Irish go bragh: Notre Dame returns to Ireland with rich history in tow

For almost all of the Notre Dame players, coaches, staff and the tens of thousands of Fighting Irish fans who will make the flight across the Atlantic to Ireland this August, the trip to Dublin for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic is a chance to make some memories in a beautiful and unfamiliar country, with a Fighting Irish football game against Navy serving as the perfect backdrop.

But for Notre Dame linebacker JD Bertrand, this upcoming trip to Dublin means much more than memories and football because of how deeply his family is rooted on The Emerald Isle.

Personally, Bertrand has been to Ireland twice before. His most recent visit came in March when he and four teammates went to Dublin to help promote this 2023 season-opening game versus Navy, which will mark the third time these two proud programs have played in Ireland.

Seven years ago, Bertrand went to Dublin with his Blessed Trinity Catholic High School team, one of six top prep programs from the U.S. that were invited to play at nearby Donnybrook Stadium as part of the 2016 College Football Classic weekend festivities when Georgia Tech played Boston College at Aviva Stadium.

And 35 years before that, and 12 years before Bertrand was born, JD’s father Jim Bertrand also played at Donnybrook Stadium.

The elder Bertrand was a team captain of Dublin’s Blackrock College Rugby Football Club that won the 1981 Leinster Schools Senior Cup, the premier rugby tournament in the country each year.

“For me, that was the coolest part about [the trip] in 2016 was playing in Donnybrook, the same stadium my dad played in, which was one of the biggest highlights of his life,” JD Bertrand told Dublin news outlet RTÉ Sport when the Irish graduate student visited there in March. “Dad tries to come back [to Ireland] as often as possible, and we have a lot of family friends from there that we’re still really connected to.”

Jim Bertrand was born in the United States but moved to Ireland when his father — JD’s grandad — was dispatched there for work in the 1970s.

Big, strong and athletic, Jim became one of the best rugby players in Ireland as a teenager and young adult through the late 1970s and early ’80s, while also studying at national rugby powerhouse Blackrock College.

After his rugby days, Jim Bertrand relocated to the U.S. and later settled in Alpharetta, Ga., just north of Atlanta where he raised his three sons, watched JD become an all-state linebacker and eventually find his way to Notre Dame.

“Dad always told us about his rugby stories,” JD said. “And I don’t think we fully understood it until I got a little older and kind of understood how important rugby is to the [Irish] culture, specifically Blackrock, and how important rugby is to that school.”

All of it makes for an interesting backdrop in the weeks leading up to another Irish invasion for the Bertrand clan in August, the first home game Notre Dame has ever hosted at an international site. JD estimates the Bertrand travel party could exceed 40 family members and friends. And Ireland’s natural beauty and the tradition of a Notre Dame versus Navy game shouldn’t disappoint.

“They can expect an experience that they will treasure for a lifetime,” said John Anthony, founder of Anthony Travel and co-founder of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic, the leading organizers and booking agents for this trip. “You’re in such a different setting, and a different culture, with a different vibe.

“And the excitement that comes with being somewhere that’s different to you. … Everybody has friends going over, so you’re with some of your favorite people in a really cool setting.”

The Wait Is Over

The Bertrand party will be part of about 10,000 Americans from all over the United States that Anthony Travel booked for the Ireland trip.

In fact, the travel packages that Anthony Travel put together for the game sold out three months before this colossal event.

All told, the game weekend is expected to bring in more than 39,000 total travelers from the U.S. — a world record for the largest number of Americans to travel internationally for a single sporting event. Meanwhile, the game itself officially sold out on May 23 and is expected to draw nearly 50,000 fans.

“Forty-thousand [international fans] converging there at one time, it’s the largest single arrival that Ireland has ever had in the peacetime era, so it will stress the system a little bit,” Anthony added. “But they’ve hosted this game and the influx of travelers before. They can handle it. They’ll be ready to roll out the green carpet.”

According to numerous published reports, the Aer Lingus College Football Classic weekend will pump into the Irish economy more than 150 million euros (about $160 million).

Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick also explained that organizing myriad events to complement the game and celebrate Notre Dame’s ties to Ireland was another important consideration when planning this weekend. The average traveler is expected to spend seven days on The Emerald Isle.

“This trip overseas continues to strengthen our academic and athletic presence around the globe,” Swarbrick said in November 2021, when the game was announced. “Bringing a Notre Dame football home game atmosphere to Ireland has been a goal of ours, and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with the Naval Academy to make it happen.”

This game in Dublin was originally scheduled as the season opener in 2020 that was canceled because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, meaning it’s been 11 years since Notre Dame last played in Ireland. The Fighting Irish also played there in 1996.

Anthony estimates about 16,000 Americans traveled to Dublin in 1996 for Notre Dame’s game against Navy.

“There was such newness and really no internet,” he said.

Then, in 2012, about 35,000 travelers flocked to Ireland for the Emerald Isle Classic football weekend and the Notre Dame versus Navy game.

“So, 2012 was a validation that this is something that everybody loves,” Anthony added. “Because if they went in 1996, they went again in 2012. And this time, they made sure they brought a friend, with the numbers more than doubling.

“That was such a great event for the entire Notre Dame community in 2012 that everybody was always asking about when we would go again. And the numbers climbed again [for 2023], which shows how attractive this trip is to Irish fans.”

