Call for county grounds to be opened up to other sports
January 15, 2015
At the announcement of an All-Ireland bid to stage the 2023 Rugby World Cup. (L-R) Robbie Henshaw, Paddy Jackson, Philip Browne, Chief Executive, Irish Rugby Football Union, Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, TD, Northern Ireland First Minister, Peter Robinson, Tánaiste Joan Burton, TD, Jordi Murphy and Andrew Trimble.
©INPHO/Morgan Treacy.
A club in Clare is proposing that all county grounds be made available to other sports.
St. Joseph's, Miltown Malbay, which played a key role in the campaign which eventually led to Croke Park opening its doors to soccer and rugby almost a decade ago, will table the motion at next month's GAA Congress. They want to see Central Council's powers extended to deciding on the use of county grounds for other sports.
"It's quite simple, actually. It's all the county grounds in the Association on the same footing as the situation that currently obtains in Croke Park," St. Joseph's stalwart and former GAA presidential candidate Noel Walsh explained to RTE.
"If this motion was passed it would only be availed of by maybe 10 per cent of the grounds, because most of them wouldn't be large enough to accommodate major games.
"The opening of Croke Park was a break with tradition. It took us four years to get it through. Eventually it was a motion from our club that did that."
The former Munster Council chairman added that there would be a need for the GAA to relax its rules if Ireland's bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup was successful.
"Almost certainly part of the agreement if Ireland get that World Cup held here would be the availability of adequate grounds to cater for international matches," he said.
"That would bring in places like Ravenhill in the North of Ireland but also Casement Park, where there's a lot of money about to be invested, if agreement is reached. Grounds like that would be used."
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