Salvation was at hand we were led to believe. In Ross O'Carroll-Kelly's brilliantly satirical diary in the Sunday Tribune - possibly the funniest read ever on Irish rugby - the eponymous (anti?) hero's dad was leading a movement entitled KISS - Keep It (Lansdowne Road) on the South Side. The sheepskin and hip flask set were to take to the streets (everyone else is, so why can't they?) and save Lansdowne Road from going to the proposed Bertie Bowl in Abbotstown on, gulp, the north (west) side.
O'Carroll-Kelly's old man would save the chaps from Knackeragua, from curry sauce, canabis, lycra tracksuits and satellite dishes. The close-to-the-bone sardonic nature of it all would almost make you feel guilty for harbouring similar misgivings, as if the motives were purely Dublin 4-orientated and snobbish. Abbotstown would be "a million miles" from the DART, even from Kielys, not forgetting the Berkeley Court Hotel, old bean, but then again given that hotel's sudden change of attitude, probably not a mile too far for them.
A Sandymount boy myself, a trek down the laneway to the temporary and uncovered Lansdowne Road touchline seats, sandwiched by daddy and mammy underneath a rug as they passed the aforementioned flask between them, is a fond memory, undiluted by the gradual elevation to the dizzying heights of the upper west stand and the press box.
True, it ain't state of the art. Never was. The press box and adjoining press room are particularly grubby and embarrassing when set against any of their modern-day equivalents. Sure the whole west stand is effectively prehistoric by contemporary standards. Even the advent of the east stand didn't particularly take away from the old ground's essential grubbiness. As Seamus Martin wrote at the time, following dismal back-to-back defeats for the boys in green in front of the new stand, "the only problem with the new East Stand is that it's facing the wrong way."
How prescient, and perhaps even more than Seamus intended. The only way Lansdowne Road could be truly developed into a modern, state-of-the-art stadium of at least 50,000 seats would be to knock down the stands and turn the ground around, and so avail of the space afforded by the back pitch.
Set against the availability of Bertie's Bowl in 2005, it makes little economic sense now for the IRFU, least of all with a professional game to run. And when it comes to making economic decisions, in fairness they've a proven track record.
And yet, and yet . . . the misgivings about moving to Abbotstown, or more pertinently away from Lansdowne Road, are genuine and cut deeper than snobbishness. One correspondent, Declan Carty from Monkstown, probably echoes the views of many when describing it as "a catastrophic mistake."
He points out that it isn't just the Irish supporters who may feel aggrieved, for as a former player turned fan he detects that foreign supporters hold Dublin and Lansdowne Road in special affection. "The atmosphere in south east Dublin on the day of an international, especially during the Six Nations, is quite exceptional. Visitors love the `craic', the people and of course the pubs, where visitor and home fans alike can down a few drinks in TOTAL harmony. What other sport allows this to occur? Not many!"
That Lansdowne Road is situated within walking distance of the city centre, and within stumbling distance of so many traditionally established hostelries, is a crucial component of all this.
Nothing places the social conviviality of Ireland's home games in the Six Nations at risk quite like the proposed move to the National Stadium. Michael Walker has already written in these pages of the soul-less nature of some modern stadia, such as Bolton's Reebok Stadium.
As for rugby stadia. Twickenham, never really had IT anyway. Murrayfield has it while Cardiff has retained it because the Millennium Stadium is a rebuilt Arms Park in the city centre.
The worst, and most relevant, case is Stade de France. Nice stadium true, but on leaving it you may be in Hamburg or Milton Keyes as in the Saint Denis concrete jungle outskirts of Paris, especially compared to Parc des Prince in the Arrondissement 19.
Carty adds that the new proposed site in Abbotstown has "no infrastructure whatsover - no social infrastructure, no transport, no pubs and, in my view, will have no supporters travelling to a game."
However, this is at odds with what Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd maintain. Mindful of all the above, they've been in regular consultation with the Dublin 15 Community Council (who represent 52 local residents' organisations) and Fingal County Council regarding transport, infrastructure and access.
An architectural and environmental framework plan to be announced in the new year will give a clearer picture of the lay-out and proposed transport system. Public sector transport, such as an additional road link off the M50, or rail links, a metro and buses are decisions down the road so to speak. However, augmented by an acquatic and leisure centre, headquarters for sporting organisations and so forth, and hence in use on a daily basis allyear round, CSID are also aware of the need for a local infrastructure which provides pubs, hotels and restaurants.
They'll have to, though. For however splendiferous the actual stadium itself is, unless it is accompanied by all of the above, to a degree somehow recreating what traditional, centre city-based stadia such as Lansdowne Road provides then it will be like so many other nouveau stadia. A home without a sense of home. Not, in any case, from Ballsbridge old bean.
gthornley@irish-times.ie
