Not the end but a new era for Thomond Park

FIRST things first. Thomond Park is NOT closing down.

Sensational newspaper headlines may suggest otherwise and noises from 62 Lansdowne Road would seem to confirm them, but the rugby-mad people of Limerick and Munster will not allow the “shrine” that Thomond Park has become for them over the past 70 years to be thrown on the scrap-heap.

Some 20 years or so ago, a large part of the population of Limerick marched down O’Connell Street in protest at the closing of Barringtons Hospital. They lost that war but this present battle has only just begun.