If you’re from Ireland and find yourself through no fault of your own living in another place, it’s likely you’ll get homesick. When I was working in Stockholm for a while a friend I was working with got really down. He just missed his hometown of Dublin a lot, he was also a mad keen Hurling fan. If you’ve tried to find a live satellite feed of the Kilkenny vs Cork match anywhere in Sweden prepare yourself for some disappointment.
Although I quite got into the ice hockey that seems possible, it wasn’t the same for my friend. But then a great moment – RTE the Irish National TV station announced somewhat behind everyone else I thought – the launch of the RTE player. This was a media web site which would show most of their programs, including Hurling with all the latest fixtures.
Unfortunately the joy was short lived when we tried to access using the Raddisson Wifi network in Stockholm, it was quite upsetting for a homesick Irishman to be denied by his national TV station – but that’s what happened. The RTE site blocks access to most of it’s content to anyone outside Ireland, which is silly because those are the people who most want to see it online. I have one clue for you though which can bypass this restriction – seek out an Irish proxy – my friend did and he couldn’t be happier.