SoccerWhole New Ball Game

Johnny Watterson: Casement Park becoming a metaphor for Northern Ireland’s divided society

Those reluctant to embrace the prospect of reconciliation ready and willing to oppose the proposed development of the GAA ground for their own ends

Casement Park: work on the ground in West Belfast has stopped when it should be accelerating.

Johnny Watterson's face
Johnny Watterson
Fri Jun 28 2024 - 06:00

As Euro 2024 leaves the group stages behind and pivots towards the knockout phase, it seems an appropriate time to pause and lament how some politicians have allowed the sabotage of the 2028 event taking place in Casement Park.

Earlier this month, GAA president Jarlath Burns admitted Casement Park is unlikely to be ready to host Euro 2028 matches, describing his outlook as ‘pessimistic’. Work on the ground in West Belfast has stopped when it should be accelerating.

Last October the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin spoke about the staging of the European Championship in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain in 2028 and how the event offered a major opportunity to “come together”. Uefa echoed the sentiment.

His remarks came in the wake of opposition from the former Democratic Unionist Party leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, to the spending of British taxpayers’ money on the redevelopment of the GAA grounds in Belfast, one of the proposed venues for the soccer tournament.

READ MORE

Northern Ireland-born Kate Hoey, a former Minster for Sport in Tony Blair’s Labour government weighed in on X: “Casement Park must not get the huge extra money needed from government to develop stadia,” she said.

Last year a section of Northern Ireland supporters made their feelings known about the proposed west Belfast GAA stadium development during a Euro 2024 qualifier against San Marino by chanting: “You can shove your Casement Park up your hole”.

The chairman of the Amalgamation of Official Northern Ireland Supporters’ Clubs (AONISC), Gary McAllister, defended the chanting by the fans, adding that it was “a legitimate way for fans to express their opposition” to getting a new stadium in the city.

“This is an intolerable situation,” said Jim Allister of the Traditional Unionist Voice, who are firmly against the GAA redevelopment being partly built with taxpayers’ money.

The British government has also shown bad faith on the issue. Just over a year ago NI Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris insisted that money would be made available to build the 34,500-capacity stadium. He sounded gung-ho and cheery.

“We’ll get the money, don’t you worry,” he said. “I don’t actually know how much the whole thing is going to cost. We’ve seen different estimates. But let’s win the bid first. Once we win the bid, we’ll sit down around a table and the money will get sorted out.”

That seems far from certain now and in May it was reported that British prime minister Rishi Sunak and Heaton-Harris had refused to honour that commitment.

Casement Park, dilapidated and decrepit, is in many ways a metaphor for the troubled history and complexities of the city in which it stands. For many years during the Troubles no Ulster finals were allocated to the venue by the GAA’s provincial council and none have been played there since 1971. Unionist figures during that time were also unhappy about the GAA featuring on the BBC. The broadcaster covered some matches in the 1960s but then ignored it for another 30 years before resuming coverage in Clones in the 1990s.

The ground was occupied by the British Army from 1972 to 1973, an affront to the people of the area. Another GAA ground nearby, McGrory Park on the Whiterock Road, was taken over and became Fort Pegasus. When the soldiers left Casement, unauthorised republican rallies took place inside on numerous occasions.

In 1988 two British soldiers, who drove into an IRA funeral on the Andersonstown Road, were beaten at the entrance to the stadium before being taken to nearby waste ground and shot dead.

That past has been dragged up and weaponised against the development. All the divisive pieces have been gathered up and thrown at the project to see what sticks.

Not all in Northern Ireland are intent on moving forward in a unified society and that truth keeps bubbling to the surface in different ways. It did a few days ago in an opinion piece, written by David Adams, a former member of the loyalist UDA. He spoke of the powerful forces that are against reconciliation because their positions depend on division. He was writing in general but could just as easily have been addressing sentiment around Casement Park.

He argued that too many people have too much to lose if the society is reconciled and included “many (but far from all) of our politicians, perpetually angry commentators, and self-styled ‘influencers’”.

He spoke about the opportunities that have not been missed by some politicians, and others of a like mind, who make a point of keeping tensions alive. He asks why so many politicians oppose reconciliation? The answer is, he believes, because they fear it and the first step in pushing back is for people to recognise they are the ones being exploited.

No doubt, the Casement issue has become distorted and deliberately used to fan the flames of sectarian and political division. Still, many see the Euros as a gift to Belfast and that a significant reconciliation gesture is now being denied.

And for those who live in hope, there has been a change in mood music. First Minister Michelle O’Neil said the “flagship” project must be completed within the current Assembly’s mandate, adding it was her wish that the stadium be finished in time for the Euros in 2028. A wish might be the only way to conjure the £300 million cost.

Still, the overarching problems remain. Casement Park has 99 of those and money’s just one.

READ NEXT
LATEST STORIES