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You are > Home > Identity crisis at Croke Park deepens
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12 August 2009
Identity crisis at Croke Park deepens
The GAA is now in the eighth month of what we presume is a year-long celebration of the Association’s 125th anniversary.
That in itself sums up the importance of the GAA. It is the only association in the state that could justify staging such a lengthy anniversary celebration.
However, one element of the celebrations continues to baffle historians and indeed followers in general. It is that the GAA is not 125 years old until November 1st. It was on that day in 1884 in the billiard’s room of Hayes Hotel in Thurles that it was founded.
On that basis alone, Thurles is as much the GAA’s home as Croke Park is. But there’s a general acceptance that the Jones’ Road venue is the GAA’s capital. Croke Park is the theatre of dreams. It is where every young footballer and hurler dreams of playing one day.
In modern times, it is where young rugby and soccer players wouldn’t mind getting a run out in either while talented musicians wouldn’t be ruling out their chances of performing there if they manage to reach the top.
The focus on Croke Park has never been greater. It has received worldwide praise and is regarded as a leading stadium, compared with any other in any country.
It has become somewhat of a cliché that ‘the sod of Croke Park is sacred’. It is why Gaelic Games were the only sports played there, in respect of the wishes of Dr Croke, after whom the stadium was named.
But all that changed when Rule 42 was amended.
And since then, the number of concerts being staged, not just at Croke Park but in GAA grounds around the country, has increased significantly. Concerts bring in big money. But the more the GAA waves its big wads of cash, the more attention it draws to itself and of course the GPA.
A couple of years ago, the GAA took the decision to present the Liam McCarthy and Sam Maguire Cups on the pitch. Fans were not allowed to invade the pitch. The GAA was adamant that it feared for people’s safety and it wanted to ensure that the surface wasn’t damaged. It was just doing its bit for the sacred sod, culturally, historically and probably commercially, the most valuable piece of sod in the land.
But now there isn’t a blade of grass from the original Croke Park remaining. It has been dug up, relaid too many times to keep track of. It is ironic, in many ways given the stadium’s history that the latest carpeting job on Croke Park saw the surface brought over from Scunthorpe.
A few weeks ago, U2, led by egomaniac Bono, performed for three nights at Croke Park, during which the band’s lead singer, a band that doesn’t pay any tax in this country, had the cheek to ask the people to support the people of Burma.
And what about all the unemployed people at the concert, Bono, who are struggling to make ends meet?
The stadium turned into a building site before the concerts, got a good trampling during it and then there was a mad rush to try and get a new surface brought over from England put down in time for the All-Ireland football quarterfinals.
While U2 were singing at Croke Park, the hurlers of Waterford and Galway were playing an All-Ireland quarterfinal in Thurles.
Whether Thurles suited both teams is not the point; it’s that Croke Park wasn’t available for a championship match in the middle of July.
In the meantime, the Kerry footballers couldn’t play a home qualifying game against Sligo in Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney as it was unavailable the Pussycat Dolls were performing there.
Ahead of the Leinster final, Kildare manager Kieran McGeeney had to beg Croke Park to gain access for a light training session. Strange, isn’t it. A Gaelic football team struggles to get permission to host a light training session at the stadium just to familiarise themselves with the venue while the timeframe for bands to perform appears up to the bands.
The Irish rugby team had unrestricted access for training ahead of the Six Nations.
Young Joe
At the start of the year, a man by the name of Joe Canning was installed as the 3/1 favourite to be Hurler of the Year, such is the impact the 20-year-old has already made on the game.
Joe had a couple of quiet games this year, but in his short senior intercounty career to date he has delivered performances that will live long in the memory.
He is considered by many to be a wonderful ambassador for the game of hurling and his tender years appeal to young people who, influenced by his stardom, are encouraged to take up the game.
But isn’t it hard to fathom that one of the greats of hurling is still waiting to make his senior intercounty debut in Croke Park?
This will come as a surprise to many, but apart from his heroics with the Galway minors and his club Portumna, Joe Canning hasn’t played a senior intercounty championship match yet in Croke Park. During its anniversary year, the GAA felt it was more fitting to host concerts at the venue than have one of hurling’s best ever young stars exhibit his skills in a game that has the made the GAA what it is.
Joe Canning is a box office hit, and at a time when the GAA is worried about attendance figures in the long-term, the Portumna man’s presence alone draws a substantial crowd. So it seems, for all those years we were fooled. The sacred sod was only a myth.
The GAA took the decision to have the sod destroyed several times over. Now we’re left with a stadium that is of huge cultural and historical significance, but alas, there isn’t a blade of Irish grass left on it.
Was there even a patch kept as a souvenir? Or in the modern world where money talks all languages, would that be too much of an old-fashioned view to hold.
And finally....
Sometimes you get the rub of the green and sometimes you don’t. It makes all the difference in management. There are average managers who get lucky and there are good managers who are luckless.
Roscommon minor manager Gary Wynne could be considered the latter. He came into the job under difficult circumstances, considering the achievements of Fergal O’Donnell in 2006, but in 2008 and 2009 he did a fine job with the team.
Roscommon contained last year’s All-Ireland champions, Tyrone, for 50 minutes and should have beaten the eventual All-Ireland finalists Mayo in the Connacht final. Roscommon kicked 15 wides against a highly fancied Mayo in the Connacht final this year, but underperformed in the replay. Against Kerry in the quarter-final, they were unlucky also to come out on the wrong side of the result.
It’s encouraging that Roscommon have reached four successive Connacht minor finals and during those four years they have maintained a top-eight position in the country. Gary Wynne and his management team deserve great credit.
With any luck at all, Roscommon would have won the last two Connacht finals and at least reached an All-Ireland semi-final. Roscommon have managed to remain very competitive in this grade for four years now, that’s something the county hadn’t managed before, which is a huge positive looking to the future.
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