“Down the Park”

Photographs of Col. Chríost Rí v De La Salle Macroom Down the Park in 1962

 

Now that the ‘new’ Páirc Uí Chaoimh is beginning to take shape, it’s interesting to look back at what the old, old stadium looked like, back in the day. Except, of course, we never referred it as a stadium then: it was simply ‘The Cork Athletic Grounds’ – or more affectionately, ‘The Park’. The venue dates back to 1903 when a lease for six acres was drawn up between the Cork Agricultural Society, the Cork Corporation and the Cork County Board. The stadium was initially intended to cater for all sports – hence its name – but, over time, the Athletic Grounds were used exclusively for Gaelic games.

 

The famed Coliseum in Rome didn’t stage contests as epic, as dramatic or, at times, as blood stained as Cork’s Athletic Grounds: Cork v Tipp in Munster combat, Cork v Kerry in mortal combat! The Glen and The Barrs in the county championship; The Glen and Blackrock; in fact, The Glen and anybody you care to mention!!!

The famed Coliseum in Rome didn’t stage contests as epic, as dramatic or, at times, as blood stained as Cork’s Athletic Grounds

(Oh how we loved to hate them! They were our nemesis and as we trooped home after yet another beating at their hands, we dreaded the neighbours’ questions as we reached Ballinlough, “ Hey, Kev, who won against The Glen?”)

 

Hurling heroes in their pomp strode across the Athletic Grounds: Eudie Coughlan & Jack Lynch of Cork; Jimmy Doyle and Tony Wall of Tipperary; the Mackeys of Limerick, Frankie Walsh and Tom Cheasty of Waterford and hundreds more like them. But nobody captured our imagination quite like ‘our own darling hurler, the bould Christy Ring’, of Cloyne, Glen Rovers and Cork.

 

“For lifting, for striking, for doubling like lightning, for point & goal scoring his praises we’ll sing.

He’s hurling’s most glorious; he’s always victorious, he’s Cork’s darling hurler,

The bould Christy Ring”

 

(What hypocrites we were as kids! In the Glen Rovers jersey we railed against him roundly whenever he lined out against The Rockies, but once he donned the ‘blood and bandages’ of Cork we would have died for him – as he often came near to doing for us as he battled for the ball in Hell’s Kitchen, as the Tipperary goalmouth was called – with good reason!)

They were the nearest thing to a Welsh coal-mine, with all the associated pools of darkness, dripping water and falling dust……

I played there only a handful of times myself, but I’ll never forget the dressing-rooms under the shed that we affectionately called ‘The Stand’. They were the nearest thing to a Welsh coal-mine, with all the associated pools of darkness, dripping water and falling dust from the roof when the crowd overhead got excited.

 

To return to the dressing-rooms after a match, the players had to walk through the supporters gathered by the steps leading down under the stand. You wouldn’t have to await the next morning’s Examiner to discover how you’d played. You’d get the full story, plain & blunt, there before you reached the steps! Many a dispute, begun on the field, was ‘settled out of court’ there in the midst of the supporters.

 A ‘careless’ blow from an opponent felled him and he went to follow the culprit out the field….

A friend of mine lined out for Cork v Kilkenny the day Páirc Uí Chaoimh opened in 1976. A ‘careless’ blow from an opponent felled him and when he got to his feet he went to follow the culprit out the field to seek retribution. However, selector, Jack Barrett, a graduate of the hard school of hurling, saw what had happened but wouldn’t tolerate a player leaving his position for any reason. “Hey, Seán, get back to your position”, he shouted. “He was only paying you a compliment!”

 

We look forward to the opening of the ‘new’ Páirc Uí Chaoimh in 2017 and a new generation of sporting heroes to thrill us. Will they be as complimentary to each other, I wonder?