Can anyone explain about the England Irish rugby story?
Jizzumonkey’s got the history part of it. Croke Park is owned by the GAA, or Gaelic Athletic Association, since 1913. The GAA was set up in 1884 with the express intention of protecting and promoting national pastimes. Gaelic football and hurling quickly became the cornerstones of the GAA and Croke Park synonymous with it. Written into the GAA constitution was rule 42 – the rule that expressly forbade the playing of ‘imported games from Britain’ in it’s headquarters. The GAA were pretty much held to ransom over it, in that government funding for the redevelopment of Croke Park was pretty much contingent on that rule being relaxed. That rankled a lot with staunch GAA men, on several grounds. One was the fact that the Landsdowne Road redevelopment (home of rugby in Ireland) had massive government funding – €160m of a total of €250m, whereas in Croke Park, the government spent a mere €110m of the total €260m cost. Another more important reason is that the GAA was set up as a nationalist b
