Fowl payout at Croke Park not chicken feed for GAA

By Colm O’Connor

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

CROKE PARK Stadium manager Peter McKenna has revealed a fowl cost of hosting international rugby games at GAA headquarters.

Stadium bosses spent €15,000 to kill and then test three chickens which were brought into the ground by visiting fans prior to the Six Nations clash with France at the height of the Avian Flu pandemic.

"Paying €5,000 a bird to have bantam chickens put down before the first French game because of fears over Avian Flu was a lowlight," McKenna admitted in today’s eight page Irish Examiner Six Nations section.

"Avian Flu was a big issue at the time as a couple of swans had been found dead with the disease in France in the weeks prior to the game.

"We had to put a contingency plan in place to deal with any supporter bringing the birds into Croke Park. We didn’t know if the birds had come from France or had been sourced locally. We had to have a vet from the Department of Agriculture for the day overseeing things. If we had had an outbreak of the flu we would have been forced to shut down the stadium."

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, February 02, 2010