Exploring Ireland: Preparing for the 2025 Aer Lingus Classic

Members of the Iowa State Athletics Department recently spent three days in Ireland, preparing for the 2025 Aer Lingus Football Classic next season. This is the first in a three-part series on things to do in the Dublin area outside of the 2025 Aer Lingus Classic against Kansas State, slated for Aug. 23, 2025. Travel and hospitality packages for the game are available now at Cyclones2Ireland.com.

Getting to Ireland: Aer Lingus

After a short flight from Des Moines to Chicago, Aer Lingus is the best option for getting to Dublin, Ireland. There is a regularly scheduled redeye flight from Chicago to Dublin every night, lasting just over six hours. With an 8:40 p.m. departure on Sunday, we arrived in Dublin just after 10 a.m. on Monday. A full dinner was served on the flight at roughly 10 p.m. While most of the flight was asleep by then, the chicken and rice meal was pretty good. Wi-Fi is available for purchase and the seats have built in screens with multiple TV shows, movies and games to play.

Where It's Played: Aviva Stadium

Aviva Stadium is the home of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. The stadium is Ireland's first, and only, UEFA Category 4 Stadium, and hosted the 2011 UEFA Europa League final and the 2024 UEFA Europa League final. It also hosted the 2011 Nations Cup, as well as the regular home fixtures of the national rugby team, national football team and some home fixtures for Leinster Rugby and Lansdowne Football Club from 2010 onwards. It is the second-largest stadium in Ireland behind Choke Park (82,300), which is located just 10 minutes north of Aviva Stadium.

The 2025 Aer Lingus College Football Classic between Iowa State and Kansas State will be the sixth American Football Game played in the stadium. The first was the Emerald Isle Classic between Notre Dame and Navy in 2012. This years game will be on Saturday, Aug. 24, featuring Georgia Tech and Florida State. The stadium seats 49,000 for American Football, with the 2023 game between Notre Dame and Navy and this year's games both being sellouts.

Stephen's Green & Grafton Street

Not too far from Aviva Stadium is Stephen's Green and Grafton Street. St. Stephen’s Green holds a very special place in the heart of all Dubliners and visitors to the city alike. A beautiful idyll in the center of a vibrant and youthful city, the Green, as it is commonly known, is the perfect sanctuary for shoppers, office workers and tourists searching for that well-earned rest from the hustle and bustle that is Dublin life.

Grafton Street is one of the two principal shopping streets in Dublin city center — the other being Henry Street. It runs from St Stephen's Green in the south (at the highest point of the street) to College Green in the north (the lowest point). The street, on the Southside of the city, was developed from a laneway in the early 1700s, and its line was shaped by the now-culverted River Steyne. Initially, a fashionable residential street with some commercial activity, the character of Grafton Street changed after it was connected to Carlisle Bridge and came to form part of a cross-city route. You'll also find the Lord Mayor's House near Grafton Street, as you can't miss the blue door.

A great spot for lunch on Grafton Street is the Lemon and Duke.

Trinity College: Ireland's Oldest University

Trinity is Ireland's oldest university, with a reputation as a research-intensive center. The university was established March 3, 1592. The Library of Trinity College is Ireland's largest research library. As a result of its historic standing, Trinity College Library Dublin is a legal deposit library (as per Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003) for the United Kingdom, and has a similar standing in Irish law. The college is therefore legally entitled to a copy of every book published in Great Britain and Ireland, and consequently receives over 100,000 new items every year. One of the most popular items at Trinity College is The Book of Kells, a 9th-century gospel manuscript famous throughout the world.

EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum

The EPIC Museum covers the history of the Irish diaspora and emigration to other countries. It was designed by the London-based design firm Event Communications, and was voted as "Europe's Leading Tourist Attraction" at the 2019, 2020 and 2021 World Travel Awards. The exhibition is made up of twenty galleries which are each individually themed, and fall under the headings of Migration (Galleries 1 to 2), Motivation (Galleries 4 to 7), Influence (Galleries 8 to 18) and Diaspora Today (Galleries 19 to 20). The "Migration" galleries, for example, deal with migration patterns from Ireland since 500AD. These galleries cover religious missionary work, the Irish famine, religious and social persecution, criminal transportation, and the effects of Irish involvement in foreign conflicts. Displays include a series of video testimonies from six Irish emigrants.

SOLE Seafood and Grill

Dining in SOLE is about the full customer experience, from the moment you are greeted, eating the best seafood in Dublin, or enjoying a drink from their extensive bar and wine menu. Each day the culinary team prepares the very best of products with great passion and care to enhance their pure flavors; among them are fresh oysters from Ireland's coastal waters, top-quality Irish beef that is carefully dry-aged in-house by chefs, delicately smoked salmon from Howth, County Dublin, and the finest Irish lobsters.

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Exploring Ireland: Preparing for the 2025 Aer Lingus Classic

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