€2,000 price tag for tickets to Croker clash

Tickets for Ireland’s historic clash with England in Croke Park on Saturday are being sold for more than €2,000 on eBay.

Bidders are snapping up online tickets as fans desperately scramble to secure a place in the stands for one of the most eagerly anticipated matches in Irish sporting history.

Bidding started for some tickets at around €1,000 and one set reached €2,200 earlier this week.

Although it is Ireland’s second game at GAA headquarters, tickets were in greatest demand for this game, with massive historical significance attached to the Ireland and England clash.

It is not the first time that rugby tickets have fetched massive prices on the internet.

Last year, before the Heineken Cup Final, tickets for Munster’s game against Biarritz were going for more than €1,300.

Up to 83,000 fans will turn out for Saturday’s game at Croke Park, which kicks off at the unusual time of 5.30pm.

Meanwhile, gardaí will mount strict security and traffic restrictions in the area around Croke Park on Saturday. Hundreds of extra officers have been drafted in to Dublin amid fears of protests from splinter republican groups.

A number of protests are planned for Dublin city ahead of the kick-off at 5.30pm and, in recent days, gardaí have been undergoing extra riot training at Gormanstown military camp.

There will be two supervised car parks near Croke Park — one at Clonliffe College on Clonliffe Road, with access via Lower Drumcondra Road, and a second at O’Connell’s School on the North Circular Road.

When the match is over, drivers will have to wait about 45 minutes before they will be allowed to leave both car parks. This is to allow supporters on foot to leave the stadium safely.

Those arriving via the M50/M1 motorways are advised to allow time for traffic delays.

Article courtesy of the Evening Echo newspaper.