We made it to the first home game for the Cork City FC at Turner’s cross stadium last Friday evening.  Friday day was, without a doubt, the nicest weather we have yet in Cork.  It was warm and sunny.  No wind at all.  Poor Bret had to work all day, but I had a fabulous walk along the the River Lee to the next town over and back.  It definitely got cold by game time, but the people were out and about with the hint of better weather and spring ahead.  5,000 strong at the stadium!  Ticketmaster warned us when we bought our tickets not to wear the opposing team’s color.  After some research, I determined that our colors are green and white… but the used to be red and white.  St. Patrick’s Athletic Club (the opposing team) is blue and red.  No wool hats for either Bret or I (Bret’s was doubly offensive being red and blue. I sneaked mine in because it is only red).  We got to the game a few minutes early and were lucky to find an couple of empty rows near the front section, away from the cheering section (they were already quite rowdy).

Cork City FC is in the premier division of the SSE Airtricity league, so the competition is pretty fierce.

It was a hard fought draw and the yellow cards abounded, but it was fun to watch and cheer for the home team.  Apparently there is a no swearing section (family section), but despite being surrounded by kids, we apparently were not in that section.  St. Pat’s (the opposing team) had a small section of loyal fans at the opposite end of the field who were completely surrounded by security guards.  We were thinking this was a bit overkill for a city league game before we realized that the rowdy section of home team fans were also surround by a score of security guards.  When the game was over, the announcer even asked that all the away team fans remain in their seats for 10 minutes while the home team fans exit to the east side (away fans are on the west).  Some serious crowd control measures…  Good times, we will for sure head back for more Cork City FC action.  Fans for life.

The next morning, we woke up to another gray day.  Rather than going for a bike ride in the rain, we opted to go to the church service at our neighborhood cathedral (It’s got a 3.5/5 star rating on yelp (for real)).  I was thinking it was Roman Catholic (we are in Ireland), but it turned out to be Anglican (turns out it switched sides during the reformation)… either way a 1.5 hour service.  The singing and organ playing that dominated the service were really lovely, as was the church.  The lighting and the sound were serene and meditative.  I was a little amazed at how few people were there, probably less than 50 (on the first Sunday of Lent!).  It was mostly elderly people, which I expected, but I was surprised that there were only about 4 young people (<18ish, including two infants) outside of another 4 or 5 in the choir.  Growing up, I went to my share of catholic and episcopal masses and it seemed like almost a social outlet for tweeners (I generally only went with my friends +/- their parents- so always a social outing for me).  Not looking good for the long term health of the congregation.  We enjoyed the service.  Not sure we’ll do that one again, but it was fun and the Cathedral is a fantastic neighbor.