Croke Park will be the setting for Ireland’s first regular-season NFL game when the Pittsburgh Steelers face the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
“Croker” is more than just a national stadium. It’s the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association, which is deeply rooted in Irish culture and history.
The 82,300-capacity Dublin stadium — Páirc an Chrócaigh in Irish — hosts the hugely popular All-Ireland finals in Gaelic football and hurling each summer. They are Ireland’s equivalent of a Super Bowl.
The capacity for Sunday’s NFL game will be around 75,000, in part because a standing section will be fitted with seats.
“It’s hard to overexaggerate what it means to lots of people in Ireland,” GAA head of communications Alan Milton said of the stadium. “We’re excited by what it could end up meaning for people outside Ireland, too.”
Here are some key moments in Croke Park history:
Bloody Sunday occurred amid Ireland’s fight for independence
Fourteen people were killed when British security forces fired into the crowd at a Gaelic football match between Tipperary and Dublin on Nov. 21, 1920. A breakaway Irish parliament had declared independence from Britain in 1919, backed by the newly formed Irish Republican Army at the start of Ireland’s war of independence (1919-21).
The GAA website describes how British security forces arrived to Croke Park hours after the IRA had carried out shootings in Dublin against British intelligence agents resulting in 14 deaths. About 10,000 fans attended the game. After the start, security forces “stormed into Croke Park and opened fire on the crowd,” the GAA site explains. One Tipperary player and 13 supporters, including a 10-year-old boy, were killed while dozens more were injured in the stampede to the exits. One of Croke Park’s stands is named after the player who was killed — Michael Hogan.
Not to be confused with Bloody Sunday on Jan. 30, 1972, in Northern Ireland.
British Queen stops by Croke Park during historic state visit
Queen Elizabeth II made a state visit to the Republic of Ireland in May 2011 — the first by a British monarch since Irish independence. It would have been unthinkable decades earlier amid sectarian violence in Northern Ireland known as “the Troubles.” She and Prince Philip visited Croke Park, where Philip was presented a hurley (hurling stick) and a sliotar (hurling ball).
Four years earlier, an Ireland vs. England rugby match at Croke Park helped lay the foundation for the visit. Irish rugby’s main stadium at Landsdowne Road was being redeveloped, so the GAA provisionally lifted its Rule 42 prohibiting rugby and soccer from being played in Croke Park to allow international matches at the stadium. England’s visit for the 2007 Six Nations rugby tournament caused trepidation amid fears of what might happen when “God Save the Queen” was played at Croke Park before the game. But a respectful reception of the anthem was considered a major milestone of reconciliation in the countries’ turbulent relationship. The British monarch’s visit was another.
Muhammad Ali scores TKO victory at Croke Park
“The Greatest” touched down in the Emerald Isle in July 1972 for a 12-round non-title fight against Alvin “Blue” Lewis. Ali was 30 years old and the fight at Croke Park took place 16 months after his loss to Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden. Ali stopped Lewis in the 11th round in front of an estimated 20,000 fans. When Ali had arrived at the airport, he was presented with a shillelagh — an Irish walking stick that also can be used for a wee bit of self-defense on occasion. Ali returned to Ireland in 2009 after historians discovered that his great-grandfather hailed from the town of Ennis in County Clare. The AP was there to report on the trip.
Steelers played a preseason game at Croke Park in 1997
The Steelers and Chicago Bears squared off at Croke Park in a preseason game back in 1997 as part of the NFL’s “American Bowl” series. Kordell Stewart had just taken over as the starting quarterback and led two scoring drives in the one quarter he played. Pittsburgh won 30-17. The late Steelers chairman Daniel M. Rooney was U.S. ambassador to Ireland from 2009-2012.
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