Turners Cross (stadium)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Turners Cross Stadium
"The Cross"

Location	Turners Cross, Cork
Opened	Mid-Late 1800s
Owner	Family of Helena O'Sullivan
Surface	Grass
Tenants
Football Association of Ireland (sub-leased to Cork City F.C.)
Capacity
7485 seating, 1500 terracing

Turners Cross is a football ground located in and synonymous with the district of Turners Cross, Cork, Ireland.

Home to the Munster Football Association, and League of Ireland club Cork City F.C.,

The stadium sees a large volume of matches every year with Cork City F.C. (the anchor tenant) sharing the ground with local, regional, national, and international matches and cup finals at schoolboy, junior, intermediate, senior, and underage international level. Turner's Cross has never hosted a full men's senior international; the closest in recent time was a "B" fixture against England in 1990. Elsewhere in Cork, Flower Lodge hosted a full international on the 26th of May 1985 between Ireland and Spain (0:0), while The Mardyke entertained Ireland vs Hungary in 1939 (2:2).

For many years Turners Cross (the "spiritual home" of Cork soccer) was little more than a pitch with a few grassy banks and a covered terrace euphemistically called "The Shed". However, in the last 10 years the stadium has been transformed into one of the finer League of Ireland stadia.

The current configuration of the stadium includes the 1,900 seater covered "Donie Forde" stand - which holds team dressing rooms, the stadium control box, press broadcasting area, and the family section. This is faced by the 1,185 seater covered "Derrynane Road" stand - which holds the away supporter's section. At the western end of the ground is the c2,800 capacity St. Anne's end. Demolished following the 2005 season, "The Shed" was a covered terrace, which held over 2,500 supporters and was home to Cork City F.C.'s more vocal supporters. This is currently being replaced by a fully covered and seated stand. As of February 2007, basic construction work has almost been completed. It is expected to be opened in April, 2007. Around the same time, it is anticipated that the St. Anne's end of the ground will be roofed.

While known locally and amongst fans as "The Cross", the ground has also been nicknamed "The Box" in the past. This accounts for the title of Plunkett Carter's book on Cork soccer, From The Lodge to The Box, where 'the lodge' refers to 'Flower Lodge'. Flower Lodge was originally owned by the Ancient Order of Hibernians and was the previous home of Cork soccer. This ground was subsequently sold to the Gaelic Athletic Association, and renamed Páirc Uí Rinn, for Christy Ring, a famous County Cork hurler. Turners Cross was home ground for the local GAA club Nemo Rangers in the 1930's.

[edit] Trivia

Soccer, rugby, Gaelic Games, boxing and gymkhana events have been held at Turner's Cross over the years.
Cork Constitution (then a rugby and cricket club) was the first club to lease the grounds in 1897.
A once popular trivia question was "Which President of Ireland scored a penalty at Turner's Cross?" The answer is Eamon de Valera (1882-1975) who in his early years played rugby for Rockwell. The penalty in question was during a Rockwell V's Cork Constitution rugby match (not soccer) in the Munster Cup.
In June 1940 the FAI negotiated a 98 year lease on Turner's Cross with owner Helena O'Sullivan.
In 1977 then League of Ireland side Cork Celtic F.C. looked for a longer lease on the ground only to be refused by the FAI who were unable to find the property owner.
The ground passed into the hands of the Munster Football Association in the 1980s.