Passing a address via intent to Google map activity:

I am working on an app that gets the address of an event the user selects. The address is a String and is passed from one activity to a Google Map activity. I know the string arrives in the map activity as I have used a Toast to display it. However, when I try to get the longitude and latitude of the address it doesn't work. The try catch block doesn't seem to execute unless I hard code and address into the addresses = geocoder.getFromLocationName('Dublin,Ireland', 1);

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

public class EventMapActivity extends FragmentActivity implements OnMapReadyCallback {

private GoogleMap mMap;
private Intent MyTournamentsActivityIntent;
private String eventAddress = "";
double latitude = 0;
double longitude = 0;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_event_map);
    // Obtain the SupportMapFragment and get notified when the map is ready to be used.
    SupportMapFragment mapFragment = (SupportMapFragment) getSupportFragmentManager()
            .findFragmentById(R.id.map);
    mapFragment.getMapAsync(this);

    MyTournamentsActivityIntent = getIntent();
    eventAddress = MyTournamentsActivityIntent.getStringExtra("event_location");
    Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),"Address from intent" + eventAddress,Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}//end onCreate


@Override
public void onMapReady(GoogleMap googleMap) {
    mMap = googleMap;

    Geocoder geocoder = new Geocoder(this);
    List<Address> addresses;

    try{

        /*
        This doesnt execute unless I hard code the eventAddress
         */
        addresses = geocoder.getFromLocationName(eventAddress, 1);
        latitude= addresses.get(0).getLatitude();
        longitude= addresses.get(0).getLongitude();
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),String.valueOf(latitude) + " " + String.valueOf(longitude) ,Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }catch (Exception e)
    {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    LatLng eventLocation = new LatLng(latitude, longitude);
    mMap.addMarker(new MarkerOptions().position(eventLocation).title("Your Event"));
    mMap.moveCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newLatLng(eventLocation));
}//end onMapReady

public void setEventAddress(String eventAddress) {
    this.eventAddress = eventAddress;
}

}//end Class