Pitch perfect U2 back on home ‘Irish’ turf

WHILE all the matches were going on around the playing fields of Ireland at the weekend there was a different kind of playing taking place in Croke Park.

There, Dublin’s own U2 were playing their music to adoring fans. Naturally, being Dubs, playing in Croker was extra special.

It was also special for the coffers of the GAA and, perhaps, more importantly the wider economy. The gigs in Croke Park generated well in excess of €50m for business in Dublin.

But not everybody was happy when it emerged that the pitch had to be dug up and replaced. It wasn’t that the pitch having to be replaced that upset these people. Oh no, it was that the pitch had to come in from England. Oh boy! The cardinal sin. Our Gaelic players having the play on English soil in holy Croke Park. What a load of balderdash.

There was no company in Ireland capable of providing the instant sod required to have the playing surface in order within a week. So the logic is that Croke Park should have told U2 to get lost because we couldn’t have our Gaelic players playing on English soil. That’s patriotism for you.

The fact that the company who provide the sod, STRI are the company that helped solve the dreadful problem we had for a few years of players slipping and sliding all over the place seems to have been forgotten.

One of the keymen in STRI is a Kilkenny man, Richard Hayden. It was largely through his expertise that the cause of the slipping in Croke Park was identified and solved. It was okay for Richard, a staunch follower of GAA especially his native Kilkenny to solve the problem of the slippage but critics were furious that grass seeds would be set over in England and the sod brought in here to Croke Park.

Now, of course, apart from this being crazy logic it is totally contrary to the principles of an open market in the EU from which Ireland has benefited enormously in recent years. Protectionism is gone for years. Despite that the GAA has continued to support Irish industry, a practice that has seen Irish companies like O’Neills, Azzurri and Gaelic Gear get priority in licensing terms over multi-nationals.

Many feel the GAA is protectionist but, at least, it proves they give priority to all things Irish. In the case of the pitch in Croke Park, there was no company in Ireland capable of fulfilling its needs. But, never fret, the GAA is planning in having its own pitch on standby for future occasions.