Opening up Croker could see its unique character eroded

Cowboys and Indians have been there. So too have archers and boxers. As soccer and rugby struggle for a run out in Croke Park, Colm O’Connor discovers that the stadium has been a generous host to many in the past.

NO member of Tim Carey’s family died on Bloody Sunday. Check his wallet and you will be hard pressed to find any card confirming allegiance to the GAA. Yet Carey understands the passions of the Croke Park debate better than most.

Carey, a Trinity College graduate of history and geography, worked in the stadium’s museum before publishing the first historical work on the headquarters of the GAA. It was the controversial Rule 42 which inspired him to undertake Croke Park: A History, and has ensured plenty of telephone calls in recent times.

“From the day that walked into Croke Park I felt that there was a book to be written,” admitted Carey yesterday. “And when the debate erupted back in 2001 I thought it was extraordinary that a stadium could occupy such a central role in Irish society and have so little written about it.

“There is nothing comparable to it in the world. People mention the Nou Camp in Barcelona as an expression of the Catalan people. But that is just one football club. Croke Park has the wider diverse ownership of a country.

“As a historian I try to be neutral on the matter of Rule 42. There is a possibility that it would lose something if opened up to other sports. Its uniqueness would be lessened - that would be a concern. And there are difficult issues for different people. Take for example the fact that the Hogan Stand is named after someone killed on Bloody Sunday. The thought of an English team then playing in front of that stand may be impossible to take for some. But being pragmatic I would like to see other sports there on an intermittent or short term basis - something that would not effect the overall symbolism of the place.”

Symbolism seeps through every page of Carey’s wonderful work - illustrated with amazing pictures and images of a bygone era.

The chapters reveal not only the development of Croke Park from its humble origins of 1914 but the growth of a nation from times of occupation, through civil war and strife into the development of a republic.

One feels, from Carey’s work, that Croke Park in its many guises, was representative of what Ireland was, and had the potential to become, at each of those junctions in history. And in the aftermath of the Civil War, it was utilised on a regular basis to reinforce that message.

Take for example a fortnight in June 1923 when Croke Park was transformed into a “pleasure ground.” The event was organised by Central Council to clear the debt from the Croke Park improvements of the previous years. And the ambitions went a little beyond playing host to All-Ireland finals.

“At the opening ceremony GAA president Dan McCarthy addressed the crowd with a megaphone - the novel operations of the instrument were regarded with much interest.

“In his speech he said that the GAA wanted to have Croke Park so well equipped that our representatives on the Olympic Council may be able in the near future to suggest that the great games should be held in the Irish capital.”

“Hurling, football, camogie and rounders competitions were organised. In addition there was Irish dancing, band promenades, concerts, a ceilidh ball as well as - chairoplanes, hobby horses, Brooklyn Cake Walk, mountain slide and swingboats. One specially advertised event was a wireless exhibition when people could listen to broadcasts from stations - hundreds of miles away.”

A year later, one of the most important events in the new Free State was the holding of the Tailteann Games.

“While the GAA played a significant role in the games, the committees were made up of representatives from a number of other organisations including the Gaelic League, the Camogie Association and the governing bodies of athletics, boxing, swimming, rowing, handball, chess, archery as well as representatives from music, Irish dancing, drama and literature. Politically it attempted to show that the Irish race was an ancient one that had for centuries been suppressed by a foreign power. Now that the yoke of foreign domination had been cast aside the greatness of the Irish race would once again shine.”

It is amazing how any time was found for the association’s own games. Within weeks of that closing ceremony, Croke Park was playing host to a rodeo, complete with cowboys and indians. There was even an amateur bucking horse competition when volunteers from the audience competed for a £5 prize.

American football games were played in the 1950’s featuring US servicemen based in the UK, while both the Catholic Church and the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association held mass gatherings on the pitch in later years. In the seventies Ali fought Al Blue Lewis at Jones’ Road and found some time to puck around with Eddie Keher. And though Aussie Rules, American Football along with the likes of U2 and Garth Brooks had a run out, the Croke Park turf became more and more sacred. Two years ago the stadium played host to the opening and closing of the Special Olympics - providing the world with the high tech, streamlined representation of the 21st century Ireland.

“It is unique,” Carey continues, “on so many levels.”

“Croke Park and the GAA offers an uniquely Irish experience the others would be international experience. If that becomes too diluted by allowing too many other sports to be played in Croke Park then something of that incredible character could be eroded.”