GAA to bypass residents' group

News: Croke Park stadium manager Peter McKenna stated yesterday the GAA would no longer engage in talks with the Croke Park Area Residents Alliance because, he alleged, the group had reneged on a ticket deal for upcoming concerts.

According to Croke Park, the alliance, representing the five local resident associations, agreed to take 1,600 tickets for each of the three concerts in Croke Park this summer. In turn, they would not object to these events finishing at 11pm. The former chairman of the Labour Court Finbar Flood was their negotiator.

However, on Friday, the alliance stated they would not enter into an agreement with the GAA unless a further 1,600 tickets were supplied for each of next year's soccer and rugby internationals.

The GAA intend to provide 250 tickets for these matches, the same number they give to residents for the All-Ireland finals, but will now find another avenue to distribute them.

"We thought we had a deal that was negotiated by a very eminent third party (Flood) and it was reneged on," said McKenna.

McKenna intends to bypass the alliance by setting up a "community forum".

"We are going to distribute the tickets to the community. It's very important that we satisfy what we would see as our obligations to the whole community but not to be held over a barrel by one or two purported representatives.

"We need to get out of tickets in their entirety and look at something which has far more community gain associated with it."

Bon Jovi play Croke Park next Saturday, Robbie Williams plays on June 9th and Billy Joel on July 29th. Because of the above, these concerts must finish at 10pm.

Double All-Ireland winner Enda McGinley has given Tyrone a massive boost by making his comeback several weeks ahead of schedule. McGinley played his first game since last October when he lined out for his club Errigal Ciaran in a league game at the weekend, scoring a goal in a 3-9 to 1-11 win.