Lack of segregation such a blessing for the GAA

This writer was nine years old when 96 lives were lost in Hillsborough this day in 1989.

Not surprisingly, the memory of watching live on TV what unfolded at the Leppings Lane End is something that doesn’t leave you.

The gravity of it was largely incomprehensible for a child even as the ambulance meandered its way to the stand and frantic supporters used advertisement hoardings as makeshift stretchers, although I do remember getting angry with those sections of the stadium who were booing at what they perceived as crowd trouble behind Bruce Grobbelaar’s goal.