GAA pitch for rugby, with soccer getting the boot

October 1991

KERRY GAA Board this week defended the decision to grant permission to the Irish rugby World Cup squad to train on Sneem GAA club’s pitch, where a local soccer club was refused permission to play and train just a fortnight ago.

Board Chairman Sean Kelly insisted that the granting of permission to the international rugby squad and the refusal to accommodate the local soccer club were “two totally unrelated matters”.

He added that if it had been the international soccer squad who had requested the use of the pitch instead of the rugby squad that that “would be taken as it comes”.

The Irish rugby squad arrived in South Kerry on Sunday night to get away from the pressures of the World Cup and to rest, before returning to Dublin on Wednesday morning.

The squad, including coach Ciaran Fitzgerald, stayed at the Parknasilla Great Southern Hotel and was given permission to train on the local GAA pitch.

The squad played rounders and hurling on the field and, according to Mr Kelly, played Gaelic football with a rugby ball.

He said the decision to allow the rugby squad to use the GAA pitch was an “ecumenical gesture” but added that the same pitch could not accommodate the local soccer club, which was forced to withdraw an under 16 team from the Kerry District League after being told it would not be allowed to train or play on Sneem GAA pitch.

“They are two totally unrelated matters.

“One involved an Irish team which was down here on holidays preparing for a major international series,” said Mr Kelly.

“They were guests and, like all good Kerry people, it was in the interest of tourism and sportsmanship that it was decided to allow them to train on the pitch.

“The other matter is a situation where the local soccer team had trained on the pitch but were more or less demanding to train and play on the pitch.

The Sneem GAA pitch is primarily for GAA followers and there is no way it can accommodate the soccer.

Like most other pitches in the county, it is probably overplayed,” Mr Kelly added

He said the rugby squad was anxious to point out that the granting of permission would not be used as a precedent in the future.