GAA Under Pressure To Lift Ban On Foreign Rock Groups Performing At Croke Park
Posted on | March 19, 2005
Ahead of its Annual Congress next month, the GAA is coming under increasing
However, with the closing of Lansdowne Road for re-development, there will be no large stadium venue in Dublin for the next few years in which major overseas rock acts can perform. Croke Park is the city’s only viable alternative and since last year, when the Lansdowne re-development was announced, there have been growing calls for the GAA to drop the ban and open its home to foreign musicians.
Rule 69 was introduced in 1968 as a response to the dominance of rock and roll music worldwide. Many of the groups at the forefront of this phenomenon, such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, were English. These bands had conquered the US some years earlier, and the GAA were determined not to allow another ‘British invasion’ to happen in Ireland again.
Although the rule was ostensibly an attempt to curb the influence of all foreign bands, in practice it was only enforced against British acts. As has been often pointed out, American singers, like Garth Brooks and Billy Joel, have already played sellout concerts at Croke Park. At the time there was no great debate within the organisation about allowing these acts to perform.
But now the GAA membership is divided on whether to abolish the rule outright. Former 60s showband impresario and one-time Galway footballer Christie Glacken is now on the board of the Connaught Provincial Council. He is opposed to the opening of Croke Park.
“I voted for the enactment of Rule 69 back then and I will vote in favour of retaining it at this year’s Congress. For me, nothing has changed. These members who want to drop the ban are too young to remember the days when these singers were all over the place – they may have been carrying guitars rather than guns but these fellows were still English after all, and they were still conquering every country they stepped foot in – we just felt we couldn’t stand back and let Ireland fall to the Brits for a second time.”
However, recently retired Kilkenny superstar hurler MC Neary is in favour of opening Croke Park and is confident the ban will be lifted. “Most GAA members I have spoken to share my opinion. The older die-hards are definitely in the minority.” Neary also believes there are other factors as to why many of the older hierarchy want to retain Rule 69:
“Every week, music-playing GAA members perform at fund-raising gigs in clubhouses all over the country. They perform these gigs for no money, out of their own free time, even though they have full-time jobs and in many cases play for the local team as well. But the hierarchy won’t even consider the notion of paying them.”
In recent years there have been growing calls for amateur musicians to receive some small financial recompense from the GAA for their trouble. If Croke Park does open its doors to multi-millionaire foreign singers, the calls for the GAA to pay their musician members will be deafening; especially taking into consideration what the GAA will earn in rent from these concerts.
According to Neary: “This new income should definitely be ploughed back into local Irish céilís and concerts. But of course the hierarchy doesn’t want to do that. For me, that is the real reason why they want to retain the ban.”
The local Irish music scene is also keen on the idea of opening Croke Park. Rock journalist Keith O’Burn of Emersion music magazine says no Irish band feels threatened by foreign artists playing there.
“Everyone in the industry is all for it. After all, American acts have already played there. I would have been in favour of not allowing the likes of Garth Brooks to play at Croke Park. Not because he’s foreign you understand, but because he’s shite. But where was the GAA’s concern for the purity of Irish culture when they let him play?
“Surely the GAA can see that there are only positives in dropping the rule. Think of all the great bands that will be able to play at the country’s greatest stadium. I for one live for the day when I can hear a reformed Sex Pistols play God Save The Queen at Croke Park.”
