Croke Park gets rugby and soccer
By Nick Alexander
(Filed: 17/04/2005)
Ireland’s largest sporting organisation has voted to allow soccer and rugby to be played temporarily at its 80,000-seat Croke Park stadium in Dublin. The historic decision by the annual congress of the amateur Gaelic Athletic Association comes as Dublin’s Lansdowne Road stadium, the country’s rugby HQ and home to the national soccer team, is due to close for a three-year refurbishment. Ireland has no national sports stadium. The delegates backed the motion by 227-97 for Croke Park to be used for the duration of the Lansdowne Road closure. The temporary lifting of the ban, known as Rule 42, means that Ireland’s international rugby and soccer teams will not have to play home fixtures abroad. It will mean a major cash injection for the GAA, which has 750,000 members and has spent £2.6billion on a network of grounds and facilities, including Croke Park. It has been suggested it will raise as much as £45million. The GAA, which was founded in 1884 when Britain ruled the whole of Ireland, established the ban when it saw its traditional games of Gaelic football and hurling under threat from soccer, rugby union and cricket, seen as sports of the occupying power. Ireland gained its independence in 1922. The association has been a mainstay of Catholic and nationalist culture with its basic aim of the “strengthening of national identity” in all of Ireland’s 32 counties. The GAA has had a tradition of being protectionist. In the past it prohibited British soldiers and Northern Irish police officers from membership as well as those who played or even attended rugby, soccer, hockey and cricket. These bans have since been removed. 31 March 2005: Croke Park at the crossroads
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After intense campaigning during the week, yesterday at GAA Congress delegates voted to open Croke Park to Soccer and Rugby by 227 votes to 97. The stadium which can seat 82,500, is by far Ireland's largest and indeed one of the largest in Europe.

Traditionally soccer and rugby internationals had been played in the much smaller Landsdowne Road stadium, but due to redevelopment it seemed that all internationals would have to be played in the UK. However this situation has now been avoided with the vote by delegates to amend Rule 42 to allow soccer and rugby to be played at Croke Park during the redevelopment of Landsdowne Road. The works are expected to take three years to complete.

The international matches that can now be played in Dublin are expected to generate several million euros of revenue for the local economy.