So you’ve been following the FAI Cup all year (well since April anyway!) and you’ve managed to get tickets to the final. Rather than have to travel all the way home before you can celebrate, why don’t you book one of the many Dublin hotels that are located close to the RDS so you can celebrate your teams victory - we won’t even mention the possibility of drowning your sorrows!
The 84th FAI Ford Cup is taking place in the RDS main arena on December 2nd. This will be the first time the FAI Cup will be played here even though its not the first time that soccer has been played at the RDS with Shamrock Rovers using the stadium as their home grounds for much of the early 90′s. The stadium has a capacity of 18,000 of which 16,500 are seated. This year will also be the first time that the FAI Cup will be sponsored by Ford.
If you’re heading up for the match on December 2nd, which is a Sunday, why not make a weekend of it? You can head up the night before and save yourself the hassle of trying to pack yourself into a special train. Perhaps you can stay on in Dublin for a few nights and get a start on your Christmas shopping.
The RDS is located close to the city centre in the suburb of Ballsbridge, Dublin D4. If you’re travelling from Cork City by train, then you’ll most likely be arriving in Heuston Station. From here you can take the Red Line Luas into the city centre, getting off at Connelly Station. If you’re travelling from Longford your train should get you to Connelly Station direct. From Connelly Station you can catch a southbound DART and get off at, Lansdowne or Sandymount stations. Both of these stations are just a few blocks away from the RDS so you can walk from there - it shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes.
Alternatively from either Heuston or Connelly, you can hop on the Luas into the city centre as far as Abbey Street and then catch either the 5, 7 or 45 bus from outside of Trinity College and this should get you direct to the RDS (the Merrion Road entrance).
If you’re in need of some fresh air before a nail biting match you could walk to the RDS from the city centre. It’s not too far and it’s a nice journey if the weather is fine. Heading out of the city centre, starting outside of Trinity College, you can travel along Nassau Street for about 150 metres or so. From here you can take a right and follow signs for the R118 (Mount Street). Continue along this road for about 2kms (it becomes Merrion Road) and you should see the RDS in front of you.
This year the FAI Ford Cup Final is between Cork City and Longford Town. Kick-off time has yet to be officially announced, although it’s likely to be at 3:30pm. The two semi-final games held at the end of October were definitely an exciting affair. It did unfortunately mean that the two local teams, UCD and Bohemians, were knocked out of the cup.
Cork City will be very hungry this year, as it’s their second time in the final in 3 years but they lost the 2005 final to Drogheda. And although they did beat Bohemians by two goals to nil in the semi-final, they haven’t had it all their own way with a revenge defeat to Bohemians recently in the Eircom League Cup.
The story for Longford Town is a fairly different one. This team has won the final twice recently, in 2003 and 2004. This makes it their 4th final in 7 seasons so Longford Town’s spirits must be sky high. They qualified at the expensive of UCD in a tense game that ended with a 1-0 scoreline.
Other events on in the RDS include Amy Winehouse on the Saturday night before the game. The concert starts at 7:30 on Saturday, December 1st. On the same night as the final but in different locations within the RDS you have Rihanna and Interpol in Concert. The Rihanna gig starts at 7:15pm and the Interpol show starts at 7pm. Hopefully the start times won’t clash with the game but what better way to celebrate your team’s victory, or perhaps to take your mind off a defeat than to head to one of these performances and party late into the night.
So if you’ve decided that you want to head up for the weekend, then you may want to book one of the Dublin hotels near the RDS
There are plenty Dublin hotels in the vicinity including a number of reasonably priced 3-Star hotels such as the Lansdowne Hotel, the Tara Towers Hotel, the Mount Herbert Hotel and the Roxford Lodge Hotel.
If you’d prefer something with a little more luxury then perhaps one of our 4-Star hotels might be better suited to your needs, why not try the Herbert Park Hotel or the School House Hotel.
For some real luxury you might choose the 5-star Dylan Hotel.
Now all that’s left to say is enjoy the match and may the best team win!
If you’ve anything you’d like to ask about accommodation in Dublin just drop us a line in the comment box below and we’ll get back to you.
