Seamus Ó Midheach is preparing Croke park for the All-Ireland hurling final
There will be moments of quiet preparation before the excitement begins. Around dusk next Saturday there will be the sound of a mower giving the pitch a final cut. Early next morning, in the stadium museum, Croke Park staff will say a prayer for the day ahead at a special Mass. Then there's a big fry, "with all the bad stuff", before thousands of people start the big work of the day.
Working at Croke Park since May 1980, Séamus Ó Midheach jokes that he is still "one of the new lads". As event control manager for the GAA stadium he will spend the coming week preparing for next Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final, when 82,000 Cork and Kilkenny fans will descend on Croke Park.
There will be meetings with the Garda this week to agree the number of gardaí inside the stadium. "We pay for the gardaí in the stadium. There'll be around 90 inside. And the State pays for the ones outside. There'll also be a number of plain-clothes people on special duty."
The chief stewards and supervisors will allocate the stadium's own security people to their posts. A new barcoding system, to prevent tickets being reused, will be in place. There are a lot of people to organise, with 3,000 staff, five ambulances, 25 first-aid personnel and six doctors. The stadium also has four cardiac defibrillators. "If you want to get sick, Croke Park will be the place to be."
"On Saturday evening the grounds get their last mow. The grass is slightly shorter for hurling than for football. Then the catering is massive. Corporate boxes have to be fitted out and food brought in." Chefs will arrive for duty at 6am on Sunday morning to start the preparations.
Ó Midheach will watch the match from a tower at the northern end of the stadium, under a big screen, along with gardaí monitoring the 220 cameras and the downlink from the Garda helicopter. Does he shout for a side? "I'm from Kildare, so we've been out of things for a while. The hurling people are totally relaxed and laid back. Not that I've anything against the football fans, but they come early, enjoy the matches and go home quietly. It's a fantastic atmosphere." Catherine Cleary