Harold's Cross Stadium

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Harold's Cross Stadium is a greyhound racing stadium in the south Dublin city district of Harold's Cross, owned and operated by the Irish Greyhound Board. In the late 1990s, major redevelopment work saw the venue transformed from a basic gambling driven venue to a fairly well known social event venue. It currently opens on Mondays, Tuesdays and, more popularly, Fridays. It is one of two greyhound racing stadiums in Dublin, with Shelbourne Park being the other.

[edit] Football

The stadium has also been used over the years by five football teams who were competing in the Football League of Ireland. Brideville FC played there for eleven seasons from 1929/30-1931/32 and from 1935/36-1842/43. Dolphin played there from 1932/33-1933/34. Transport played there from 1951/52-1961/62, a total of eleven seasons.

More recently Shelbourne played at the stadium from 1975/76-1976/77 and again from 1982/83-1988/89 before moving to Tolka Park. St Patrick's Athletic were the last League of Ireland club to play there regularly from 1989/90 up to November 1993, while work was being done to its Richmond Park home. Due to the upgrade of facilities in Harolds Cross, its highly unlikely football will be played there again.

[edit] Trivia

Harold's Cross staged one League Cup Final when Limerick City beat St. Patrick's Athletic 2-0 in the 1992/93 decider.
The last League of Ireland match ever played in Harold's Cross was a home match for Galway United. On the final weekend of the 1993/94 season, there was no available pitch in Galway due to persistent torrential rain for their match with Shelbourne so the game was switched to Harold's Cross. Shels won the match 5-2 with Barry O'Connor grabbing a hat-trick.
Shelbourne F.C. played home games at both Shelbourne Park and Harold's Cross Greyhound stadiums at various times in their history