Kerry's ground for celebration

GAELIC GAMES: SEAN MORANtells the story of Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney, and assesses the merits of three of the association's other leading stadiums

THE REDEVELOPMENT of Croke Park is seen as one of the landmark projects of the boom, although it was originated 20 years ago and work had begun by 1993.

Its reconstruction is significant in terms of GAA history and Irish sports venues in general in that it was the first architect-designed stadium.

Whereas the GAA’s headquarters is familiar from the annual schedule of big matches there, the association also has many other major venues around the country. Unlike Croke Park, they rarely test their capacity.

In particular, Munster has four of the five largest grounds on the island after Croke Park (the Aviva, which isn’t a GAA venue, is the other), all within roughly 100 miles of each other.

That this constitutes an over-supply is unarguable.

In the nine seasons since Croke Park was largely completed, it has drawn 49 “functional capacities” (calculated at 85 per cent), whereas the four venues in Munster – Semple Stadium in Thurles, the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, Cork’s Páirc Uí­ Chaoimh and Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney – over the same period have managed only 13.

The only other GAA venue with a projected capacity of 40,000 or more is McHale Park in Castlebar, which holds 38,000, but on completion of current redevelopment that will rise to 40,000.

Aesthetic considerations were traditionally not high on the agenda when grounds were built and redeveloped, and stands were seen as principally engineering tasks, hence the similarities in so many venues.

Location can, however, overcome the grim monotony, and in the eyes of many Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney, where All-Ireland champions Cork tomorrow take on Kerry in the Munster football final, is the most scenic in the country.

Nestled beneath the Reeks in a panoramic setting straight from a tourist brochure, it has a long and colourful history.

The ground is named after Dick Fitzgerald, of the Dr Crokes club in Killarney, who won five All-Ireland medals, captained Kerry in 1913 and ’14 and was a brilliant tactician.

He managed the team’s transition from 17-a-side to 15-a-side and wrote the first GAA coaching manual, How to Play Gaelic Football, in 1914.

A participant in the War of Independence, he had been interned in Frongoch in Wales and would become active in both GAA and municipal politics.

By the end of the 1920s, though, he had become disillusioned by the civil war divisions in national politics and depressed by the death of his young wife.

He died on the weekend of the 1930 All-Ireland final, falling to his death from the roof of the courthouse in Killarney.

He had been drinking and, according to his friend Jeremiah O’Leary, who had been involved in the negotiations to buy Croke Park, and who had tried to talk him down, what happened had been a tragic accident.

Kerry initially didn’t want to play the final, but after the Fitzgerald family deferred the funeral until the following Monday, they went ahead and crushed Monaghan.

Within weeks Dr Crokes had decided to build a memorial stadium to honour Fitzgerald. Eamonn O’Sullivan was appointed to a committee formed to oversee the project.

Famous as the trainer who coached Kerry to eight All-Irelands during a series of involvements spanning five decades, he would publish a definitive coaching manual, The Art and Science of Gaelic Football, in 1958.

O’Sullivan was also head (RMS) of St Finan’s psychiatric hospital, which looms behind the stadium, and his input to the Fitzgerald memorial project was unusual.

Despite local unease and outright criticism in some newspapers, he supplied patients to assist in the building of the new stadium. O’Sullivan’s attitude was that patients were better off working out of doors than being locked up inside the hospital.

He became an acknowledged authority on the area and wrote Textbook on Occupational Therapy, based on his experiences working on the stadium.

A plaque commemorating the contribution of the patients was unveiled 10 years ago on what is now the Michael O’Connor Terrace.

Although principally a football ground and home to so many Kerry-Cork championship matches, the stadium has a hurling history. The All-Ireland final of 1937 between Tipperary and Kilkenny was played there, as Croke Park was unavailable because of delayed work on the original Cusack Stand.

A number of Cork-Tipperary matches have been played in Killarney, most recently in the 2004 qualifiers.

In 1977, a stand and pavilion was completed and dedicated to the memory of Eamonn O’Sullivan, who had passed away in 1966.

In recent years the stadium has benefited from redevelopments of the terraces and extension of the stand, as well as new dressing-room and press box facilities.

The Westmeath author John Weldon, who was better known by his nom de plume Brinsley MacNamara under which he wrote Valley of the Squinting Windows, attended the 1937 hurling final and wrote an account for The Irish Times.

It concluded: “Later one mingled again with the crowds in the streets, they were moving out of Killarney now and going up against the mountains, which had begun to change their colours in the evening light. The scene had the timeless quality of a great painting.”

O'Moore Park, Portlaoise

ALTHOUGH the 27,000-capacity venue was redeveloped from its tenement status nearly 10 years ago, it’s stuck in a bind at present. A new stand, complete with upgraded dressingrooms and white-out-of-blue seating reading “Laois”, was completed in 2002, but it remains an otherwise featureless concrete structure stuck in between a new development and a now stalled notional one, the controversial Portlaoise club attempt to ride the tiger, which saw the purchasing developer frustrated by planning issues and a collapsing property market. A feasibility study on further upgrading of the ground, which has installed floodlights and is popular because of its central location and motorway access, was presented to Leinster Council, who decided in the current environment not to go ahead.

Pairc UI Chaoimh, Cork

THE famous Cork ground needs to be demolished, and a 50,000-seater stadium is planned. Bottle-necked into the docks, it is hard to get to and is a stiff walk from the city centre. The concourse under the stand is narrow and restrictive, with open, public access to the dressing-rooms area. Dressingrooms are small and inadequate. Uncovered seating is cramped, with the tops having to be cut off seats to improve leg room. The press box, however, gives one of the best perspectives of any ground, even if you feel like a miner entering it. Completed in 1976 on the site of the old Athletic Grounds, it is named after Pádraig O’Keeffe, the longest serving GAA general secretary in the association’s history (1929-64).

Semple Stadium, Thurles

THE iconic stadium in the GAA’s birthplace has copper-fastened its status as the association’s number two venue after Croke Park. The pitch continues to have the best surface in the country. Phase one of the current architect-designed upgrade has improved the character of the Kinane Stand concourse as well as refurbished the dressingrooms. The addition of floodlights has strengthened the centrally-located venue’s already strong claim to stage matches, with calls for it to become the permanent venue for All-Ireland Under-21 finals. Named after Tom Semple, the Thurles All-Ireland captain and GAA administrator, who also helped to acquire the land in 1909, its capacity is 53,000 and is within easy walking distance of the town. The M8 has improved road access.