Opening up on Croker

None of that had anything to do with my thinking. I didn’t think the financial inducements added up and I still don’t. I felt opening Croke Park gave rugby and soccer an added advantage in exposure and resources. I still do. In fact, some objections I had have come to pass so quickly, I can’t believe it.

With the announcement last week of the predicted financial windfall for the GAA, the GPA were already insisting the GAA had no excuse but to provide some financial rewards for players. It was always going to be hard to have an All-Ireland final fill Croke Park only for a soccer international to fill it again a week later, and to expect the GAA players to accept the soccer players getting payment while they didn’t. As time goes on, it’ll be harder to resist that mode of thinking.

We’re already being accused of hypocrisy. Why is there one rule for Croke Park while other GAA grounds remain closed? We’ve been told the money gathered from the international games will go back into the grassroots. I’d be cynical about that. Extra money might go into coaching but, if the deal provides €5m or €6m for GAA coaching, it will provide much more money to the rival associations. The GAA has poured money into infrastructure in recent years while the FAI and IRFU have concentrated on coaching. Now we’re increasing even further the money available to them to get more coaches on the ground.

I’m not saying GAA people are true Gaels or some kind of perfect specimen of Irishness but when we speak of Croke Park now we think of GAA. In a few years’ time could it be that when we say Croke Park the first reaction could be: “That’s where Wayne Rooney missed the penalty and Ireland won 2-1 to reach the European Championships.” It’d be a great result, but it does dilute our image of Croke Park.

People taunt me that if I don’t go to soccer and rugby matches in Croke Park that shows I’m anti-soccer, anti-rugby. I won’t be there but that’s because I know plenty of hard-working rugby and soccer people who deserve a seat more than I do. I’ve seen people at All-Ireland finals over the years who never should’ve been there. There’s no animosity between me and any other code but in the end I want to see kids of 11 and 12 choosing to play hurling and football. Opening Croke Park doesn’t help that aspiration.

The advocate
Sean Quirke

I’M THE Wexford County Board chairman and at our county convention in 2004 the topic of Rule 42 triggered one of the best debates I can remember. It was healthy, robust, often passionate and in the end 85% of the delegates voted in favour of a temporary opening. At Congress, the result reflected that groundswell of support.

Come next February GAA people will be able to hold their heads high when France arrive for the first rugby international in Croke Park. It will show to the world what we’ve achieved. After a couple of games I think the decision will be seen as a hugely positive one.

Some 80% of our population enjoys sport and in Wexford the barriers are almost non- existent. As proud as we are of our GAA teams, we’re also proud of Gordon D’Arcy. When he was with the Lions last year, Gordon kept track of Wexford’s progress and has always been a passionate supporter of the hurlers and footballers. Kevin Doyle has made a marvellous start to his soccer career in England and comes from a family steeped in GAA around Adamstown. As a Wexford man, I’ll be proud to see them represent their country in Croke Park.

The GAA wouldn’t have agreed in the absence of a good deal, and for that the negotiating team should be commended. The extra money will release finances in other areas and benefit the GAA with a new income stream.

To GAA people, Croke Park will always be Croke Park. It will still be the ambition of any young child to play there for their county. Soccer and rugby are already beaming into their homes through television and other media. Staging those games in Croke Park isn’t going to make a discernible difference. The way the world is gone, it’s good to see kids playing any sport.

All the sports need to co-exist and help each other as best they can. Over the years our county teams have trained on rugby grounds in bad weather. I appreciate where those against opening Croke Park were coming from but, when the vast majority of GAA people wanted it open, democracy had to be seen to be done.

Now that it’s open and the fixtures are being set, let’s use this magnificent resource for our benefit.

The local resident
Pat Gates

I’M THE chairman of Croke Park Residents Alliance and I’ve always been a GAA man. Years ago I played football for Brackaville Owen Roes outside Coalisland. My kids have played GAA and over the years I’ve seen the good the GAA does in the community. My issues aren’t with the GAA as a whole, they’re with Croke Park.

I’ve lived on James’ Avenue for 18 years. My house is situated close to the Cusack Stand gates and for vast tracts of the summer our lives are hugely disrupted by events at Croke Park. While soccer and rugby games in Croke Park represent lots of things to lots of people, to the 20,000 people who live around the ground they just promise more upset and inconvenience.

An average match-day for us can involve fans tapping on windows and doors and litter in our front gardens. We have persistent trouble with the security personnel manning the barriers around Croke Park as we try to get to and from our homes. People who see us driving our cars past the barriers towards our homes have been known to kick the cars as they pass.