The is the first-ever home game for Notre Dame in Ireland, given the previous two trips there were considered Navy home dates.

This is also a historic event for NBC Sports because it will mark the first time the Notre Dame television partner broadcasts a college football game from a foreign country.

And, of course, the rich history of the Notre Dame-Navy series, which has been played every year since 1927 — save for 2020 when it was canceled because of COVID-19 — adds even more pageantry to the event.

A Global Draw

The three trips to Dublin by Notre Dame aren’t the only international experiences the Fighting Irish football program has enjoyed over the decades.

Its first overseas trip came on Nov. 24, 1979, when the unranked Irish traveled to Tokyo, Japan, and beat unranked Miami (Fla.) 40‑15 in the Mirage Bowl at National Olympic Stadium.

That Saturday night game attracted 62,574 rain-soaked but enthusiastic fans.

The Fighting Irish wore their signature green jerseys that head coach Dan Devine often preferred and won big in the season finale to finish the year at 7-4. The Mirage Bowl was a bowl game by name only. It was actually the regular-season finale for both teams.

Irish senior tailback Vegas Ferguson was named the MVP in the game. He rushed 35 times for 177 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Notre Dame didn’t play on the international stage again until 1996 when the No. 19 Irish made its Dublin debut and beat unranked Navy 54‑27 at Croke Park in the Croke Park Classic with 38,651 fans in attendance.

The Irish never trailed in the game and actually led 54-21 before a late fourth-quarter touchdown by Navy made the final score slightly more respectable.

Interestingly, this first trip to Dublin for Notre Dame in 1996 wasn’t scheduled as its first or final game that season. The overseas trip came in Week 7, meaning the Irish had to return to the States and play at Boston College the following Saturday. It beat the Eagles 48-21 in Chestnut Hills, Mass., en route to finishing that season — the last for Irish head coach Lou Holtz — with an 8-3 record. Sophomore tailback Autry Denson led Notre Dame with 123 rushing yards and scored 2 touchdowns in the game.

The most recent overseas trip for Notre Dame came in the season opener on Sept. 1, 2012, when the Irish rolled to a 50‑10 victory over Navy at Aviva Stadium in front of 48,820 attendees.

Senior tailback Theo Riddick led the Notre Dame offense with 107 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns while sophomore defensive end Stephon Tuitt had a 77-yard fumble return for a touchdown in a game that Notre Dame jumped to a 27-0 lead and cruised to victory.

Jet lag and long travel might have contributed to a sluggish 20-17 Irish win over Purdue the following Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium, a game that Purdue led 17-10 early in the fourth quarter.

The Irish needed a 27-yard field goal from placekicker Kyle Brindza with 7 seconds left to seal the win and save its run to an undefeated regular season and a place in the 2012 BCS National Championship game against Alabama. 

A Growing History

After a pandemic postponement in 2020, myriad logistical challenges and 11 years of waiting, Notre Dame will finally make its highly anticipated return to Ireland Aug. 26, for the season-opening game against Navy at Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

The event is being called the Aer Lingus College Football Classic, named after the nation’s signature Irish airline.

This will be the third time these two proud programs have played in Ireland.

Notre Dame and Navy were scheduled to open their 2020 seasons with a game in Dublin, until that matchup was canceled because of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions.

“There was very strong interest and an excitement from fans and travelers for the 2020 game, pre pandemic, but they had to cancel that game. So, this is kind of a remake,” said Joe Wunderlick, vice president of On Location Experiences, the primary travel partner with the university for Notre Dame’s overseas excursions. “The fans are very excited to get back there again.”

And perhaps nobody is more excited than Ireland Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Martin.

“The movement of this game to Ireland will provide a significant boost to our tourism and hospitality industries,” Martin said, while celebrating the tens of millions U.S. dollars this event will bring to his country.

This third appearance in Ireland for Notre Dame and Navy will be the most among all college teams on The Emerald Isle.

Eleven different programs have appeared in the seven games previously held in Ireland, the first coming in 1988 when Boston College beat Army 38-24. Boston College has played twice in Dublin. The following year in 1989, Pittsburgh beat Rutgers 46-29.

Those two inaugural games were known at the time as the Emerald Isle Classic.

In 2014, Penn State beat Central Florida 26-24. In 2016, Georgia Tech beat Boston College 17-14. And in 2022, Northwestern beat Nebraska 31-28 in the most recent American college football game played in Ireland.

Veteran Navy athletics director Chet Gladchuk still celebrates the enthusiasm from when Notre Dame and Navy met in Dublin in 2012, and he expects even more this year.

“In 2012, it was one of the greatest airlifts in all of sports with more than 35,000 people coming from the United States to witness the beauty of Ireland and the pageantry that is a Notre Dame-Navy football weekend,” said Gladchuk, the Navy athletics director since 2001. “It’s a special experience.”

American college football in Ireland has always been well received.

The average attendance for the previous seven games was about 41,000. Notre Dame’s two previous appearances attracted about 44,000 per contest.

And this year’s game is expected to draw well more than that, given the immediate demand and the fast sellout of the Ireland vacation packages booked by On Location Experiences in conjunction with Anthony Travel.

“The response right out of the box was extraordinary,” Anthony said of the immediate demand for this travel packages. “The feedback has been excitement. Folks have been waiting a long time to get back to Dublin to watch their beloved Irish, in such an amazing setting.”