Neil Ewing: Wembley, the Tube, Covent Garden. When the Connacht championship goes metropolitan

Overseas GAA Championship action can be distilled into two themes. The fear and the experience.

ATMOSPHERE: Supporters enjoy the prematch atmosphere prior to the Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship Quarter-Final match between London and Sligo at McGovern Park in Ruislip, London, England. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Ruislip, home of London GAA. A throbbing heart of football and hurling. Off a roundabout in one of the world’s largest metropolises.

For me, this GAA outpost will always conjure Munster rugby moments. The brave and the faithful. The Heineken Cup. My first visit to Ruislip was May 24, 2008. A quick runout on the pitch on the day before Sligo’s Connacht Championship game with our London hosts. Post-session we repaired upstairs to the bar, for sandwiches and the closing stages of the European Cup final. Munster’s shrewd keep-ball end game, strangling the life out of a star-studded Toulouse team to run down the clock.