A GIANT US naval ship will dock in Dublin city centre tomorrow on a courtesy visit to the capital to coincide with a major American football match this weekend.
Along with the visit of the ship there will also be a flyover of US military aircraft above the city.
The USS Mesa Verde is part of a major amphibious assault group which left the US in July. It is understood the ships have spent time training with their NATO ally Norway in recent days.
The ship is used by the US Marine Corps in beach landings of large amounts of soldiers and equipment during warfare and is built to carry landing craft, hovercraft troop transports, helicopters.
The vessel, known as the Ghost Gator, is a US Navy San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship.
The Mesa Verde, with a crew of 699, is part of a much bigger fleet of vessels which operate together – the USS Bataan, the USS Carter Hall and a large amount of military aircraft.
On Saturday the centre of Dublin city around Dame Street, College Green and Grafton Street will be closed to traffic as events take place.
This will include a performance at 3pm by the US Naval Forces Europe and Africa Band Public Performance – the New Orleans style brass band will hold a concert for the public at the top of Grafton Street.
The Sailors and Marines from the USS Mesa Verde ship will make their way to the Aviva in the evening as part of the Aer Lingus College Football clash between Notre Dame and Navy in the Aviva in the evening.
At 7.18pm US military aircraft will fly over Dublin as part of the festivities in the Aviva Stadium.
Dublin City Council has said that Dame Street, which is being renamed as Notre Dame Street for one weekend only, will be closed off to traffic from 8pm this Friday until 10pm on Saturday.
The Notre Dame Street Event will see the city centre area transformed into the home of Notre Dame tailgating action on game day (Saturday), which will include cheer squad performances.
The game is expected to draw 40,000 travelling fans, and to generate an estimated €147 million for the local economy.
A large garda presence is planned across Dublin also with a large amount of overtime offered to gardaí.
There was a momentary controversy this week as Assistant Commissioner Angela Willis clarified that armed gardaí will not be on foot patrol on the streets of the capital after a number of media reports.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say