Inside Track: Darver game no match for Paris and Gaels no match for Fechin’s

Players, mentors and supporters of two GAA clubs had their loyalty tested on Saturday night last. Dundalk Gaels, my lot, was one of them.

Our seniors were listed for a relegation shoot-out with St Fechin’s at 7.30 in Darver, a half-hour before Ireland were due to take on Scotland in a vital rugby World Cup tie, televised on a few stations.

The game, originally arranged for the previous Thursday evening, would decide which of us would be playing in next season’s main championship. Losers would drop to intermediate. Crucial, but hardly a genuine counter-attraction to Paris.

Call this a dilemma if you wish, but it wasn’t the first time Gaels throughout the county had to make their mind up in a similar situation.

Jack Charlton’s Republic of Ireland men were flying in Italia 90 – just imagine, 33 years ago – and had a crucial match on a Monday night. It so happened that there was a County Board meeting scheduled for around the same time.

Fears there wouldn’t be a quorum for the Bellingham Castle gathering were ill-founded. To show that they weren’t just Gaels, but fíor Gaels, there was a near full attendance.

I was there, not representing my club, but taking notes. At the time, this paper considered it important to have these monthly meetings covered.

A lot has happened in those 30 years that wouldn’t have been thought of back in the early 1990s. The infamous Rule 27 had been removed from the statute book, but there were some things still taboo – playing soccer or rugby on a GAA grounds was the main one.

It all changed when the IRFU and FAI came knocking on Croke Park’s door.

Lansdowne Road, where both codes played their biggest matches, was to be razed to the ground, replaced by what we now know as The Aviva. There were other places where both could have gone, but none would have Croker’s capacity.

While there was strong opposition within the GAA to opening its doors, common sense prevailed. To have said no would have heaped odium on the association, and, it must be said, robbed it of a huge financial windfall.

The first rugby International was played in 2007, the last three years later.

In between there was a Heineken Cup final between Munster and Leinster, which attracted a record crowd for a club match, of over 80,000. Several soccer Internationals were also played.

Since then, Cork’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh has staged a major soccer charity match, and only last week Cavan’s Breffni Park was the venue for an important representative rugby match.

The list of grounds staging what were once labelled “foreign games” could be added to. Ireland and the countries nearest to it will know this week if their bid to host soccer’s Euro 28. If it’s successful, The Aviva and Belfast’s Casement Park, will be among the venues.

But isn’t Casement Park, once the home of the GAA in Ulster, not lying derelict at the moment and has been for over a decade? Yes.

It was earmarked for a major rebuilding after 2013, financial backing to come from Croke Park as well as the Stormont Executive.

At the same time, money was pledged far major improvements at soccer’s Windsor Park and Ravenhill, the home of rugby in the North.

However, while the Windsor and Ravenhill projects were begun and have since been completed, not a block has been built on top of another at Casement.

Local residents’ objections were the initial cause. Concerns may have been allayed in the meantime, but now there’s the problem of finance.

While the GAA had promised £15 million to go towards the original estimate of £78 million, it may now have to up the ante, as it’s now said project could cost well over £100 million to complete.

However, the Irish Government has said it will be making a contribution, while its British equivalent can also be expected to provide greatest assistance as it did when the plans for three stadia were on the table.

The reason Casement has been chosen in preference to Windsor or Ravenhill relates to capacity.

The new GAA headquarters would be able to house 35,000, more than either of the other two are capable of.

It would indeed be ironic if a soccer tournament becomes the catalyst for Antrim and Ulster GAA getting a deserved and longed-for new home deep in the West of the city.

In ways, it would be the reverse of what was spoken about earlier on in this piece.

And to finish, the news you’ve all been waiting for, the result of the match played in opposition to the rugby. Do you really want to know? I’d love if you would say no.

Not for the first time this season we were beaten out the gate – and back in again – 21 points separating the sides at the finish.

As a consequence, we’ll be back in the intermediate championship next season for the first time since we won the competition, in 2007. Ochón, ochón.