Ireland v France in Croker.

[kerrygold]

Well folks a new era is about to dawn,were only 5 days away from the opening of croker to "foreign games".

Have any of ye got an opinion on this monumental event.i must say i was sceptical in the begining but having being there on saturday night i could see what croker is capable of becoming.
I'm looking forward to the game there now on sunday down town dublin 3,have any of ye got tickets for it.

it would be a shame if o driscol and darcy were injured for the game,theres a doubt now about stringer as well.

i read last night in the times that shane horgan won an all-ireland minor medal with meath,i wasnt aware of that.

admin,there a good article on to-days indo by justine mc carthy,pg.23 tabloid version,if you could post it up here,it would be an interesting read for those interested.

[admin]

There's more than one Irish identity, as the GAA realises


A VISION of the future has appeared on the rooftop of a public house in Ballsbridge bearing the name of a gaelic football legend. Once you have pinched yourself and allowed cautious belief to seep slowly in, it is a future that looks spine-tinglingly good. It will work.

The entire roof displays an announcement that "business as usual" will be conducted in the pub next Sunday, courtesy of a shuttle bus laid on by former All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Paddy Cullen for his Croke Park-bound patrons.

Spare prose that bridges a geographical distance of mere miles and an historical divide more than a century old. How apt that the great tradition of the GAA should have its latest milestone commemorated in rugbyland's Dublin Four, totemic postal code for well-heeled liberalism, so often pilloried in the past as a "west-Brit" mindset.

Long before the whistle blows for the kick-off at Croker, the GAA's decision to allow "foreign" games be played in its jealously guarded crucible has begun to change both the landscape and the conversation of the nation.

Fun has been poked at the provision of maps by Dublin City Council and Dublin Bus to assist DART-speaking rugby alickadoos making their way to the northside grounds, but the poignant truth is that they are necessary. For many match-goers, whether they are coming from Ballymena or Ballymun, the trip to Croke Park will be a safari to a new frontier.

The state-of-the-art stadium is acknowledged as the third biggest in Europe, a source of pride for the GAA and its members but, in terms of Irish history, it is not the size that matters. Croker is Ireland's living war memorial.

When the English team runs out there on February 24 and the band strikes up "God Save the Queen", it will be a lump-in-the-throat moment for everybody who harbours patriotic feelings for Ireland. Moreover, it will be a moment free of monopoly. Despite its admirable endeavours in preserving great bolts of the fabric dominating Ireland's tapestry, the GAA cannot claim proprietorship of Irishness.

For most of the green-clad fans who will congregate on the Hogan Stand (named after one of the 14 people slaughtered by the Black and Tans on Bloody Sunday) and for those massed on Hill 16 (constructed from the rubble of Sackville Street after the Rising), the moment will be no less stirring because the ball is oval.

Opening up Croke Park was a painful decision for the GAA to make and it took its time making it. Events had galloped ahead. It is manifest in the panel of players selected for the Six Nations championship that the climate for sports apartheid had blown itself out. The days of exclusion are gone. Shane Horgan, who scored the Triple Crown try against England last year, has an All-Ireland minor football medal for Meath. Geordan Murphy could have done ditto as a hurler had he been fortunate enough to be born in Cork or Kilkenny. Conor O'Shea, a member of RTE's commentary panel, is the son of a multi-medal gaelic player.

One of the great shibboleths that we will be burying next Sunday when French fans release their mascot cockerels in Croke Park and the air pulsates with "Ireland's Call" (surely one of the greatest compromises in the history of diplomacy) is that Irishness has only one identity. Look at the O'hAilpins.

Look at Moore Street.

Next Sunday will not be easy for GAA members in Crossmaglen or for IRFU members in Malone. Both will have their own reasons to cringe at the sight of a rugby ball in Croke Park. It is not so long ago that international rugby players travelling from the North for a match in Dublin were injured by an exploding bomb on the border. Equally, there are GAA players who can recall a time when they could get arrested en route to hurling practice for being in possession of a dangerous weapon.

Laments have been raised that the Prince of Waless' two sons will not attend the England match in Croke Park. Seasoned rugby fans, accustomed to seeing Princess Anne in Lansdowne Road every second year for the Scottish game, will feel that disappointment less acutely, remembering that the Rubicon of Perfidious Albion was crossed three decades ago.

