A must-read for sports fans
A worthy addition to the Christmas reading list of sports fans in town, or indeed elsewhere, is the new book, “The Story of Dundalk Stadium” which celebrates the history of horse and greyhound racing in Dundalk since 1889.
The book is written jointly by horse racing expert, John Kirwan, and local journalist, Joe Carroll, who concentrates on the greyhound section, about which he could be classified as an authoritative commentator, since he has followed and reported on greyhounds almost all of his life, and reared and trained a few useful racers in his day.
Both horse and greyhound racing have been an integral part of the sporting and social fabric of Dundalk for well over a century, and for townspeople and visitors, the Downdallshill and Ramparts tracks hold special memories.
The Dowdallshill track always held the reputation of being one of the most scenic in the country with the backdrop of the Cooley and Mourne mountains, and although it could be exposed at times to the elements, on a warm summer’s day, especially those popular 15th of August meetings, it is hard to picture a more idyllic setting for a day out.
Horse racing at the venue can be traced back to 1889 and was mainly used for national hunt events, but having struggled for many years the venue was closed in 2001.
At the same time greyhound racing which had been run on the Ramparts track for almost 70 years was also experiencing difficult times, with the heydays of the big meetings staged round the Carrolls 525, a distant memory.
It was a sensible and progressive move in 1999 for the Dundalk Race Company and Dundealgan Greyhound Racing company to merge to form the Dundalk Racing (1999) Ltd., and build a new horse racing circuit over the existing turf course and a greyhound track inside the main course.
The result is that Dundalk has now a fine stadium, built at a cost of €30m and is the only all weather floodlit track in the country, with racing from Dundalk featured almost weekly during winter on SKY Sports, throughout Britain and beyond.
The rich history of horse and greyhound racing in Dundalk should be cherished and it is fitting that it is celebrated with this fine publication that adds to the ever growing list of publications that ensure that our sporting legacy is recorded for posterity.