Thank you for posting this. Though I've never been to visit Tolka, it was still a treat for an old stadium nerd like me!
Two points of interest (I hope) to fellow nerds:
1. The old Main Stand has what is known in the trade as a "Belfast Roof" (i.e. barrel-shaped). This passage from a feature on the old Railway Stand at Windsor Park explains further:
"The roof of the stand is known worldwide throughout the construction industry as the ‘Belfast Roof’. Prior to the advent of cheap steel systems this type of roof was the most economical way of providing a clear span roofing of sheds and warehouses. So there you have it – the railway viewing area was no more than a shed in those days."
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threa...0-000.1198933/
As I understand it, this design used to be pretty popular in football grounds in Britain and Ireland, but if Tolka may not now be unique in retaining one, they must be very few and far between these days.
https://external-content.duckduckgo....jpg&f=1&nofb=1
(Railway Stand, Windsor)
2. Eamonn Dunphy states that Tolka staged the first floodlit match in Ireland. That honour goes instead to Distillery FC, who staged a game at their old Grosvenor Raod ground a little earlier:
“Distillery had lights in Belfast. We went up to Belfast – my dad, my brother and I – to see Distillery play (in a friendly against Burnley). They were the first team in the North to have floodlights and then we followed them down here.”
On St Patrick’s Day 1953, Sam Prole announced that Drumcondra would take on St Mirren in a friendly under those newly constructed floodlights on Monday, March 30th. The first competitive League of Ireland match under lights would follow a month later when Drums took on Dundalk."
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soc...bley-1.3413130
Though when I say "floodlights", I should perhaps say permanent floodlights. For Cliftonville appear to have pioneered playing under lights strung out over the pitch over 60 years earlier!
As reported in the Belfast Newsletter of the day;
"It seems to be incredible, but it is a fact that in 1891 two matches were played under electric lights at Cliftonville: Distillery defeated the Reds 4–2 and the Black Watch held Cliftonville to 2–2 draw. Kick-off in each case was at 8 pm with lights suspended across the pitch. These were dismantled later with the announcement that spectators found it difficult to follow the action and that "the player seemed to have all the fun in the middle". It had been a bold experience, but not a highly successful one with the public skeptical, almost contemptuous of this enterprising project."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliftonville_F.C.