In this day and age the idea of Gaelic Games being blocked anywhere outside Ireland is outrageous, at a time when young people are leaving at a rate 1000 per week going across the world in search of work.
I have been involved in and love the GAA all my live, I left home seven years ago with my wife and three kids and have settled in the Philadelphia suburbs, I go to the local Irish club on Sunday's when I can to see some games, my wife and three teenage kids entrance charge for five $100.00.
I am aware that there is family's where a hundred dollars would mean a lot, why can we not have the ability in this age of high speed broadband to have the opportunity to watch all GAA sports in the comfort of our own home.

JoetheBard (USA) - Posts: 32 - 15/04/2011 11:52:17    912112

Yeah its strange that the GAA games on rte.e are blocked outside Ireland. I'm open to correction on this but I think the airtricity league soccer is streamed on rte.ie worldwide so there must some curious rights issue with the GAA

Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 12291 - 15/04/2011 12:09:08    912126

Premier sports is not that good. I have subscribed to it here in london and by no means have gotten the value for money yet. Hopefully things will change come the summer months.
however there is the gaa game on the sat/sun, but for the rest of the week you get argentinian / brazilian footie or some rubbish nascar!! Now that might suit some people, but if they are broadcasting the GAA games at teh weekend i would like to see other gaa programs too, sunday game in the evening with the highlighs or the other tg4 gaa shows.

CrossBar (Galway) - Posts: 362 - 15/04/2011 12:18:40    912135

JoetheBard 20 dollars per head is alot, you would think they'd let the children in free or even discounted. Still you're lucky to be in philly at the minute, I had manys a good night out in upper darby and nw philly.

Tom1916 (Armagh) - Posts: 2001 - 15/04/2011 12:22:30    912139

also ther eis a way areound RTE clocking you, if you go through a proxy or hide your ip address sometimes it works. you can also download software to give you an irish ip address. Its very hit and miss though. not reliable.

CrossBar (Galway) - Posts: 362 - 15/04/2011 12:27:17    912143

In America it's $20 to watch the game plus $10-15 for a breakfast, which is usually compulsory.

Getting a live stream via the web is often non existent or of extremely bad quality.

Best option is to look at the rerun the evening after for free!

JuanPeron (Westmeath) - Posts: 177 - 15/04/2011 12:51:13    912156

Having to leave home stinks. Looks like I'm going to miss most of the c'ship this year and not get to attend any games . To think, I was in Croke Park for almost every single game played there in '91 excluding the final Dub/Meath game and the AI hurling final. How circumstances change over 20 years !

Maroonatic (Galway) - Posts: 1065 - 15/04/2011 13:59:26    912205

$100 to sit in a bar and watch a game on telly is outrageous. Two years ago when I lived in Boston the excuse trotted out was that Setanta insisted on bars charging at the door and if a bar refused Setanta would pull their service from the place. Strangely enough during the world cup in 2006 there was no such charge; nothing to do with the fact that Ireland weren't playing. So now that Setanta is out of the picture (no pun intended) I wonder what the excuse is.

On the off-chance that some senior GAA person is reading this; PLEASE address this issue. There are 1.5 million Irish citizens living abroad, many of them would prefer to be home, and all of them would give their eye-teeth to be able to watch their county beat Mayo.

;)

festinog (Galway) - Posts: 3143 - 15/04/2011 14:25:23    912230

Having to leave home stinks. Looks like I'm going to miss most of the c'ship this year and not get to attend any games . To think, I was in Croke Park for almost every single game played there in '91 excluding the final Dub/Meath game and the AI hurling final. How circumstances change over 20 years !
Maroonatic , 15/04/2011 at 13:59

I know Maroonatic leaving stinks but at least you can get work and youl get the games on tv so its not the worst but hopefully youl get back soon when the mess clears up

thurlesblues (Tipperary) - Posts: 4475 - 15/04/2011 14:26:43    912233

well said festinog! I like the last line! HAHA

In 2007 Myself and three friends paid $20 each in a bar in Chicago to watch galway footballers! (Lose:( )

The quality of the signal was rubbish in the first half, was coming and going, the bar said they would wait till half time before even thinking about returning any money. The second half was much better, but it doesnt change the fact that we barely saw any of the first half.
The bar refused to return any money in the end, based on what they saw as a great quality pic in the second half.

What are you supposed to do then, out $20 and a bar isnt going to listen to J1 students!!

Also, the 8AM starts for the games when your in the States doesnt help!! :)

CrossBar (Galway) - Posts: 362 - 15/04/2011 14:32:25    912238

JuanPeron
County: Westmeath
Posts: 64

912156
In America it's $20 to watch the game plus $10-15 for a breakfast, which is usually compulsory.

Getting a live stream via the web is often non existent or of extremely bad quality.

Best option is to look at the rerun the evening after for free!

Most of the bars that show the games are specifically chosen by Setanta, and they'll only get the rights to show them on the basis that they will charge people to come in, if not then Setanta will pull the plug and sell the rights to another pub. Bad form though to charge people in and then make them buy food to stay in the place. Otherwise they'll have a minimum drinks level, not normally a problem, but it can get a bit messy when you come stumblings out of a pub in San Francisco at midday on Pride Weekend. Not the best place to be wearing a bright tricoloured jersey...

wild_biffalo (Offaly) - Posts: 91 - 15/04/2011 14:45:19    912248

Most of the bars that show the games are specifically chosen by Setanta, and they'll only get the rights to show them on the basis that they will charge people to come in, if not then Setanta will pull the plug and sell the rights to another pub. Bad form though to charge people in and then make them buy food to stay in the place. Otherwise they'll have a minimum drinks level, not normally a problem, but it can get a bit messy when you come stumblings out of a pub in San Francisco at midday on Pride Weekend. Not the best place to be wearing a bright tricoloured jersey...
wild_biffalo , 15/04/2011 at 14:45


