Glenmalure Park

Glenmalure Park, often simply known as "Milltown", was a football stadium and home to Shamrock Rovers, Ireland's most successful football club. Located in Milltown, Dublin, directly opposite the place where a local branch of Xtravision stands today. The grounds were sold in 1987 and is now a housing estate called Glenmalure Square. Shamrock Rovers fans were completely against selling Glenmalure Park and protested against the planning permission which was granted after a lengthy battle. Some of these Milltown based fans turned their back on the club after the decision. Shamrock Rovers have not found a permanent home since Glenmalure Park was sold.

Shamrock Rovers moved from the inner city area of Ringsend in the early 20th century to the then semi-rural suburb of Milltown. In Milltown, Rovers secured a long term lease of land from the Jesuit Order, who were based in the area. The club's ground there was largely built by their supporters, who constructed the main stand and banked the areas on the other three sides. It was officially opened on Sunday the 19th of September 1926, with a friendly game against Belfast Celtic in front of a crowd of 18,000. Bob Fullam had the honour of scoring Rovers first ever goal at the ground.

When the Cunningham family took over the club in the 1930s, the stadium was named Glenmalure Park in honour of the Cunningham's ancestral home in the Glenmalure valley in the Wicklow Mountains. The Cunninghams completed the ground by terracing the remainder of the ground and erecting a roof over the terrace opposite the main stand. Glenmalure Park remained almost unaltered from then until its demolition in 1990, apart from the demolition of a small area of terracing beside the main stand and the erection of floodlights in the early 1980s. The capacity of the stadium was about 20,000 (with around 1000 seats) for most of its existence, its record crowd being 28,000 people for a game against Waterford in 1968. However it is said that bigger crowds than this were sometimes seen at the venue before this, but went unreported by the club's owners. Fact|date=February 2007

In 1978 Glenmalure Park hosted its first European game when Apoel Nicosia were defeated 2-0. In all seven European games were played there as well as Olympic qualifiers.

In 1987, the Kilcoyne family, who owned Shamrock Rovers since 1972 and had recently bought Glenmalure Park from the Jesuits, decided to sell the stadium to property developers. The last match there was an FAI Cup semi-final between Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers on the 12th of April 1987. This game saw a pitch invasion and protest by fans objecting to the sale of the ground. After a lengthy appeals process, Glenmalure Park was demolished in the summer of 1990 and an apartment complex was built on the site. It is now marked by a permanent memorial erected by Shamrock Rovers supporters on Thursday the 21st of May 1998.

On Thursday the 12th of April 2007 a ceremony was held at the monument to commemorate 20 years since the last competitive game was played at the famous old ground [ [http://www.shamrockrovers.ie/pressrelease.php?subaction=showfull&id=1173789958&archive=&start_from=&ucat=10& Shamrock Rovers F.C ] ] .

Trivia

Four other League of Ireland clubs have played home matches at Glenmalure Park. Shelbourne United in the 1923/24 season, Reds United in the 1935/36 season, Shelbourne from 1949-51, and St Patrick's Athletic from 1951-54.

References

* "The Hoops" by Paul Doolan and Robert Goggins (ISBN 0-7171-2121-6)

External links

* [http://www.esatclear.ie/~johnplynch/rovers/milltownpic.htm Photos of Glenmalure Park (1987)]