After other teams had refused to come to Dublin in the blackest years of the Troubles, the English team were welcomed to Lansdowne Road with a spontaneous standing ovation that anyone who was there has never forgotten.

Such are the memories and the stories that the many and varied faces of Ireland can exchange when they come together next weekend. There is a lot of catching up to do.

Justine McCarthy

[admin]

Examiner
06 February 2007

'Eddie, it's your home'

CROKE PARK stadium director Peter McKenna has told Ireland rugby coach Eddie O’Sullivan: “We don’t want you to feel like a guest — this is your home.”


McKenna was speaking yesterday at the Jones Road venue, just six days ahead before the historic clash of Ireland and France in the Six Nations. He stressed the importance of welcoming all visitors to the venue — and one group in particular.

“It’s a philosophy we try to engender — if it’s a group of nine-year-olds coming in to tour the museum up to county teams and international managers, we want to make people feel welcome, to feel that this is their day.





“It was important to say to Eddie, ‘we don’t want you to feel like a guest — this is your home. Whatever it is that makes your job easier, tell us and we’ll do it for you’.

“I compare it to a hotel and an apartment. If you book a room in a hotel everything’s laid on, food and drink, and everything’s clean and should be fit for purpose. When you rent an apartment you can paint the walls and put up posters — for all intents and purposes you’re the owner while you stay there.

“For us this is a hotel arrangement — we have huge obligations to deliver on the expectations, but at the same time we’ve also kept a degree of control of the facility, in the build-up and during and after the games.”

McKenna feels the staff’s experience in dealing with crowds of over 80,000 in a specific location should help Sunday go smoothly.

“It’s all about experience of the venue. We couldn’t move down to Cork to run Pairc Ui Chaoimh, for instance, because we wouldn’t know the idiosyncrasies of the stadium. We’ve done a lot of training on this — we’ve had tabletop exercises involving the Gardaí, Fire Brigade and so on, and those really sharpened us up. You hope you’ve planned to respond to any eventuality.”

Last Saturday the Croke Park staff absorbed the lesson of yet another full house, this time under floodlights, when Tyrone edged out Dublin in the best-attended NFL game in the history of the GAA. As McKenna points out, it was a special evening.

“There’s something about lights that say ‘the party is on’. It’s like candles on a birthday cake — people always associate lights with an event, whether it’s Christmas or a birthday, and that was the situation last Saturday night.

“I think our supporters responded in huge numbers; I was delighted for Nickey (Brennan) — he deserved to be there, you only become president after doing the hard yards all the way up, it was great he was there to pull the lever and turn on the lights.”

Sunday’s game won’t be held under floodlights, but that doesn’t mean anyone will be slacking. There’ll be over 2,000 people working in Croke Park on Sunday, so every one of the 12 different radio channels used by staff within the stadium is needed.

“There’ll be security here all night Saturday,” says McKenna.

“There’s always extra security coming up to a big game. At 6.30am on Sunday, the chefs will come in to start the kitchen prep. The grounds staff keep an eye on the weather and if they think it’ll freeze, that the under-soil heating needs to be turned on, then they’ll do it at that time.

“Security is relieved at 8am and our team usually start arriving from 10am onwards, but for the French game we’ll probably come in around 9am. We’ll have presentations about what we’ll be facing specifically that day. The stewards will come in then, we’ll have scoreboard, PA and big screen tests to see if those are working. The ambulance people come in, the radios are given out . . . it’ll be pretty exciting at that stage.”

McKenna says Ireland’s rugby squad “haven’t looked for anything extra, there have been no special requests. They’ve been up front and honest, they have a good backroom team who know what they want.”

GAA fans familiar with the layout of the dressing-rooms under the Hogan Stand may be surprised to hear that one of the biggest changes within the premises is the location of the referee’s room — usually the man with the whistle togs out in a dressing-room at the corner of the Cusack Stand and the Canal End, but for the rugby (and soccer) internationals, the officials will prepare in a changing area between the two teams’ dressing-rooms.

