Gaelic Games

Dublin and Donegal All-Ireland SFC openers to be shown live on GAAGo

Grattan Park in Inniskeen will host the clash between Louth and Meath; all games to be played on Saturday, May 25th

Louth will face Meath in the first round of the All-Ireland SFC at the Inniskeen Grattans ground in Monaghan. Photograph: Ciarán Culligan/Inpho
Louth will face Meath in the first round of the All-Ireland SFC at the Inniskeen Grattans ground in Monaghan. Photograph: Ciarán Culligan/Inpho
Gordon Manning
Tue May 14 2024 - 16:09

Both Dublin and Donegal’s opening games in the All-Ireland SFC round-robin will be shown live on GAAGo on Saturday week, May 25th.

Just like this weekend, all four matches for the second week of fixtures in the All-Ireland series have been scheduled for the Saturday, with Dublin v Roscommon and Donegal v Tyrone to be screened live on the GAA’s much talked about streaming service.

Dessie Farrell’s Dubs will face Roscommon at 5pm in Croke Park, while Donegal’s showdown with Tyrone has been fixed for MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey at 7.15pm.

Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh will host Westmeath in the Athletic Grounds at 6pm, while Louth’s home fixture against Meath will be played at Grattan Park, Inniskeen at 5.30.

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The Wee County must play their home match outside of Louth as there is currently no suitable venue in the county capable of catering for the game’s expected attendance, so they will instead hop across the border to play it in Monaghan.

“We wanted to try keep the game as local as possible and we felt Inniskeen was a good fit in that regard,” said Louth secretary Bob Doheny.

Inniskeen is only 18 kilometres from Ardee and just 16 kilometres from Dundalk, while Louth midfielder Tommy Durnin currently plays his club football for Inniskeen Grattans.

It means Ger Brennan’s side will play two of their three round-robin games in Monaghan, as the Farney County have home advantage against Louth in the second round of matches.

St Mary’s in Ardee has been used by Louth for league games in recent years, but the capacity is limited to around 2,800.

A health and safety report is being finalised in relation to the capacity for Inniskeen Grattans, but it is expected to fall between 7,000 and 7,500, so the fixture is likely to be a sell-out.

“There would be a good relationship there with Inniskeen already, so it felt like the most appropriate venue” added Doheny.

As the county continues to wait for its new ground in Dundalk to be constructed, the Louth footballers have regularly selected Páirc Tailteann in Navan as a home venue for championship matches, including for last year’s All-Ireland round-robin fixture against Cork.

But with Louth and Meath both fancying their chances of advancing from Group Four, which also includes Kerry and Monaghan, there was no way the Wee County were going to provide their neighbours a gift by nominating Navan as the venue to play Colm O’Rourke’s Royals.

Louth’s second fixture is away to Monaghan before playing Kerry in a neutral venue.

All-Ireland SFC Round One fixtures

Saturday, May 25th

Group 1: Armagh v Westmeath; Athletic Grounds, 6.0

Group 2: Dublin v Roscommon; Croke Park, 5.0 (double header with All-Ireland under-20B Richie McElligot Cup between Roscommon v Down) – Live GAAGo

Group 3: Donegal v Tyrone; MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey, 7.15 – Live GAAGo

Group 4: Louth v Meath; Grattan Park, Inniskeen, 5.30

Gordon Manning

Gordon Manning

Gordon Manning is a sports journalist, specialising in Gaelic games, with The Irish Times