The owners/caretakers (depends on your point of view) of Croke Park, the Gaelic Athletic Association, don’t allow ‘English’ sports such as football and rugby to be played at the ground. The 85,000 capacity stadium is the home of Gaelic football and is the venue for the International Rules matches played between Australia and Ireland in Ireland. Irish football internationals are played at Lansdowne Rd, the home of the IRFU. Lansdowne is a tired old venue with a capacity of 33,000 seats.

Can you imagine what would happen if the MCC told the AFL to take a hike?

This issue came up most recently during Scotland and Ireland’s failed bid for Euro 2008. Views ranged from positive: “International Sport regardless of whether it is Rugby Soccer etc Puts Ireland on the international Stage. The GAA should remember that our national esteem as a nation is much more important than the outdated attitudes of the GAA” to negative: “Do we want a bunch of Glasgow Rangers supporters or English thugs ripping up the seats as they've both done on previous visits to Dublin? Let them build their own stadium! And share with whoever they like.” Charming!

http://www.unison.ie/polls/index.php3?i ... pollid=404
http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pi ... park.shtml
http://www.gaa.ie

Its a joke!!!

Have you seen Lansdowne Rd?..Its a dump!! and its the home of Irish Rugby and Football(soccer),while just across town,the magnificent Croke Park lays empty most of the year.

Can Dublin or Ireland afford 2 x 80,000 seat stadiums .

No wonder Stadium Ireland got the ass!!

Even Australias soccer match between Australia and Ireland was held at Landsdowne Road, although obviously the ground holds such a feeling for sports fans that Croke Park doesnt, did Gaelic football build this with there own money? If they did wouldnt they want revenue streams for renting the stadium out. Croke Park seems like a World Class venue for rectangular sports, not many rectangular stadiums hold 80,000 people at this present time and would be marvellous for the nation if those three codes can be civil and act for the good of sport in there nation. That Gaelic association seems much like the WACA full of twits not acting for the good of the sport. Here in Perth we would have had a 60,000 seat stadium if not for the WACA and the Gaelic Football have done something similar, what a disgrace hopefully those in Ireland eventually work out they have more brains then the twits.

Hmm it would be a great stadium to watch international rules in. They got 72,000 to one of the games at the venue and they played a match at another venue aswell.

GAA is a highly patriotic and nationalistic organisation. It always promoted local initiatives above imposed ones. It was set up to revive and preserve Gaelic institutions. Years of oppression almost killed the lannguage and the sports.

Still to carry a grudge 80 years after indpendence is a bit much. Croke Park is a great venue. It used to be a good old fashioned monster. God love it.

I like Lansdowne Rd too. Small yes. Not necessarily a dump. And who doesn't like the train line running underneath the old grandstand. Now that's amenity .

The Irish RFU have just yesterday presented plans for a complete rebuild of Lansdowne road at a cost of £ 200 million.
I dont know whether theyre fully behind the plans or just want to put pressure on the government,who would have to come up with most of the money, to put pressure on the GAA to open up their grounds.
I think its expected that the GAA will eventually do this, not least because they have no chance of funding provincial stadiums if they arent shared with rugby/football, and it would also be the best solution for Irish rugby to use Croke Park since they depend totally on income from internationals and the new Lansdowne would only have a capacity of 50.000.

Of course, I should just add, in England things are much easier, Twickenham arent shared with anyone and the RFU have just decided to further improve the fortress, while the millions just keep rolling in.

Looks like things may be changing...

Croker campaign gets major boost
BBC Sport

The prospects of Croke Park being opened to soccer and rugby have received a major boost.

Saturday's Special Congress approved a motion which will prevent senior GAA figures from deciding which proposals can go before the Annual Congress.

>>>read more

I might be going blind but aren't those rugby goalposts in one of those Crooke Park photos? Or does Gaelic Football use rugby posts?

Gaelic football goal looks like a rugby goal, but with a net below the crossbar like soccer.

Good news if RU can play at Croke Park.

Especially as Ireland have shown some good form recently. There's also the upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers, which might be played overseas if Lansdowne Road is closed and Croke Park is off-limits.

And it appears to be played on a rectangular field.

...as opposed to what?

The circular field of AFL that i am so used to.

hi i'm new

just to correct you......it's not english sports it's pro sports. which is a shame cos croke park is one of the best stadiums in europe...

it's the same with twickenham...arsenal and spurs played an F.A cup semi 300 miles away from london in manchester(old trafford) because playing football at the home of rugby " wasn't right"..stupid really

Welcome. Thanks for the correction. And you're right, it is stupid