The Road goes on forever

NOSTALGIA hanging heavy in the air above Dublin 4 just now, the other day I dug out my old copy of Simon Inglis’ definitive ‘The Football Grounds of Europe’ to see what the expert had to say about Lansdowne Road back when his sumptuous tome was first published in early 1990.

The author was impressed by the “dramatic, new” East Stand, which had been opened just six years earlier, “charmed” by the irregularly shaped end terraces and a bit sniffy about the “coarse grass” on the “bumpy pitch”.

But then what option had the FAI, he asked rhetorically, other than to go “old school tie and cap in hand to the rugby chaps” for the loan of the pitch. After all, he pointed out – and here’s the zinger, folks – the prospects of hiring Croke Park for the more important football internationals were about “as likely as there being stock-car racing at Lord’s”.