For this was Finnegan's of Bangkok. When booking a dream trip to Thailand, Laos and Cambodia last spring, this die-hard Monaghan fan never thought the holiday would coincide with the county's biggest game in 22 years.

After finding out that I could not get my flights changed without having to stay in Qatar for three days on the way, I set about trying to find somewhere to watch the game in Bangkok a few hours after landing in Thailand.

I emailed the Asian GAA board, the Irish embassy in Bangkok and all the Irish pubs in the city to see if any of them were showing the game.

Eventually, Dundalk man Gerry Finnegan got back to me to say he had been showing all the 2007 championship games in his bar, which opened last year. Finnegan gets the coverage from Setanta via a broadband connection and shows the games on a big screen through his laptop.

After arriving there just before kick-off, we were greeted by Finnegan, who said his championship coverage had proved popular in its first year, with members of the Irish Transplant Games team due in the following week to watch a game.

Unfortunately, there were problems with the broadband connection and it stopped and started, with pauses in the commentary. Thankfully I had arranged for friends to send text message updates as the game went on so these filled in the gaps. Despite the stop-start nature of the big screen, by the second half we had even managed to have some Bangkok locals cheering on Banty's Babes.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR TV SIGNAL GLOBAL

THE Slingbox is an electronic device that connects to the back of your TV.

The box redirects your TV signal from your cable box to your laptop or computer. As long as you have a highspeed internet connection, you can then watch your local TV channels anywhere in the world.

Slingboxes are also compatible with mobile phones, if you are registered with the 3 network. They are available at most 3 Mobile shops for /199.