An event on ClubZap never got a response as quick as when Steve announced the Bridge Bucks U11s were heading to the capital back in August …. Fast forward to Saturday October 23rd where the rendezvous point was O’Garney Park, our main club grounds at 7am – the night before social media was trending with images of queues of revellers at Coppers on Harcourt Street while that morning there was only one queue that everyone wanted to be in – that of the bus to Dublin for our U11s trip.

Onto the bus and the driver introduced himself as Seán from Garryowen ….. There’s a song in that one!

Off we headed – about 2 minutes into the journey when we were out of sight of all the parents who were nervously waving goodbye the chants of “Oh when the ‘Bridge, go marching in ….” began, shortly followed by questions like “how long more have we to go?”.

The promise of a pit stop at Junction 14 settled the boys who had now discovered the microphone on the bus was working so anyone who had ever sang in the shower and considered themselves boy band material gave it a go …

What’s the play list on a bus for a group of 10 and 11 year olds like I hear you ask … Well it started off as a mix between an Ed Sheeran and The 2 Johnnies Concert with hits such as Bad Habits and Junior B Hurler (Is there a message in that I wonder … do bad habits mean you end up playing Junior B hurling) on repeat on the way up but as the sugar rush hit from the pit stop some rebel songs made their way onto the playlist.

There was lots of car spotting by the townies in the group on the bus – The highlight being an Audi RS2 while the country boys gave yelps of delighted when they spotted a ‘Classy Massey’ cutting hedges as they argued that Grass Men was the best show on YouTube.

As we neared the capital and headed out on the M50 towards Malahide the call went out from Coach Conlon, “no more eating junk until after the game” … the boys seemed to recognise the seriousness of this statement as an eerie silence took over the bus as they began to focus for the task in hand .. after all they were here representing their Families, the Bridge, Clare, they had all made massive commitments for the cause (up since 6am and off the sweets for 45 minutes at this stage) so there was no going back … until the bus came across a very low bridge close to Malahide and we had to turn back and take a detour!!

We arrived into our hosts Naomh Mearnógs grounds around 10:30 for what must be said is one of the most impressive GAA club grounds in the country. Off the bus and togged – we fielded 5 teams.

3 x U10s

2 X U11s

After a good warmup and a few words of advice from the coaches the boys started into their games which were a tough physical battle with the hosts. All 5 teams performed admirably in a very sporting manner with some excellent scores and skills on show throughout.

Following the game we all headed back into the hosts club house for a very tasty spread of refreshments and to relive the tall tales some iconic scores throughout the games. John Conway spoke on behalf of the hosts and welcomed us formally to the capital – he spoke of how they would love to make a return trip to the Bridge at some stage.

Some lads fond of the grub stored a few sambos for later ..

With some time to spare before we needed to head to the City Centre what else would you do only grab your hurley and head for the pitches for a puck around which lead to an organised match amongst ourselves followed by a game of “Under Pressure”. Then over to the bus to get changed .. out came the gel, deodorant and after shave with whispers there might be a camogie team on a tour of HQ also 😊

Off we headed towards Croke Park and as we weaved in and out the narrow streets we felt like a team arriving for the All Ireland final as the stewards raised the barrier to allow the bus in at the back of the Cusack Stand. Of we jumped and over to the entrance where every GAA club in the world has their crest on display – we all felt a great sense of pride as we spotted our club crest – the same badge of honour we adorned on our jerseys in the game earlier that day and now wore on our team hoodies.

We were divided into 2 groups for the tour – first off we were brought in under the Cusack Stand and given an insight into the stadium before getting a tour of the dressing rooms and warm up area. All the counties jerseys are on display in the dressing rooms and we were all quick to spot the Saffron and Blue of Clare.

Then onto pitch side for a close up view of what can only be described as a green carpet.

Our guide spoke of how Croke Park was the 3rd largest stadium in Europe and is considered one of the best playing surfaces in the world – this is down to the GAA having their own farm out the country for growing the sod. Up then into the stand for a Q&A with our guide …

- Where is the best seat in the house?

- Where is hawk eye located?

- What’s the hardest question you were ever asked?

- Where is the ClubZap corporate box?

- Can we go out on the pitch?

- How many bales would you get out of Croker?

Following the guided tour we went back into the auditorium where the 2 Bridge groups met up and we were shown a video of what happens on match day in Croke Park. This gave a great insight from a supporters, players, media, stewards and Garda point of view. Following this we headed for the gift shop to pick some momentous of our trip to GAA HQ and headed for the bus.

On to the Obama Plaza for a Supermacs and refreshments before we started the final leg of our journey. The day was starting to take its toll on some people

While the party was just starting for others … Mikey took over the entertainment side of things and shook things up on the Microphone with some classics from Marty Mone (Hit the Diff) and Richie Kavanagh (My Little Honda 50) and before we knew it we were back where it all started – O’Garney Park just after 8pm. As a parting gift all the players received a selection box compliments of our hosts Naomh Mearnóg to whom we are extremely grateful for their hospitality.

13 hours earlier we had started out as 46 Players and 8 coaches, some knowing each other from the class room at school, others just knowing each other by the colour of the helmet they wore at training. We finished the day as 54 great friends with memories for a lifetime from our trip to Croke Park and we all went to bed dreaming that the next day we pull in under the Cusack Stand on a bus we will be the saffron and blue clad gladiators of the Bridge or Clare playing in the coliseum that is Croke Park in front of 82,300 (See we did listen to the tour guide!)