February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The GAA’s assistance and good graces will be required by these other sports over the next few years as Lansdowne Road, home to rugby and soccer internationals, is demolished and rebuilt.
The decision, by a clear majority, to allow the playing of rugby and soccer on hallowed Gaelic ground is to be welcomed.
The GAA had previously done away with the rule against members playing “foreign games” and more recently the ban on members of the security forces in Northern Ireland playing GAA.
The invisible fence around Croke Park was the last of the association’s controversial bans. Last weekend’s vote only calls for a temporary lifting of the rule until the new Lansdowne Road comes on stream. But it is to be hoped that the actual effect of this decision will be permanent and that Croke Park will forever be available, at least on a contingency basis, to soccer, rugby and indeed other sports.
As it happens, there is today a significant crossover in terms of fan support for the various football codes played in Ireland. Thus few are going to see the sky falling when the first soccer ball strikes a net, or the first try is scored on Croker’s sacred sward.
And while there is still haggling to be done over rental fees, it is certain that the GAA will happily accept the considerable financial reward from its latest embrace of sporting modernity.
That money, of course, will then be available for the further development of Gaelic games. In this instance then, everybody stands to win.