Time is right to ‘open up’ Croke Park for good

LAST weekend was a busy one in Croke Park.

On Saturday night, the World Cup play-off between the Republic of Ireland and France took place at GAA headquarters in front of almost 75,000 spectators. The atmosphere was electric and even though the hosts were beaten by a freakish deflection, it was nice to see the Irish team applauded off the field by the fans – a rare sight in modern professional soccer.

There wasn’t much time to turn the stadium around for the rugby international on Sunday afternoon but such is the level of expertise at the stadium that you’d hardly know the pitch was taking a second major game in under 18 hours. And what a performance Ireland gave, with a brilliant try by the genius Brian O’Driscoll bringing a great smile to the nation’s face.