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Irish squad off to Italy

Declan O'Kelly

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Monday, March 30, 2009, 10:34 AM

Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 5:43 PM

Read more: Italy

Aiden McGeady did some light training in Malahide today.

The Irish team had a final training session in Malahide Monday ahead of flying out to Italy for the second of their Group 8 qualifying matches.

Three of the team's spine, Shay Given, Richard Dunne and Robbie Keane, did not participate to get some more recuperation time as the rest of the squad jogged off the exertions of Saturday night's draw with Bulgaria.

One significant participant in the run out was Aiden McGeady. The Celtic winger seemed to limp off in the last minutes of the game Saturday. Though his injury will be evaluated further on arrival in Italy, the very fact that he was working out, however lightly, is an encouraging sign ahead of Wednesday's showdown with Italy in Bari.

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Irish sport is popular and widespread. Levels of participation and spectating are high on the island of Ireland. Throughout the country a wide variety of Irish sports are played, the most popular being Gaelic games (such as Gaelic football, hurling and camogie), soccer, rugby union and boxing. By attendance figures Gaelic football and hurling are by far the most popular sports in Ireland, (34% of total attendances at sports events being to football and 23% to hurling), while golf and soccer (including 5-a-side) are the most played at 17% of the population each. Many Irish sports, such as boxing, cricket, rugby union, Gaelic football and hurling, are organized in an all-island basis, with a single team representing Ireland in international competitions. Other Irish sports, such as Association Football, have separate organizing bodies in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. At the Olympics, a person from Northern Ireland can choose to represent either Ireland or Great Britain. The various GAA discipline finals are easily the largest sporting events regularly held in Ireland, in both terms of attendance and media coverage. The biggest national sporting event in Ireland is the final of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, held annually in Croke Park in September. It usually attracts a sell out crowd of 82,500 to Croke Park. Many of the matches in the championship attract crowds of 50,000, depending on who is playing. Aside from the GAA, the biggest multi-sport event held in Ireland regularly is the Community Games. The games are organized every year from a local level, where hundreds of thousands of young people compete in different disciplines such as athletics, swimming, cycling etc., in the first half of the year. Winners progress to county level, and then to the Community Games finals. One of the biggest international Irish sport events is international Association Football. The Republic's national team has punched above its weight in recent years, qualifying for the 2002 World Cup, and performed well against such teams as Brazil and Portugal. In rugby union, Ireland's national team has been ranked in the top five teams regularly over the last few years, and has produced major stars such as Keith Wood and Brian O'Driscoll. In golf, Ireland is home to several top golfers such as Padraig Harrington.

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Irish squad off to Italy

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