Hoops, dreams and nightmares
Glenmalure Park is now Glenmalure Square. But in the memories of the players and fans of Shamrock Rovers, this little rectangular patch of ground in south Dublin will be forever Milltown.
From 1926 to 1987, Ireland’s most famous football club called this place home. Supporters loved it for an atmosphere that was at once intimate and intimidating. Successive generations of players revered it for its immaculate playing surface and the chance to walk in the footsteps of legends. And, more often than they would have liked to admit, opponents knew it as a place to make them tremble, the team which wore the green and white hoops setting the bar at an unprecedented high for the domestic game, making historic waves in Europe and enjoying prolonged periods of trophy-laden success, from Coad’s Colts in the 50s through the six-in-a-row side of the 60s to the team which claimed four titles on the trot in the 1980s.