Outside the barriers, there are problems with traffic congestion, poor parking, litter and on-street drinking. After 15 years of dialogue with Croke Park, they continue to treat us with total disrespect and disregard. They have made promises on an array of issues and delivered on very little. There have been agreements to improve the quality of life for the residents around Croke Park, witnessed and signed by local politicians including the Taoiseach, but the Croke Park authorities have failed abysmally on every front. Their basic approach seems to be: to hell with the local residents and our quality of life.

People ask why we don’t expect these problems when we live beside a stadium. We obviously accept there is going to be some disruption from 80,000-plus people coming into our community.

We have residents in these streets who can trace their lineage back to the time of Bloody Sunday. The notion that residents, old or young, have their basic rights taken away when they move in beside a stadium is preposterous. We don’t want to get rid of Croke Park. We want the GAA to listen to our issues and help resolve them.

With soccer and rugby on the way, everyone’s talking about the financial windfall for the GAA. Croke Park is situated in one of the most disadvantaged areas in Ireland, yet there’s no mention of some of this windfall being invested in the local community, say, in helping with streetscaping and general improvements.

If the GAA were pulling their weight, we would have no problem with the extra games. As far as we’re concerned, Croke Park is already operational all year round. It hosts business and social functions at night and residents on the Jones’ Road side have reported problems with drunken revellers leaving late at night. Evening soccer matches are going to cause problems, from the glare of the floodlights to the increased crowds in the area at rush-hour.

We will object but in the past our voice has been pretty much ignored. When we do object we’ll also be seen as begrudgers and whingers. We’re expected to grin and take all this hassle for the public good. We’d like some of the Croke Park executive to come and live here for a while to get a real sense of our problems. Up till now, the GAA just haven’t been good neighbours. A little empathy from them would go a long way.

The rugby man
Trevor Ringland

HAVING grown up the son of an RUC officer, I could never bring myself to attend any GAA matches in Croke Park while the ban on RUC members playing Gaelic games existed. It didn’t make me anti-GAA. When I was in Queen’s University we had great success in hockey, rugby and Gaelic football teams, and we enjoyed each side’s triumphs. My problem with the GAA was isolated to what I saw as a sectarian rule. Once it was done away with, I secured a ticket for the 2002 All-Ireland football final and happily headed for Croke Park.

The stadium blew me away, Armagh won on a fantastic day and as a unionist I thought it an excellent promotional exercise that I didn’t need to put my hand in my pocket in any of the bars we frequented. I travelled down a unionist, was made perfectly welcome, and safely came back home a unionist.

I haven’t heard any adverse discussion in Ulster rugby circles about the prospect of Ireland playing in Croke Park, and I can’t imagine any true Ulster rugby fan would have any major issues with it. Anyone who hasn’t been in Croke Park before will be really impressed, and should recognise the gesture the GAA have made in opening up the ground. Any Ulster people who have preconceptions about going to Croke Park will quickly overcome them. It’s up to everybody on this island to step through barriers, real or perceived. The GAA have made this gesture. It’s only right that Ulster rugby fans reciprocate.

I’m co-chairman of the One Small Step campaign, a drive to promote a shared future for Northern Ireland where all communities can work together, and gestures like this all count for something. Hurling and Gaelic football have always been All-Ireland sports, but not necessarily sports for all the people of Ireland. As people now start to come out of the trenches and engage with each other, the GAA have taken that on board with decisions like this.

Things are changing. A few years ago I was involved with CIYMS in Belfast when a young player was seriously injured. In an effort to help raise funds we got a call from Ballygalget GAA club, out on the Ards Peninsula in Co Down. As a result we had a charity night where we played a game with first half Gaelic football and the second a form of rugby. Small steps are being taken everywhere. Belfast Harlequins have just recently entered a form of groundsharing agreement with a local GAA club in south Belfast. Entities who once demonised each other are now finding much in common.

To see Ireland play rugby there next February will be a fantastic experience. This whole process is an example of what can be achieved with strong leadership. There were financial reasons to open Croke Park, but there was more at play. Making the ground available says something about the kind of leadership we need and the relationships we want between all communities.

On my trip three years ago I remember falling into many conversations with Armagh and Kerrymen where we agreed to disagree on some things, but shared the same views on plenty of others. Sometimes it’s good to focus on those things that bind us together. Next February we’ll be able to add one more strand.