For two or three weeks prior to the All-Ireland Football Final my Dad had searched for tickets but had no success. On the Friday before the match Dad came home from work and still had no tickets, so we decided to watch the match on the television. Dad was reading the paper and saw a competition for tickets and decided to enter it. That was at 5:25pm. At 6:05pm the Star rang Dad to tell him he had won 2 VIP tickets to the match, reception and two Bank of Ireland survival kits. We were going to the match!
On Sunday morning we were up early to travel to Dublin. We first had to go to the Star to collect our tickets. Before the match, we then went on to the Bank of Ireland reception where we had our lunch. There were a lot of famous people at the reception, Micheál Ó Muireheartaigh, John O’Donaghue, the Minster of Justice and Willie O’Connor, the captain of the Kilkenny hurling team with Andy Comerford and James McGarry.
After the reception we went to the match. As we entered the stadium and went up the escalators to the stand, I had butterflies in my stomach with excitement. The seats we got were right on the halfway line and we had a great view of the whole stadium. The match started and within twenty five minutes we were seven points down and Galway were not playing as well as they could. They brought on Kevin Walsh and that changed the match and Galway started to come back and eventually Padraigh Joyce equalized. Then in the final minutes I thought we were going to win it, then lose it but the whistle blew, it was a draw! We now have another chance to bring Sam home in the replay. This wasn’t my first day at Croke Park but it was the best day I had there.
Sarah Carton
