Glenmalure Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Glenmalure Park often simply known as "Milltown", was the home to Ireland's most successful football club, Shamrock Rovers. It was in Milltown, Dublin directly adjacent to where the local branch of Xtravision stands today. It was sold in 1987 and is now a housing estate. 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 they sold Glenmalure Park.
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 opened in 1926, with a friendly game against Belfast Celtic. 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. [citation needed]
In 1987, the Kilcoyne family, who had owned Shamrock Rovers since 1971 and had recently bought Glenmalure Park off 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 in 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 early 1990 and a housing estate was built on the site. It is now marked by a memorial erected by Shamrock Rovers supporters in 1998.
[edit] Photos
[edit] 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.
