Irish Independence.

Jesse May and Padraig Parkinson threw a party for all the Irish players in Jesse May's rented house in the suburbs of Las Vegas. "Sumptuous" simply doesn't do it justice. It had a waterfall at the front door for God's sake!

An air-conditioned bus picked us up every hour on the hour from the Rio hotel and dropped us to the door. Someone suggested that Norman drive! Norman (who'd been helped to bed by a security guard the night before) was feeling a little too sensitive to accomodate us...

Beer and BBQ food flowed freely and everyone was very polite and cordial for a while. Jesse and Padraig shot footage for their show and everyone got merrily tanked while the americans launched fireworks to celebrate their independence day. The few english who had snuck along with us were of the opinion that they could keep it.

The night wore on and the drink continued to flow and the cameras came round to interview us. Oscar wasn't too keen on the idea so Dave O'C and I thought we should really highlight this up and coming young irish player. So we thrust him forward into the camera, I know, we're bad bad men!

The night wore on and the drink did it's work and everyone got plastered. In the intense desert heat, even at midnight, the swimming pool began to look very inviting! Paddy O'Connor and Mick Sullivan decided that it was time to strip off (and I do mean strip off) and dive in. Krusty The Clown from Cork ended up getting thrown in by the lads afterwards!

The night wore on and more drink was consumed until eventually Oscar talked Eoghan O'Dea into diving into the pool first in a swimming "time trial" competition. Eoghan obviously didn't know that Oscar can't swim a stroke and had no intention of swimming anywhere.

Time to go home so we called a cab and talked the taxi driver into taking 5 of us. Ken Powell refused to abandon his JD and Coke. Eoghan was convinced we are taking the mick when he had to sit on Ken's lap, sending the JD all over Ken and I in his drunken state!

The ride home was a mixture of side splitting hilarity and 100 MPH scary-death race as Dave O'C waved $20 notes at the driver telling him he would tip him them if he went faster and faster. I took out my video camera and captured a snippet of the sound. Close your eyes, imagine you are speeding down the Las Vegas boulevard, swerving to avoid cars that are only doing 60mph, soaked in coke and JD and with Eoghan on your lap. I have the sound track but I'm saving it for the next time I go all in against the lads...

Pictures from the party can be seen here.