It’s been a while since I’ve updated this website, so much that I forgot about it completely. Anyway, back into the completions. I’ve watched rugby for years mainly because my Dad always watches the games and prefers it to football. We’ve been to a good few Munster games in Irish Independent Park (formerly called Musgrave Park) which have always been crackers of matches. While I’m writing this now, I’ve still only been to one Irish rugby game, the Six Nations game back in 2016 and it was a fantastic game to watch. The atmosphere throughout the Aviva Stadium that day was great and everyone was in good spirits. The Munster lads played great during the game with CJ Stander, Conor Murray and Keith Earls all getting tries, with Leinster man Devin Toner getting the other try for Ireland. Stuart Hogg scored one of Scotland’s three tries as well. I like him and I think he’s a fantastic player. He’s very tricky to play against, we’ve seen it at club and country level. He’s still doing really well for Scotland while writing this. I didn’t take that many photos on the day as I was soaking up the atmosphere, but here is what I’ve got from that day:

I’ve been a big football fan as I mentioned before since I was young and I’d watch Liverpool play any chance I’d get. I still have only been to the one Liverpool match so far, which I’m hoping to change soon enough. Anyway, I’ve always loved to go to a Champions League or Europa League game because they’re always great craic, the crowds are insane and nearly always sold out. This year, Cork City, my hometown club, made it into the Europa League qualification rounds after finishing runners up in the league to Dundalk. They would have to play Linfield first, which they beat 1-0 away from home and drew the second leg 1-1. The following week they were drawn against BK Häcken, the Swedish Cup winners from last year. The first game was played away from home, which Cork drew 1-1. The following game, a week later, I got a chance to go and see my first Europa League game in Turners Cross. I went with my friend Stuart and his girlfriend Kathleen. Once we got a seat in the Shed, you could tell how good the match was gonna be from the crowd’s atmosphere. Everyone was buzzing, happy out and enjoying themselves! From the offset, Hacken looked like they could catch City with their pacey striker getting the better of the defense a few times, all to no avail. Häcken had a few chances as well, one saved by keeper Mark McNulty and another going wide. City took the lead in the 14th minute when a free kick by Greg Bolger was put into the box and Kevin O’Connor hit a volley into the back of the net. The whole stadium erupted. I remember having goosebumps for the whole first half after it because the stadium were now singing louder than before and it really got to the players as they were more pumped up as well. Not really much else happened in the first half besides a serious looking injury to one of the Häcken players which took a good few minutes before play was restarted and City went into half time leading 1-0 and 2-1 on aggregate. The second half had plenty of chances for both sides but neither could score and City held on for a fantastic win! They were drawn against Belgian side Genk in the next round but were unfortunately beaten 3-1.

I heard many times before that Bastille Day celebrations in France are one of the best parties of the year, so I said I’d get there one year. Luckily enough, during my inter-railing trip back in 2012, we had been in France just in time to celebrate it! The nightlife over in Nice was great and the day before we found out about a pub crawl that was on that night. The pub crawl would start in one of the pubs in Nice and then we’d get a bus to Monaco for the night with a few stops in pubs along the way before we’d get back to Nice the following morning around 3 or 4. I can remember certain parts of the night, there was one place that really stuck out. It was a place dedicated to Formula 1 souvenirs and stuff. There was helmets, jackets and funny enough, an actual Formula 1 car on the wall itself! Don’t believe me? See the photo for yourself! The rest of the places weren’t bad. I remember the club we were at, mainly due to the fact that you had to wait in line for the bathroom, and then pay something like a euro or 2 just to use the bathroom… Like, god help you if you needed to go a couple of times in the club. Anyway, we got back to Nice around 4am but our hostel closed for a few hours in the morning so we couldn’t go anywhere. So we decided to go down towards the beach and walk as far as possible until we could go to the hostel again. Myself and Shane got to the end whilst Adrian stayed behind at one bench, he walked back to the hostel before us and was conked by the time we got back. On the walk down, we watched as the sun came up, and I got some really cool photos of the sunrise which I’m really happy of. I’d definitely love to go back to France again for Bastille Day! I would for sure recommend it to others as something to do!

