Nothing to be gained by other sports if Dundalk FC folds

There’s always been a rivalry between GAA and soccer in Dundalk, as well as in many other places throughout the country. Sometimes healthy, sometimes unhealthy.

It was at its unhealthiest in the days when Rule 27 was most prominent in the GAA narrative. That was prior to 1971, when, going back to the association’s founding in 1884, it was written large, not only on paper but in the minds of legislators.

This forbade GAA members, officials, club personnel and players from being involved in anything soccer, rugby and hockey, to the point where they couldn’t attend matches, or even be present at a dance organised by these codes. To be caught would lead to suspension.

There was a resentment among the staunch in the GAA towards the other codes, while they, the ‘other codes’, would have nothing but ridicule the GAA over its stance.

I wonder what those who espoused the GAA cause would have said had they been told that soccer and rugby would one day be played on the ‘sanctified sod’, or in Páirc Uí Chaoimh?

Or that Casement Park, when it's redeveloped, and Louth’s new ground when it comes on stream, might also open its doors to what was once known as foreign games?

The question can also be asked: Did the rugby or soccer authorities ever think they’d have to call on Croke Park, looking for the use of their major stadia?

I lived in McDermott’s Terrace before transferring to Bellurgan Point. It’s just across the road from Oriel Park, where, at one time, St Joseph’s Park stood next door. League of Ireland, FAI Cup and Summer League games were attended with regularity.

I also played on both – with Frankie Whitmarsh’s Arsenal and later, Lisnawilly. Cup honours were won with the former, but nothing with the latter. When we changed codes, playing as Carrick Road, we won the Geraldines-organised Haggardstown League three years running.

That was before it came time to make my mind up, Rule 27 looming large. There was always going to be one answer. Following the road previously trodden by three siblings, it was down to the Ramparts where Gaels togged out.

However, while I lined out with the blue-and-whites and Louth, and when what passed for my playing career was over, I wrote on GAA affairs for this paper for more than 25 years, I always took an interest in how Dundalk FC were faring, reading reports, and, in more recent times, listening to John Murphy, Gussie Hearty and Ger Cunningham on Dundalk FM.

When the club first played in the European Cup, it did the town’s image no harm at all when its name came up on BBC television’s result sequence. Or when Steve Staunton starred in three World Cup finals. This was all much better than the same Beeb later daubing the place El Paso.

My wish is that if there’s rivalry between soccer and GAA in town it continues. Put another way, that Dundalk FC doesn’t go out of business. It would be a loss, but not necessarily a benefit to GAA or any other sports.

Like GAA, soccer has a rich tradition, initiated when the Great Northern Railway works was in its zenith, providing employment for many hundreds of local workers at the time and for many years afterwards.

Among the workforce over the years were many from the GAA fraternity, who were probably responsible for the biggest building on the complex, after it had come into the control of Dundalk Engineering Works, being named ‘Croke Park’.