What you should do is wear the Blue and Gold jersey biffalo its more recognisable!

thurlesblues (Tipperary) - Posts: 4475 - 15/04/2011 14:51:42    912251

festinog
County: Galway
Posts: 906
There are 1.5 million Irish citizens living abroad, many of them would prefer to be home, and all of them would give their eye-teeth to be able to watch their county beat Mayo.

ah now just when we were getting along you had to do that ;) Id say mayo has one of the highest (west of ireland counties in general) of people abroad. especially down the years right back to the famine. i remember when in new york 8th years ago, I wore a mayo jersey one day. the amount of people that stopped me and said they had relatives from mayo stunned me.

Its a great country but a shame that so many irish people had to leave their home.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11539 - 15/04/2011 14:54:43    912252

haha Sorry wild_biffalo I can just imagine a Offaly jersey strolling in the middle of Pride Parade!!

CrossBar (Galway) - Posts: 362 - 15/04/2011 14:55:16    912253

@wild_biffalo: "Not the best place to be wearing a bright tricoloured jersey... "
With the way offaly have been playing lately I would have thought you'd take any opportunity to score?

Good post by the way!

A bar opened just outside Providence in Rhode Island that had Setanta and was showing the 6-Nations (2007 if memory serves). They weren't charging anything at the door and everything was going fine until word spread and people started traveling down from Boston. When the Boston bars realised what was happening, they threatened to contact Setanta Sports unless the $20 cover charge was installed immediately. I don't thinf there's any contract in place between the bar and Setanta or the $20 would have been in place from day one. I'm afraid to say that it's more likely just publicans been exceptionally greedy. The fact that they then insist on you buying food or drink when you're there (even though it's only 8am on a Sunday monring!) adds insult to injury.

festinog (Galway) - Posts: 3143 - 15/04/2011 14:58:07    912256

There is a free way of watching irish tv abroad.This will only work if you have mozilla firefox as your web browser.

Google foxy proxy and download it.


You need to redirect your browser traffic through a friendly IRISH proxy server, preferably a free one.

So, it's best to do it in FireFox as this browser is more configurable.

You will need to download and install FoxyProxy standard, here is the link.

http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org/downloads.html



Now you need to insert an Irish proxy server. You will find a list of free Irish proxy servers here:-

http://www.samair.ru/proxy/type-08.htm or hidemyass.com and select an irish server

When you right click FoxyProxy icon on the bottom of your browser select options. Then insert a new proxy address and port in the appropriate fields. It will warn you about having to select this address for all urls, but that's fine. Then right click the FoxyProxy icon again and select use your IP address for all urls.

Worked a treat. If you use the IE browser, you can still browse the internet using your standard IP address and standard speed, while Firefox will allow you to view the iplayer videos, albeit at a slower than your used to broadband speed. The slower speed is caused by the time it takes to redirect your traffic. Some proxy servers are better then others.

My brother used this in England and it worked a treat.

saddam (Mayo) - Posts: 414 - 15/04/2011 15:14:40    912264

thurlesblues
County: Tipperary
Posts: 2226

912251 Most of the bars that show the games are specifically chosen by Setanta, and they'll only get the rights to show them on the basis that they will charge people to come in, if not then Setanta will pull the plug and sell the rights to another pub. Bad form though to charge people in and then make them buy food to stay in the place. Otherwise they'll have a minimum drinks level, not normally a problem, but it can get a bit messy when you come stumblings out of a pub in San Francisco at midday on Pride Weekend. Not the best place to be wearing a bright tricoloured jersey...
wild_biffalo , 15/04/2011 at 14:45


What you should do is wear the Blue and Gold jersey biffalo its more recognisable!

On Pride Weekend? I wasn't aware there was a whole Tipperary/Pride Weekend connection.

Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 12291 - 15/04/2011 15:25:23    912272

festinog
County: Galway
Posts: 907

A bar opened just outside Providence in Rhode Island that had Setanta and was showing the 6-Nations (2007 if memory serves). They weren't charging anything at the door and everything was going fine until word spread and people started traveling down from Boston. When the Boston bars realised what was happening, they threatened to contact Setanta Sports unless the $20 cover charge was installed immediately. I don't thinf there's any contract in place between the bar and Setanta or the $20 would have been in place from day one. I'm afraid to say that it's more likely just publicans been exceptionally greedy. The fact that they then insist on you buying food or drink when you're there (even though it's only 8am on a Sunday monring!) adds insult to injury.

Is it only Irish bars that charge in to watch matches? Back in '06 in New York and '08 in California for the World Cup and European Championships nowhere was charging in. Maybe it's to do with cost of broadcast rights or something, but when one pub is showing Poland - Saudi Arabia for free and the Irish bar down the road is charging 20 dollars to watch a Leinster Final somethings not right.

wild_biffalo (Offaly) - Posts: 91 - 15/04/2011 15:26:23    912273

Seems like people are ignoring my post. By far the easiest and best option is to subscribe to overplay.net and use the proxy server. I used it for a year and 99% of the time it was excellent. Allows you to watch RTE or TG4 or the BBC iPlayer too.

letsgosligo (Sligo) - Posts: 105 - 15/04/2011 15:37:40    912283

On Pride Weekend? I wasn't aware there was a whole Tipperary/Pride Weekend connection.
Breffni39 , 15/04/2011 at 15:25


whats pride weekend Breffni?

thurlesblues (Tipperary) - Posts: 4475 - 15/04/2011 15:39:36    912284