Croke Park - A Brief History
A Brief History of the GAA's Main Venue
The
site upon which Croke Park now stands was originally owned by
Maurice Butterly in the 1870's and was known as the "City
and Suburban Racecourse". The GAA. were one of its most frequent
users and in 1908 Frank Dineen purchased the 14 Acre site for
£3,250. In 1913 the GAA bought the site from Frank, for
the princely sum of £3,500, and immediately renamed the
ground "Croke Park", in honour of the associations first
patron Archbishop Croke of Cashel.
Over the subsequent 40 years, Croke Park was developed and redeveloped
as
finances dictated. The "Railway End", also known as
"Hill 16", was constructed from
the rubble left on "Sackville Street"(now O'Connell
Street) after the 1916 rising. The first "Hogan Stand"
(named after Tipperary Footballer Michael Hogan) was built in
1924, and the construction of The Cusack Stand (named after Michael
Cusack, one of the original founding members of the GAA) began
in 1937. The Canal End was to follow in 1949, and in 1952 the
Nally Stand, named after Pat Nally, was built..
The current reconstruction of the stadium at Croke Park is by
far the most impressive and ambitious development ever undertaken
there. Phase One has beeen completed, and is now refered to as
"The New Stand". This magnificent new structure, which
replaced the Cusack Stand, is 180 metres long and 35 metres high.
It has a seating capacity of 25,000, and contains 46 hospitality
suites.
Phase 2 of the development commenced in late 1998 and involved
extending the New Stand to replace the existing Canal End, and
the final phase of the project is the redevelopment of the Hogan
and Nally Stands. To date the total cost has been an estimatedt
£110 million, with a capacity crowd of 79,500 being catered
for.
In 1998 a major high technology museum was opened. lt is a link
between the past, present and future of the GAA,.and pays tribute
to the people and events which were
so influential in shaping our past - whilst also conveying a vision
of the GAA of the
future to its visitors.
Croke Park Full for a Final
Historical Figures of Croke Park
The
Artane Boys’ Band
The Atrane Boys’ Band - “the biggest little band in
the world” was founded in 1872 and gave it’s first
public performance two years later. On the 14th of June, 1886,
the band gave it’s first GAA performance and since then
has become synonynous with big match days in Croke Park. Many
followers of the GAA have abiding memories of the Artane Boys’
Band parading the teams around the ground in their distinctive
blue and scarlet uniforms. The band now performs regularly at
events throughout Ireland and continues to entertain and enthrall
wherever it goes.
Frank
B. Dineen
Frank B. Dineen A noted journalist and athlete, Frank Dineen was
a native of Ballylanders in Co. Limerick. He remains the only
person to have held both the post of President and General Secretary
of the GAA. Born in 1862, Dineen moved to Dublin at the age of
36 and when the site of the current Croke Park came on the market
in 1908 he purchased it out of his own pocket for £3,250
selling it on to GAA in 1913. Dineen wrote the Gaelic column in
the influential weekly “Sport” for many years. A prominent
member of both the Land League and Fenian movements, he died in
1916 just four days before the start of the Easter Rising.
Michael
Cusack
(1847 - 1906) Michael Cusack, the founder of the GAA, was born
in September 1847 in the Burren in Clare and died in Dublin in
December 1906 shortly after his fifty-ninth birthday. A schoolteacher
by profession, he was deeply interested in athletics and sought
to establish a national body catering for traditional Irish sporting
pastimes. In August 1884 he succeeded in enlisting the support
of Maurice Davin of Tipperary, a recently-retired athlete of international
renown who was also interested in the reform of Irish athletics.
At the historic meeting in Hayes’ Hotel. Thurles on November
1, 1884, the GAA was born, with Davin as it’s first President,
Cusack as it’s first joint secretary and Archbishop Croke
of Cashel as it’s first Patron.
Within 18 months, Cusack had been deposed, but for the remaining
20 years of his life he continued to work for the promotion of
the Association. In December 1906, Michael Cusack died suddenly
but the association he founded had become the biggest sports body
on the Island, a position it still holds a century later. His
memory was perpetuated by the GAA with the opening of the Cusack
Stand in Croke Park in 1938.
Michael
Hogan
(1896 - 1920)
Michael Hogan was born in 1896 into an old and much respected
farming background in the Grangemockler area of Co. Tipperary.
It was an area deep-rooted in the ideals and aspirations of Davin
and Cusack and he was one of the first to join the local Volunteers.
He was passionate about Gaelic football, the GAA and the cause
of Irish Nationalism. On November 20th, 1920, while playing for
Tipperary against Dublin, Michael was shot dead along with thirteen
spectators by a force of Auxiliaries and RIC in Croke Park. That
day has entered the popular conscience as Bloody Sunday, and Hogan’s
memory is perpetuated by the Hogan Stand in Croke Park and a monument
in his native Grangemockler.
Michael
O HehirMichael O'Hehir
Micheal O'Hehir became a household name in homes all over
Ireland because of his unique style of commentary on Gaelic
games. His first commentary was on the 14th of August 1938, when
he covered the All-Ireland football semi-final in Mullingar between
Galway and Monaghan. The anticipation of match broadcasts in pre-television
days became an integral pat of Irish society in the forties and
fifties in particular. It was a time when the house with a wireless
set became the focal point in the local community as neighbours
gathered to hear the broadcasts. Micheal O Hehir became the eyes
for thousands of Irish people, as his colourful description and
instand identification of the players and team officials captured
the excitement of Croke Park for a whole nation.
Later, when television became a more popular medium, O’
Hehir made the seamless transition from radio to television and
enhanced viewing pleasure for fans of Gaelic Games. Shortly before
Michael O Hehir was due to complete his one-hundredth commentary
on an All-Ireland Final, he became ill. Ireland’s most famour
commentator died in 1997. In his autobiography published in 1996,
Micheal ends the final chapter with a quote from the actor Bob
Hope - “Thanks for the memories”. Many an Irish Gael
will empathise with that quote when recalling the commentaries
of the legendary Michael O’ Hehir.
Patrick
William Nally
(1855 - 1891)
P.W. Nally was born in Balla, Co.Mayo on March 17th 1855. A noted
athlete, he discussed the formation of a National Athletics Association
with Michael Cusack as early as 1879. Indeed Cusack, in a letter
to the “United Irishman” in 1889, stated that P.W. Nally
had done more to influence him in the setting up of the GAA than
any other man. It is most likely that Nally would have been present
in Hayes Hotel in 1884, when the GAA was founded were he not incarcerated
in Downpatrick Jail at the time.
As an active member of both the Land League and the IRB, Nally
had come to the attention of the authorities and in 1882 he was
arrested along with six others and charged with planning the murder
of land agents. As a result of this, Nally was sentenced to ten
years imprisonment, first in Downpatrick and then in Mountjoy,
where his deteriorating health led to his death on November 9th,
1891. In Croke Park, the Nally stand was erected by the GAA in
1952 to commemorate a man in the same tradition as Croke, Cusack
and Hogan. Just over 50 years later, in January 2003, it was removed
from Croke Park, to be relocatd at the grounds of Tyrone club
Carrickmore.
Croke Park 
