DUBLIN, IRELAND — When it comes to traveling beyond U.S. borders, Americans are a stubborn bunch.
Despite rapid uptake in the post-pandemic years, less than 50 percent of citizens have a passport, not to mention the intent to use it anytime soon.
If the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Ireland this week is any indication, a winning strategy for reversing this trend might be to dangle their favorite sport over a place that seems perfectly designed to acclimate Americans to the perks of European life.
Ireland this week has seamlessly integrated more than 25,000 Americans — screaming, chanting football-obsessed Southerners, mind you — into its capital city, pouring pints and exhibiting a winsome welcome for guests spilling out of pubs and shops. All this in an era where other popular European destinations are fielding citizen complaints against “over-tourism.”
For many of the Georgia Tech faithful, undaunted while outnumbered around the city by Florida State fans in garnet and gold, finding out the first game of the 2024 season was to be held in Dublin offered a golden opportunity to blend passion and possibility.
A family affair
“It was an excuse to come,” said Kirk Liemohn, a Georgia Tech electrical engineering graduate traveling with his wife, Catherine; her brother, Grattan Rowland, and Grattan’s wife Linda.
The couples had come first for the 2016 nail-biter where Georgia Tech eked out a victory against Boston College. As the beer flowed at a local pub that night, Liemohn’s joy bubbled over with music.
“I sort of taught the guitarist for the band how to play the Georgia Tech fight song,” he said.
On that trip, it had been harder to pull the trigger on buying the airfare.
“We had actually started saying we need to start traveling a little bit, enjoying some life after all the work we’ve put in and all the things we have had to do. We thought ‘Oh, Georgia Tech’s going to Ireland; let’s go to Ireland and do it,’” said Mr. Rowland, who also studied electrical engineering but became a CPA.
With three family Europe trips under their belts since then, they didn’t blink when the opportunity arose once again.
“This time it was automatic,” said Mr. Rowland, whose first name can be found all over Dublin despite (to his knowledge) his lack of Irish heritage.
“There’s a Grattan bridge, there’s a Grattan house, there’s a famous politician named Grattan. We went to lunch at a McGrattan bar — walking around we were like, wait a minute, what is this?”
Ireland can feel like a homecoming, even for Americans without the pedigree of David Shanahan, the Irish-born punter from Castleisland, County Kerry.
Shanahan was happy to share his country with teammates this week, many of whom were traveling for the first time with newly minted passports.
“I’m really pumped to see you all here. Hope all the locals are treating you well — hope they’re not overcharging you too much,” Shanahan joked with fans in brief remarks at the pep rally.
When the Tech team visited EPIC, the Irish museum of emigration, they were surprised to see that curators added Shanahan, the first Irish scholarship player at a major U.S. program, to an exhibition of Ireland diaspora members making a global impact in sports.
Georgia Tech Athletic Director J Batt said more untapped talent like Shanahan and Belgian defensive end Sylvain Yondjouen will be discovered as the game grows in Europe, adding that the sense of Irish welcome has been palpable as preparations have been made.
“The whole island leans into this, and we’ve felt that,” Mr. Batt said.
So has the Tech faithful.
A traveling fan base
“Our fan base really loves it. They travel, and they unite. I think it’s also intrinsic to our brand — we’re a global institution, we have global reach, global technology, global research, and so this matches that perfectly,” Batt said.
Read Global Atlanta’s recap of Georgia Tech’s win here.
The mix of tourism impact for Ireland (and the estimated 115 million euros generated from this one week alone) and the excuse for Americans to knock a country off their bucket list makes for a mutually beneficial formula.
“Keep ‘em here for another week,” said one taxi driver, asked if he was ready to see the Americans head home.
Georgia Tech alum David Halm is staying for about that long. A consultant in Atlanta, Halm traveled across the country, accompanying his wife and two adult daughters to the famed Cliffs of Moher, the city of Galway, the Jameson distillery, and, of course, the Guinness Storehouse during the week leading up to the game.
While Halm has been a season-ticket holder since 2016, he normally only goes to home games unless there’s a compelling reason to hit the road — like connecting with the country of his maternal grandparents.
“We’d never been to Ireland; it had been on the list, so that’s part of it,” Halm said.
Austin Gies, a recent graduate traveling with friends, was so interested in the game that he hadn’t met very many Irish people.
Last second victory
Waiving a gold GT flag in an attempt to be seen on ESPN College GameDay, Gies was prescient when asked how he was feeling about the prospects for Tech, which ended up winning 24-21 on a last-second field goal.
“I always feel good.”
In 2025, Dublin will see a Big 12 showdown as Kansas State and Iowa will face off at Aviva Stadium.
Trevor Williams was in Dublin as a guest of Enterprise Ireland, the government agency helping Irish startups and scale-ups go global through funding, grants and market-access support. Find more stories about the business and economic development initiatives happening around the trip at www.globalatlanta.com/ireland.
For more Rough Draft sports coverage, click here.