All-Ireland finals moved to accommodate American football

Next year’s All-Ireland finals in football and hurling will be one week later than usual because of an American Football game.

In a move we still don’t fully comprehend, the game between Notre Dame and Navy game at Aviva Stadium on Saturday September 1, means that we can’t have the All-Ireland hurling final the next day, the first Sunday in September.

According to reports today it was deemed impossible for Dublin to host two major sporting events on the same weekend.

But we have seen many big rugby and soccer matches or concerts held over the same weekend before. In fact, in February 2012 Dublin will host Kerry at Croke Park in the National League, with Ireland playing Wales in the Aviva the following day in the Six Nations, and nobody expects any problems there.

Then to maintain the traditional two-week gap between finals, the football then loses its traditional third Sunday slot, slipping to September 23.

Perhaps the powers that be fear for the 20,000 Americans who are expected to travel in support of the ‘Fighting Irish’ from Notre Dame, worried they could all accidentally end up in Coppers with the (insert own preference here) team celebrating their win.

The last time the All-Ireland finals were moved was for the Ryder Cup in 2006, another occasion that brought a lot of Americans to Dublin.

But Americans are a resilient enough bunch and we think they could handle sharing Dublin’s streets with the massed hordes that attend the hurling showpiece.

However, it seems they will have to hang around an extra week if they want to sample a real slice of Ireland and our sporting greats. Shame really.