Croke Park

The area now known as Croke Park was originally an Athletics Course known variously as the City and Suburban Racecourse and "Jones Road" Sportsground. It was originally owned by Maurice Butterly. From the foundation of the association in 1884 this sportsground was used by the organisation regularly for Gaelic games and Athletics. In 1896 both All-Irelands were played in the ground signifying the growing importance of the suburban plot for the ever expanding GAA. Recognising the potential of the Jones Road sportsground a journalist and GAA member, Frank Dineen, borrowed much of the £3,250 asking price and bought the ground personally in 1908. Only in 1913 did the GAA come into exclusive ownership of the plot when they purchased it from Dineen for £3,500. Once bought, the ground became known as Croke Park in honour of Archbishop Thomas Croke, one of the GAA's first patrons.

 

In 1913 Croke Park had two stands on what is now known as the Hogan stand side and grassy banks all round. In 1917, the rubble from the Easter Rising in 1916 was used to construct a grassy hill on the railway end of Croke Park to afford patrons a better view of the pitch, which hosted all major football and hurling matches. Immortalised as Hill 16, it is perhaps one of the most famous terraces in the world.[citation needed]

 

During the Irish War of Independence on November 21, 1920 Croke Park was the scene of a massacre by the Auxiliary Division. British army auxiliaries – nicknamed the Auxies but often referred to by the nickname of another RIC paramilitary force, the Black and Tans – entered the ground, shooting indiscriminately into the crowd killing 14 during a Dublin-Tipperary gaelic football match. The dead included 13 spectators and one player, Michael Hogan. The latter, Tipperary's captain, gave his name posthumously to the Hogan stand built four years later in 1924. These shootings, on the day which became known as Bloody Sunday, were a reprisal for the assassination of 14 British Intelligence officers, known as the Cairo Gang, by Michael Collins's 'squad' earlier that day.

 

In the 1920s the GAA set out to create a high capacity stadium at Croke Park. Following the Hogan Stand, the Cusack Stand, named after Michael Cusack from Clare (who founded the GAA and served as its first secretary), was built in 1927. 1936 saw the first double-deck Cusack Stand open with 5,000 seats, and concrete terracing being constructed on Hill 16. In 1952 the Nally Stand was built in memorial of Paddy Nally, another of the GAA founders. Seven years later, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the GAA, the first cantilevered "New Hogan Stand" was opened.

 

The highest attendance ever recorded at an All-Ireland Senior Football Final was 90,556 at the 1961 Offaly v Down final. Following the introduction of seating to the Cusack stand in 1966, the largest crowd recorded since has been reduced to 82,516.

 

There is great debate in Ireland regarding the use of Croke Park for sports other than those of the GAA. As the GAA was founded as a nationalist organisation to maintain and promote indigenous Irish sport, it has felt honour-bound throughout its history to oppose other, rival or "foreign" sports.

 

Up until the early 1970s, rule 27 of the GAA constitution stated that a member of the GAA could be banned from playing its games if found to be also playing soccer, rugby or cricket. That rule was abolished but another rule, #42, still prohibited the use of GAA property for games with interests in conflict with the interests of the GAA. The belief was that rugby and soccer were in competition with football and hurling, and that if the GAA allowed these sports to use their ground it may be harmful to Gaelic games. Therefore rule #42 has been taken to mean the sports of Rugby Union and Association Football as the playing of two games of American Football (one between Notre Dame and Navy, and an American Bowl game between the Chicago Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers) on the pitch during the 1990s showed.

 

On 16 April 2005, a motion to temporarily relax rule #42 was passed at the GAA Annual Congress. The motion gives the GAA Central Council the power to authorise the renting or leasing of Croke Park for events other than those controlled by the Association, during a period when Lansdowne Road – the venue for international soccer and rugby matches – is closed for redevelopment. The final result was 227 in favour of the motion to 97 against, 11 votes more than the required two-thirds majority.

 

In January 2006, it was announced that the GAA had reached agreement with the FAI and IRFU to stage two Six Nations games and four soccer internationals at Croke Park in 2007 and in February 2007, use of the pitch by the FAI and the IRFU in 2008 was also agreed. These agreements were within the temporary relaxation terms, as Lansdowne Road will still be under redevelopment until early 2009. However the GAA also said that hosted use of Croke Park would not extend beyond 2008, irrespective of the redevelopment progress.

 

11 February 2007 saw the first Rugby Union international to be played there. Ireland were leading France in a Six Nations clash, but lost 17-20 after conceding a last minute (converted) try.

 

A second match between Ireland and England on 24 February 2007 was politically symbolic because of the events of Bloody Sunday in 1920. There was considerable concern as to what reaction there would be to the singing of the British National Anthem God Save the Queen. Ultimately the anthem was sung without interruption or incident, and applauded by both sets of supporters at the match, which Ireland won by 43-13 (their largest ever win over England in rugby).

 

On the 24 March 2007 the first soccer match took place at Croke Park. The Republic of Ireland took on Wales in a Euro 2008 Qualifier, in which a Stephen Ireland goal secured a 1-0 win for the Irish in front of a crowd of 72,500. Prior to this, the IFA Cup had been played at the then Jones' Road in 1901, but this was 12 years before the GAA took ownership.

Done