Thomas Davis & Tallaght.....

Irish Independent - 18.04.07

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No resolution in sight as Rovers and Thomas Davis maintain their stance

Twenty years ago, the phrase 'Tallaght Strategy' was very much in vogue. In a unique departure, Fine Gael agreed not to oppose the fiscal reforms of the then Fianna Fail minority Government.

The country was in dire straits and cross-party co-operation was required to drag the exchequer back from the abyss. The strategy, explained by then Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes in a speech to the Tallaght Chamber of Commerce, clearly helped to pave the way for a brighter economic future.

Twenty years on, and Tallaght is again at the core of two polarised parties at opposite sides of the sporting spectrum they share. Only this time there is no harmony, no sense of 'laissez faire' over the completion and future use of a half-built stadium.

It has the potential to be an election issue in the coming months, impacting on local representatives. It is already realising its potential to ruffle the smoothing fabric of relations between two of the major rival sporting organisations in this country. And it has propelled the Government minister with the portfolio for sport into a position that he cannot now extricate himself from without losing credibility with one side or another.

The Tallaght stadium is developing into a battle ground, not just in the sprawling suburbs of its hinterland, but in some of the corridors of power that serve sport and even state in this country.

Nothing encapsulates the stand-off more than its setting on a very strategic site off the main corridor into Tallaght. All around it there are tangible signs of prosperity, with rising apartment blocks and cranes dominating the sky. But, for the Tallaght stadium, a great concrete mass, time has stood still as the battle rumbles on.

On one side is Shamrock Rovers, the most famed domestic soccer club in Irish history which has had such a troubled existence for the last 22 years and who first laid claim to the 18-acre council site in 1997.

The Shamrock Rovers of yesteryear is not the Shamrock Rovers of today. All they share is the name.

In their pursuit of a home in Tallaght, Rovers have encountered many stumbling blocks - some of their own doing, as funds to complete the development dried up in 2001. That was when the last block was laid.

Since then, a new board representing the 400 Club, a group of members that pay monthly subscriptions by direct debit towards the running of the club, is in situ promising a clean slate.

But, in the last five years, the goalposts have shifted on such a continuous basis that the chronology of events has been difficult to follow.

In that time, the GAA has made a strong play for a foothold in what is now being termed a municipal stadium.

In 2003, the Shamrock Rovers board entered a non-binding 'heads of' agreement to jointly develop and use the stadium, but objections from the club's fans quickly scuppered that. They wanted to go it alone.

With no sign of further progress, South Dublin County Council (SDCC) moved to repossess the site they handed over for a nominal fee in 1997 and sought to develop it as a municipal stadium.

In the course of that process, the Dublin County Board and Thomas Davis made submissions to extend the pitch and stadium to accommodate a full-size pitch capable of staging senior Gaelic games matches.

SDCC unanimously agreed at the end of 2005 to proceed along those lines but intervention from Minister John O'Donoghue, who threatened to withdraw the promise of public funds if the decision to expand wasn't reversed, resulted in a council U-turn in February 2006.

The ecumenical overtures of 2005 have since dissipated as positions have become more entrenched in the last year.

With Rovers putting together completion plans in the hope of opening up for business in 2008, Thomas Davis, with the backing of the Dublin county board and the GAA authorities in Croke Park, sought and won a judicial review of the planning permission granted.

That's where it stands now. In the meantime, the Minister has not chosen to soften his stance. Last week on radio, he re-iterated his belief that Tallaght should remain a home to Rovers and this was the Government's "word" through him.

It was a promise that simply had to be kept.

The Minister reminded everyone for the umpteenth time that he was a GAA man, a former chairman of his club in Cahirciveen, but he had given his word and on that there was no going back.

He also reminded the GAA that its own clubs would never allow soccer to be played at their grounds and felt their stance on Tallaght was "extraordinary".

But that missed the most pertinent point in the argument put forward by Thomas Davis. Tallaght stadium is being portrayed as being a 'municipal' and municipal means public - and public should, strictly speaking, be all-inclusive.

Thomas Davis have argued that no GAA facilities could ever hope or expect to be built almost from scratch on public funds.

O'Donoghue has also advised the GAA in Dublin to look towards their parcel of land just off the motorway at Rathcoole as a potential venue for a southside stadium capable of hosting league matches involving Dublin, as well as local championship matches.

But access to the lands at Rathcoole, originally intended as a centre of excellence, is a matter of dispute at present.

Thomas Davis have acknowledged that Rovers would be the primary tenants of a municipal stadium, with the facility to use it 40 times a year, as per the original planning permission. After that, they insist the GAA would be flexible junior tenants.

Rovers, for their part, insist that they are not "anti-GAA" and would be willing to accommodate juvenile GAA matches as appropriate at the ground.

But altering the dimensions is not feasible, they insist, and the practice of placing a soccer pitch within a GAA pitch would cause a visual aberration - as their marketing director Mark Lynch is quoted as saying on the Rovers website in relation to the recent international fixtures at Croke Park. "The soccer pitch looked lost on such a huge surface," he said.

O'Donoghue has consistently backed the argument against extending the pitch to accommodate GAA games because of the impact it would have on the already constructed stands. But Thomas Davis have commissioned architects' reports that outline how a 10,000-plus capacity could still be achieved within the parameters of the site.

At the core of everything, of course, is ideology. Thomas Davis baulk at the prospect of a largely professional entity being funded almost entirely for a walk-in facility in such a strategic site on the community.

"For every pound from the public purse we've got for our facilities over the years, we've had to raise seven or eight ourselves," said the club's spokesman on the issue, David Kennedy.

However, Rovers claim that beyond the layer of their paid first-team ranks lurks a community-based organisation with strengthening roots in the area - a proud club with a chequered recent history that is merely seeking a second chance.

They sense that the GAA would always pose a threat to their tenancy rights even if they started out with only a room in the basement.

Standing with Rovers is a Minister who may have only weeks to go in his current portfolio and won't be backing down before then. Maybe a new appointment could break the ice. But it could take a long time to thaw.

Colm Keys


Evening Herlad Poll

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