England's Irish history lesson
By Brendan Gallagher
17/02/2007
The Six Nations Championship rugby game between Ireland and England on 24th February is to be played at the 82,000-seater Croke Park in Dublin. In 1920, when Ireland wanted to leave the Union, British soldiers killed 14 people here in revenge for an earlier IRA attack that killed 14 British secret agents. Ireland eventually left the Union in 1922 (except what is now Northern Ireland, which wanted to remain). The Ireland rugby team are only playing at this stadium whilst their stadium - Landsdowne Road - is rebuilt. Previously, foreign sports (especially British sports such as football or rugby) were not allowed to be played in this stadium, only Ireland's national sports of Gaelic Football and Hurling.
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Conor O'Shea, the former Ireland full-back and captain, has been brought in to address the England team at a special meeting on Monday about Croke Park and the significance of next Saturday's first game between Ireland and England at the Gaelic Athletic Association citadel.
The history man: Ireland's Conor O'Shea
O'Shea, whose father Jerome was a Gaelic football legend and won All-Ireland finals playing for Kerry at Croke Park in 1953, 1955 and 1959, has been asked by England coach Brian Ashton to put the RBS Six Nations Championship game in historical perspective and explain the strong emotions that could be unleashed.
On Nov 21, 1920, 14 Irish citizens, including the Tipperary captain Mick Hogan, were shot dead by British forces on the field of play at Croke Park in an act of reprisal for the earlier assassination of 14 British secret agents by the IRA on what has become known as Bloody Sunday (not to be confused by the Bloody Sunday of 1972 when the British shot dead 26 Irish civil rights protesters).
The Croke Park killings only underlined the GAA's determination never to allow alien "British" sports such as rugby and football at the venue but the move towards peace in Ireland has seen many barriers come down and last Sunday the GAA staged the first game of rugby at their 82,300 capacity home, against France.
"This is obviously going to be a very special match given all the circumstances and Brian Ashton asked me if I could call into the team hotel in Bath and tell the England lads all about it," said O'Shea, who won 35 Ireland caps and is now the Rugby Football Union's National Academy manager.
"In one way England must treat it as just another game against world-class opposition but it will be more than just another game for Ireland and it's brilliant that Brian wants England to understand the background," O'Shea added. "In Ireland we learn the story from an early age but I will be brushing up on my history over the weekend to make sure I get no facts wrong."
It is also understood that the RFU and the Irish Rugby Football Union are considering suggestions that the two teams walk out together as an act of friendship next Saturday night - as they did on the famous occasion in 1973 when the England team ignored IRA death threats to play Ireland at Lansdowne Road after Wales and Scotland had declined to play there.
telegraph.co.uk
By Brendan Gallagher
17/02/2007
The Six Nations Championship rugby game between Ireland and England on 24th February is to be played at the 82,000-seater Croke Park in Dublin. In 1920, when Ireland wanted to leave the Union, British soldiers killed 14 people here in revenge for an earlier IRA attack that killed 14 British secret agents. Ireland eventually left the Union in 1922 (except what is now Northern Ireland, which wanted to remain). The Ireland rugby team are only playing at this stadium whilst their stadium - Landsdowne Road - is rebuilt. Previously, foreign sports (especially British sports such as football or rugby) were not allowed to be played in this stadium, only Ireland's national sports of Gaelic Football and Hurling.
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Conor O'Shea, the former Ireland full-back and captain, has been brought in to address the England team at a special meeting on Monday about Croke Park and the significance of next Saturday's first game between Ireland and England at the Gaelic Athletic Association citadel.
The history man: Ireland's Conor O'Shea
O'Shea, whose father Jerome was a Gaelic football legend and won All-Ireland finals playing for Kerry at Croke Park in 1953, 1955 and 1959, has been asked by England coach Brian Ashton to put the RBS Six Nations Championship game in historical perspective and explain the strong emotions that could be unleashed.
On Nov 21, 1920, 14 Irish citizens, including the Tipperary captain Mick Hogan, were shot dead by British forces on the field of play at Croke Park in an act of reprisal for the earlier assassination of 14 British secret agents by the IRA on what has become known as Bloody Sunday (not to be confused by the Bloody Sunday of 1972 when the British shot dead 26 Irish civil rights protesters).
The Croke Park killings only underlined the GAA's determination never to allow alien "British" sports such as rugby and football at the venue but the move towards peace in Ireland has seen many barriers come down and last Sunday the GAA staged the first game of rugby at their 82,300 capacity home, against France.
"This is obviously going to be a very special match given all the circumstances and Brian Ashton asked me if I could call into the team hotel in Bath and tell the England lads all about it," said O'Shea, who won 35 Ireland caps and is now the Rugby Football Union's National Academy manager.
"In one way England must treat it as just another game against world-class opposition but it will be more than just another game for Ireland and it's brilliant that Brian wants England to understand the background," O'Shea added. "In Ireland we learn the story from an early age but I will be brushing up on my history over the weekend to make sure I get no facts wrong."
It is also understood that the RFU and the Irish Rugby Football Union are considering suggestions that the two teams walk out together as an act of friendship next Saturday night - as they did on the famous occasion in 1973 when the England team ignored IRA death threats to play Ireland at Lansdowne Road after Wales and Scotland had declined to play there.
telegraph.co.uk
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