Galway is still riding the wave of euphoria that came with their first All Ireland hurling title in 29 years when they defeated Waterford at Croke Park last week.
The news and celebrations have dominated national media all week, which is normal for the days that follow such a big sporting event on this island, but as the sport is largely unknown elsewhere, it must be awfully confusing for a tourist if they happen to land in the middle of All Ireland fever.
In fact, it absolutely is confusing, as reddit user DJ33 beautifully explained when a picture of Michael Donoghue and his father in tears holding the Liam McCarthy Cup hit #1 on r/sports and reached the front page of Reddit.
As an American sports fan spending the weekend in Dublin, he was intrigued after seeing Galway supporters in his hotel bar, although he didn't believe that hurling was a real sport when he was informed as to what was going on. The next day, when he saw huge crowds heading into Dublin, he did some reasearch and discovered that it was in fact real.
From that point on, he was absolutely saturated by hurling, even after he returned home to the States.
I'm convinced hurling is stalking me.
I'm an American who happened to be Ireland last week when this was happening. I'm at least above-average interested in sports in general, and had no clue what the fuck was happening.
So one night, dudes in jerseys start showing up at the bar in our hotel. I'm like, hey I'm in Europe, I bet soccer is happening.
The next night there's even more dudes. It must be nearby, or a particularly important match. Fair enough.
One of my friends (who knows nothing about sports) asks one of the bar dudes and is told it's a "hurling match." I'm like, that doesn't sound like a real thing, are you sure they weren't fucking with you?
Next morning, I get on the tram to Dublin. A FUCKING HUGE CROWD of drunken (note: 11 AM) Irish sport fans crowd on at the first stop. They have a Bluetooth speaker and are playing their team song and bashing the fuck out of the walls and ceiling of the tram as they sing along.
Finally I'm like, okay, this is definitely a real thing and definitely very close by. I Google the name on one of their jerseys and find the team website. Nothing I see makes any sense (and I'm on a tram full of shouting drunken insanity) but the pictures all look like people playing rugby. So I decide okay, must be rugby.
I spend the day in Dublin, relatively calm. I start getting texts from friends back in the hotel that it's getting crazier and crazier. It turns out the local team won, the game actually IS called hurling, definitely isn't like rugby, and they hadn't won in nearly 30 years so their fans are losing their minds.
I get back to the hotel and notice some banners on the road approaching (which I didn't see on the way out that morning because they faced incoming traffic).
It turns out the winning team (Galway) was literally staying AT MY HOTEL. There's security everywhere all of a sudden and news vans and the entrance to the hotel is all blocked off with metal barriers waiting for the team to arrive. They (mostly the fans) proceeded to party like mad until about 4 AM.
Next day, I'm leaving for the airport. Newspapers in the lobby are all about hurling. Radio in the cab is all about hurling. Friendly old Irish cabby is telling me all about how amazing it was that this team won.This sport I'd never heard of surrounded everything in my life for about 48 hours.
I come home, catch an awful cold/flu from the trip, go into a cough syrup coma.
Wake up this morning, what's on the front page of Reddit?
Fucking hurling.
The fact that he was staying in the Citywest hotel along with the Galway team right has he became immersed with a sport he had no clue existed is just perfect.
It's not the first time hurling has gone viral and bemused sports fans from other countries, Sky Sports have introduced it to the UK audience, and we've even seen the likes of Joe Rogan react to it on his podcast, as it never fails to amuse as how something so normal to those who grew up here can be so amazed by the sport.
Thanks to DJ33 for allowing us to re-publish his tale, and hopefully he eventually gives in and becomes a hurling fan going forward.
