney and Johnathan Sexton. The Irish provinces have been able to grow significantly better in recent times due to the fantastic local club rugby system in place which acts as a feeder system to the provinces. In Dublin alone there are 32 Rugby Union clubs, some of which are the most dominant sides in the country, notably Lansdowne RFC and Clontarf RFC. From the provinces, players are chosen for the international squad. In order to be eligible for selection, players must not play their club Rugby outside of Ireland. This is a system that has been adopted by many countries in an attempt to keep the standard of club rugby at the highest possible level. Unlike soccer, Rugby Union in Ireland consists of both the Republic and the North of the country. As a result we have two national anthems sung at the games, “Amhran na Bhfiann” (The Soldiers Song) and “Ireland’s Call”. The international team competes annually in the European Six Nations, a tournament held each Spring between Ireland, France, England, Wales, Scotland and Italy. Up until the early 2000’s, Ireland had a poor track record in this competition but have since risen through the ranks, winning the competition a total of 12 times, second to only France. In addition to this, Ireland competes in the Rugby World Cup every four years. Although, Ireland have never even reached the Semi-final stage of the competition, the future of Irish rugby looks bright after Ireland just defeated the World Number 1 team, New Zealand, for the first time in 111 years. Perhaps the World Cup of 2019 will be our year?
Cricket in Ireland dates as far back as 1792, with the first recorded game taking place between the British Garrison and an 'All-Ireland' team in the historic Phoenix Park, Dublin. The game has had a turbulent history in our country with the popularity on the sport rapidly declining across the nation at the end of the 19th century primarily due to falling victim to national politics. Considering the history of cricket in Ireland, it truly is remarkable the strides that have been made in recent years under the games governing body, Cricket Ireland. Recovering for disappointing World Cup Qualification Campaigns between the years of 1994 and 2001, Ireland began to create a name from themselves on the world stage beating Test Nations Zimbabwe and the West Indies in 2003. The momentum accumulated in the years following and Ireland rightfully earned there place among the best in the World qualifying for the 2007 World Cup hosted in the West Indies. 2007 will go down as the year that Irish Cricket made its big breakthrough with wins against Pakistan and Bangladesh, and a tie against Zimbabwe, unprecedented for an Associate Member country. The rise of Cricket in Ireland did not stop there, as the country became the first Associate nation to out rank a Test team and Qualified for the World Cup in both 2010 (T20) and 2011 (50 over format). It was in the 2011 World Cup that Ireland recorded an historic victory over England, the highest successful run chase (329 in 49.1 overs) in World Cup history. A feat that was made possible by Ireland's Kevin O’Brien hitting the fastest World Cup century off only 50 balls. The future of Irish Cricket truly does look bright with an array of talented players including Ed Joyce, the aforementioned Kevin O'Brien and young stars in the making Tyrone Kane and Peter Chase. Ireland are hoping to achieve Test Status very soon. Could this be the perfect reward for what has been a remarkable tale? 5. GolfIn addition to the popular sports discussed above, Ireland is home to some of the best and most picturesque golf courses in the world including Carton House, The K Club (Home to the Ryder Cup 2006), Lough Erne in County Fermanagh and Portmarnock County Dublin. Not only does our green isle produce wonderful courses but also some fantastic talent in the form of Graeme McDowell, Padraig Harrington and of course the World Number 2, Rory McIlroy. There are many prestigious courses located in Dublin that (unfortunately) require membership if you want to play there. There are several other options available to you though, including public courses such as:
Whether you are a great golfer or just love the game, make sure to attend the Annual Irish Open Golf Tournament held on one of our beautiful courses. Go to www.europeantour.com for more information regarding the location of this year’s tournament and to purchase tickets. In addition to the sports discussed above, Ireland also competes and strives in sports such as Boxing, Athletics, Equestrian and Rowing, a sport in which we recently won Gold in the Rio 2016 Olympics. For such a small nation it truly is remarkable that we have the ability to compete with the World’s sporting elite.
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