I started getting into cycling around 2010. I used to have bikes growing up, and I’d cycle around the place every now and again. As I got older then I decided one day in Secondary School that I’d start cycling to school, since I already had a bike at the time. My dad got a bike using the Bike to Work scheme but rarely used it, so during the weekends and whenever I got a chance really, I’d go for a spin around the place, down to Monkstown or further on, depending on how I felt. I did this for a few years after, I had planned to do charity cycles or join a cycling club, but never got around to it. Two of my friends from work would join me cycling every now and again and it was great, before you knew it, you were 30/40km done already. One day, one of the lads heard about a charity cycle from Cork to Galway during the summer. So we all signed up for it, along with another guy from work. We did a few spins between Cork and Youghal to get our legs used to the distance beforehand. When the day came itself, it was a Friday morning, the rain pelting down, not the best start I suppose. The first stop, Cork city to Mallow wasn’t too bad. At each stop, there was food, water, gels, sandwiches and/or massages if you needed them. There was a support car throughout the trip in case you ended up puncturing at any stage and couldn’t change it yourself. Mallow to Charleville wasn’t bad either, although we almost got lost in Charleville almost taking the wrong road. The rain again, getting worse at this stage. We refueled and went on towards Limerick, the final stop off on Friday. The rain calmed down a small bit and it was fine when we made it into Limerick itself. We all arrived in the South Court Hotel at different times, but not far apart. We changed, showered and went down for grub. It was pretty nice! Unfortunately I didn’t stay for long and headed to bed shortly after, bate from the days ride. I awoke the following morning and changed the gear I had, which was still soaked at this stage. Not the best choice of color shorts, but oh well, you live and learn I suppose. We all set off together again for Galway the following morning. The first stop being in Ennis, the second being in Gort and finally to Galway city. This was the hardest part of the weekend, we were trying to avoid the motorway as best as possible, so we were going the back roads for ages. Lots of climbing, which was alright! I can remember the worst part being the part into Galway, there was a bit of a steep hill, which, after almost 100km in the legs, was like torture on the legs. We made it though, I wasn’t that far behind my buddies which was grand. I wasn’t out for racing haha. We dropped off the bikes to a lorry and we left the group so we could go to the hotel we were staying in for the night, as opposed to the hostel we were arranged to stay in. Later on that night we walked to another hotel where there was a small party for us afterwards, so we chilled and enjoyed it there! The following day, we got the bus back to Cork and the bikes met us there also! The whole weekend was really well organized and it was fantastic throughout! If you have a chance to do it in the next few years, don’t hesitate! It’s well worth it altogether. My bucket list entry was to do 100km in one day, we did almost 200km throughout the two days! So, even better! 🙂

I’ve been a Liverpool fan since I was in primary school. As many of my friends supported Man United, I didn’t follow like everyone else. I suppose you could say it was my cousin Eric, who got me into following Liverpool. He was the only other Liverpool supporter in the family growing up, and I looked up to him quite a lot. So it was always a dream of mine to see Liverpool play in a live match. I almost got a chance when I was 16 or 17 but I wasn’t able to, but my chance came in September 2011. My uncle and cousin are both season ticket holders of Tottenham Hotspur and I got invited to go see Liverpool play them on the 18th September. I traveled over with my uncle Shaun and I can remember it just like it was yesterday. We were seated in the Spurs’ end, which I was okay with. I knew I couldn’t jump around celebrating if Liverpool scored. I can remember watching the teams training beforehand, passing the ball around, taking shots at the keepers. It felt amazing to see it in front of me. Then the lads went in and came back a few minutes later. The travelling Liverpool fans started singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and I started to get goosebumps all over. It was the first time hearing it being sung live, but only a few words in, the Spurs fans drowned it out with a Spurs chant. The whole ground erupted with song and you couldn’t hear the Liverpool fans anymore. The match itself was incredible to watch. Luka Modric scored an absolute screamer from outside the box after less than 10 minutes. That set the tone for the game. Liverpool were dominated all around the place. Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermaine Defoe ran riot up front for Spurs and the Liverpool players couldn’t handle them. Adebayor got 2 goals that day, Defoe the other. Martin Skrtel and Charlie Adam both got sent off for Liverpool also. What a mental way to endure your first Premiership game for your favourite club! Tottenham 4-0 Liverpool