Maybe worth questioning logic of Casement rebuild

This week saw Casement Park listed as one of 10 host venues for Euro 2028 and the clear sense that funding from both the Irish and British governments will ensure that it is tournament ready, even as the news bulletins showed it in its current state of complete neglect.

It was hard not to think back to the impassioned debate over Rule 42 and the protestor outside Croke Park campaigning against the opening up of a hallowed GAA ground to ‘foreign’ sports such as soccer and rugby – while wearing a Celtic jersey.

That legacy of that decision is still being felt with the inclusion of a GAA ground in west Belfast as part of a successful joint bid along with England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland before it has been properly developed. After the financial bonanza of Croke Park hosting soccer and rugby, now one of the legacies of Euro 2028 is that the bid will finally give Belfast — and Antrim and Ulster GAA supporters — a big, shiny new 34,500 capacity stadium.

Amidst talk already of sport as a unifying force, maybe it’s still worth questioning the logic of the whole rebuild which is going to come with another one of those £100 million plus price tags — in fact, the latest estimates are closer to £200 million than £100 million.

Semple Stadium, the Gaelic Grounds, Fitzgerald Stadium, Páirc Uí Chaoimh — in Munster alone, the GAA is obsessed with building huge stadia that come with massive price tags and considerable running costs when there is the prospect of them being full only on rare occasions in any season.

Belfast needs a flagship home — but does it need another super-size stadium when Clones is such a popular and historic venue for provincial football finals and could be refurbished at a portion of the same cost?