“It’s a huge event for Dublin, in terms of the revenue it’ll generate,” said the Longford native. “It’s a huge event for the country. It’s a tremendous achievement for the GAA to be able to say we have one of the great stadia in the world and we’re opening our doors now, and we’re proud of what we’ve achieved. That goes for every clubman who ever collected for Croke Park.”

[seamus]

Its a great and historic day for Irish sport. As someone said at congress, the bottom line is that the GAA have a neighbour in trouble and you help your neighbour (for €1.5m!!!)

[branch]

I think it's a great idea to let other sports use our fantastic stadium...provided the GAA schedule is never altered because of another sport, and no games (even league games) are sent off to smaller venues to accomodate another sport in Croker! If this even starts then we are going down a sad road! GAA should always come first in Croke Park!

This could make a lot of money for the GAA, money that could be further invested into the development of GAA not only in Ireland but all over the world.

[kerrygold]

just in relation to opening croker up to other sports,there were 4 international friendly soccer games played in london last night.The game between brazil and portugal sold out 60 thousand tickets in 2 days at arsenals new statium.
Its quiet possible that the boys from brazil v portugal would sell 80000 tickets for croker for the same game,what an occasion that be under lights midweek in croker for the patrons of dublin city and beond,a few bob for the boys at HQ also.
I'd say when the final whistle blows on sunday,especially if ireland keep there grand slam dream alive,the good will factor felt about the the place will make anything possible for the future.Theres a huge appitite in ireland for top class sporting events.


theres an article on page 70 of the tabloid version of to-days indo by martin breheny on how croker came to be worth a read.

[joan]

when there are such over heads in the running of croker they has to run it as a business as long as it never changes the nature of the Championships. The cost of the renovations were huge and the repayment have to be make. to keep grant monies and developments monies available to clubs and county boards this has to be done. They are even helping the NY GAA refurbish Gaelic Park. We wont know the place this year

[Nanor]

Ahh lads...I woke up this morning in a cold sweat after a dream that a riot took place in Croke Park during one of the soccer internationals...I wouldn't mind but I hadn't even had a few beverages the night before ;D!!!!!!

For the record though I was also pro opening up Croker. Makes sense to me to be taking money from the soccer and rugdy boyos and start pumping it into developing our games at the grassroots level.

[kerrygold]

The two million or so the gaa got from yesterdays game would pay 40 former intercounty stars 50 grand each a year each to coach young players in their countys per year.

you dont need a masters in maths to calculate that one international game a year in croker would employ a lot of coaches full time.

people like seamus moynihan,glen ryan,peter canavan,dessie farrell,johnny pilkinton,jamsie o connor,ollie canning etc would have a lot to offer.They shouldnt be alllowed fade away into the back ground.

[mickmack]

The kids all want to play rugby now though........... thats the problem!

[topcat]

Well said Kerrygold.

[kerrygold]

mickmack said:

The kids all want to play rugby now though........... thats the problem!

with the cost of living soaring,croker now open for business making milllions and at the sametime show casing soccer and rugby to the nation ,how much longer will killian young,paddy curran,denis moran and tommy walshe be prepared to accept a voucher for a rock shandy and pat in the back from the patrons in the premier section of croker after intertaining 82000 fans.

my quess not long, when a rugby contact can earn you 100 grand a year,better than playing aussie rules in my opinion now that you can play your home internationals in croker.What difference does it make what shape the ball is.

wise heads will be needed to ensure gaa remains appealing to the young generation,especially the ones from the so called weaker counties.Im not holding my breath for the prospect of a new major initative to tap into the extra funds generated.

[topcat]

Could you blame any young fella though? While people grow up dreaming of playing for kerry in Croke park on All Ireland day, people also grow up dreaming of weallth, which is what soccer especially has to offer.

[kerrygold]

playing for munster/leinster and ireland in rugby provides a massive platform to exhibit your talent at the moment.

hopefully playing for kerry,dublin,cork and kilkenny still will excite the young.
but money talks loudest

[kerrygold]

still it might be more difficult in the future to convience young lads that mattie forde's lot is better that kevin doyle and gordan darcy,

or eoin kellys lot is better than shane long,

or satanta v joe deane

or tadgh v declan o sullivan.