At its heart, Irish culture has a very strong love of sport. While the Irish are very passionate about it, sometimes our success is disproportionate to the size of our love and our population. But that doesn't stop us!

Because the sporting community has a strong sense of volunteerism, it's the foundation of many of the sporting clubs. This enthusiasm for giving back is not only part of the Irish culture, and the sporting culture, but Cisco's culture. So when we can mix sport, culture and charity, the Irish get excited!

Enter GOAL Jersey Day. The idea behind GOAL Jersey Day is to run a nationwide fundraiser where participants across Ireland don the jersey of their favourite sports team and make a donation towards the GOAL charity.

We in Cisco Galway took this idea a step further (as we like to do) and took some time during lunch to play some of the Ireland's favourite games! Over the last few years this has included the ancient and traditional game of hurling (the fastest game on grass and not for the faint-hearted!) but this year the team decided to play Rugby to celebrate Ireland's successful participation in the Rugby World Cup. (Another game not for the faint-hearted!)

Because we can be a little competitive here at Cisco Galway (and we don't want anyone injured), the team decided to tone down the physical aspect and play TAG.

We had a great day, and donated some time and money. Our team really got into it!

"Getting groups of Cisco Galway employees together into team and letting them play sport while making money for charity just made sense!" said Anthony McLaughlin, a software engineer at Cisco Galway. "It was a fantastic afternoon of 'craic' (it's an Irish word and not to be mistaken for other interpretations ) was enjoyed by everyone involved. And it was good to know that it was all in aid of charity"

 "It's an easy decision to make to be part of Cisco's annual GOAL Jersey day," said Brian O'Donoghue, a system engineer for sales at Cisco. "It allows employees to display their pride in their team, get out and be active on the sporting field, while at the same time donating money to a very worthy Irish charity. Cisco Galway employees played with a competitive but fun attitude that typifies the culture of Cisco globally!"

"'Jersey day' is a great event in Cisco Galway -there's great colour on site with Jerseys being worn that represent sports from different levels -International, Provincial, County and Club, and reflecting the wide variety of sports interests on site: Rugby, Hurling, Football, Camogie, Soccer  and lots more," said Colie McGarry, a software engineer at Cisco. "As for the matches themselves -they have been very well run and the Cisco competitive edge was quite evident to anyone involved."

"It was an opportunity to have some super fun, healthy competition with coworkers out in the fresh air and all in aid of a fantastic cause," said Katie NicGabhann a software engineering manager for Cisco.

"It was a good opportunity to meet with other colleagues in Cisco as well as to show my tag skills, J" said Tuna Erdumaz, a Cisco software engineer. I had so much fun to get involved in this. I even did the winning try to make my team tournament winner."

"The TAG match was great fun, and an excellent opportunity to get more familiar with the Cisco family here in Oranmore since I'm just a new graduate of 2months," said Eamonn Clancy, a graduate software engineer at Cisco. "The Cisco spirit is best shown through it's charity, even in the short time I've been here I've already signed up to a number of charity events. It's definitely been all inclusive since I've joined"

"The Tag game for GOAL was a great opportunity to participate in the fundraising endeavor," said Mary Newell, a software engineer for Cisco. "Unlike other sports, TAG is something that can easily cater for all skill levels (from the unskilled like myself to the wannabe Paul O'Connell's). A few players were expecting their Rugby World Cup 2015 call-up after their performances! All in all a very enjoyable experience"