Why can Croke Park accommodate these sports?
Croke Park is the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the governing body of traditional Irish sports such as gaelic football and hurling. For political and cultural reasons, the GAA refuses to allow what it deems “foreign” sports, including football and rugby, to be played at its grounds. That ban was upheld recently by a wafer-thin margin amid further controversy. Mrs Harney’s party were furious that a IR60m government grant to redevelop Croke Park was made without committing the GAA to a quid quo pro of allowing other games to be played there. That grant, announced on the eve of the crucial vote, has been interpreted in two ways. Some have seen it attempt to persuade the GAA to abandon its traditional ban. Others ascribe an ever more machiavellian motive. They that the grant was intended to provoke indignation within the GAA at a deliberate government ploy and goad members into retaining the status quo, thus making Stadium Ireland more feasible. Why was Eircom Park
