Aer Lingus College Football Classic: Notre Dame 42 Navy 3
A pint of Guinness would have set you back €6.90 at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday night.
That’s exactly €6.90 more than it cost the last time college football rolled into town, 12 months ago.
Then, when the Northwestern Wildcats beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers, technical issues prevented card payments being taken for food and drink. The only thing for it in a cashless stadium was to give the stuff out for free until they fixed things.
The folks in the ground obviously enjoyed the two hours it took to get it sorted, though only slightly more than the folks on the internet. The jokes wrote themselves. Free beer! Ireland! The stereotype nearly toppled over it was being leaned into so hard.
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With all payment systems present and correct this time – and presumably checked to within a inch of their lives – there’ll be none of those sorts of shenanigans tonight, thank you very much. Hang on, what’s that? There’s someone on the pitch dressed as a shillelagh-wielding leprechaun?
The ‘Irish’ are in town, the Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame, to face the US Naval Academy in the latest Aer Lingus College Football Classic.
It’s the seventh top-level college game to be played in Ireland, and the third between Notre Dame and Navy, but this one felt different.
After two previous visits when Navy were officially the home team, this time Notre Dame, in their iconic blue and gold jerseys, were very much welcoming opponents to their house, even if they were just borrowing it for the evening. As the massive banners hung across buildings in Dame Street – renamed Notre Dame Street for the day – on the southern edge of Temple Bar proclaimed: The Irish are home.
And they brought an awful lot of friends with them. Nearly 40,000, most of whom seemed to be thronging Dame Street behind their marching band nearly eight hours before kick-off. The biggest movement of Americans to Europe in peacetime, this many haven’t crossed the Atlantic all at once since Navy’s antecedents came over for much more serious matters.
Navy had their fans too, but this was very much an Irish occasion, albeit one with the military trappings American football, both on a college level and in the professional NFL, holds so dear.
There was a video message from the vice-chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff followed by a call for active members of the military and all veterans to stand to receive a rapturous ovation as the theme from Top Gun played gently in the background.
As the Notre Dame Band played The Star Spangled Banner, three huge MV-22 Osprey aircraft rumbled over the stadium to just as loud acclaim. Quite the show of strength for a football match.
When the Notre Dame players appeared in the pitch, their golden helmets glistening under the resolutely grey sky, the place exploded in noise again in time with the fireworks.
The pre-game festivities helped, but with barely an empty seat well over half-an-hour before kick-off, it’s a wonder the Aviva, so used to its international rugby patrons’ reticence to pull themselves away from the bar, knew what to do with itself.
Not that the visitors had trouble navigating the bars of Dublin themselves, with the pubs of the capital tasked to line up pints of the black stuff at a rate to rival St Patrick’s Day.
There was also a game to be played, though it’s unlikely that will be the standout memory brought back from the old country.
Notre Dame were 20-point favourites and didn’t take long to show why. Sam Hartman, the experienced, talented quarterback who transferred from Wake Forest during the off-season and shoulders much of the Irish hopes for a successful 2023, got his hands on the ball first and shepherded them down the field in the face of minimal Navy resistance, setting the pattern for the rest of the night.
Running back Audric Estime was the star of that opening drive, punching holes in the Navy defence and finishing off things with the touchdown.
Notre Dame were up and running – and passing – and Navy had no answer.
After the opening touchdown Gráinne McElwaine, on hosting duties in the stadium, took advantage of one of the numerous breaks in the action to let American television sell advertising space to speak Lord Mayor of Dublin Daithí de Róiste.
The mayor concluded his interview with an enthusiastic “DJ, can get the party started?!”, at which point said disc jockey started spinning Zombie by the Cranberries, to a particularly enthusiastic, singalong response from the crowd. Nothing says party like a song about the Troubles.
While Navy enjoyed some success moving the ball in their first possession, it ended with a dropped pass and it would take them until three-and-a-half minutes from the end of the game to get on the scoreboard with a field goal they kicked simply to avoid a shutout.
By that time Notre Dame, with Hartman throwing four touchdowns in an assured debut regardless of the opposition, had 42 points and had been assured of the win even before the floodlights came on to make the golden helmets twinkle a little bit more.
The party mood Notre Dame’s fans brought with them to the stadium never let up, with events on the field never threatening to upset it. After the final whistle and the trophy presentation those who hadn’t already left filtered back into the streets of Dublin they filled all day to keep that party going in the bars of Ballsbridge, Beggar’s Bush, and beyond. And some made their way back to Temple Bar. How much was a pint of Guinness there? Trust me, you don’t want know.
