The British government has failed to live up to its promise to deliver a new Casement Park as part of the Euro 2028 tournament, and everyone here is a loser as a result.
Casement represented a unique opportunity to secure public investment for a capital infrastructural project that would have left a very positive enduring legacy for Belfast and the north as a whole.
We would have been joint hosts for the tournament, bringing positive energy, short-term economic dividends and even participation for those who follow Northern Ireland in the tournament. The Republic of Ireland team, representing a sovereign state, will get a bye to the finals regardless and, whatever arrangements are in place for the British nations, it is almost certain that Northern Ireland will have to be omitted as they are not hosting the tournament. For reasons of precedence, it is unlikely to be gifted a pass.
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The longer-term economic consequences are depressing and perhaps more revealing.
This was an opportunity to build a stadium capable of competing to host major internationally renowned musicians who currently give us a miss and head to Dublin and other major cities.
Many people here will have to continue travelling to Britain, Europe or head south for such concerts. The American college football game that has become a tradition in Dublin, generating well over 100 million Euros for the Irish economy this summer alone, could have been something we up north benefitted from as well in the future.
Yet what will stick in many people’s memory will be the open and consistent hostility emanating from within unionism towards the notion of a GAA stadium in west Belfast receiving this money.
There was more than a whiff of Lundyism in the air as the Irish Football Association’s chief executive, Patrick Nelson, faced the wrath of the staunch and perpetually angry for publicly giving his support to the project.
Some seemed under the delusional belief that Windsor Park could ever have been considered for additional funding to increase its capacity in spite of being rebuilt less than a decade ago.
The targeting of Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, by unionist politicians and the right wing British press was clearly motivated by a desire to scupper any potential plans the new Labour administration might’ve had to back the Casement project. One particularly odious column even described Casement Park as a place “synonymous with evil” as efforts were cranked up to try and stop the dream from being realised.
From a bigger picture perspective, the failure of political unionism to see the potential for a west Belfast stadium to be a state of the art second home for Gaelic games on the island, whilst also being a magnet for other major sporting and music events and an economic driver for the north in the process, is not simply depressing but further confirmation of the scorched earth mentality continuing to plague unionism.
The DUP’s Communities Minister, Gordon Lyons, could barely conceal his lack of enthusiasm for the project. As minister responsible for local sports, he faced much criticism for the extraordinary efforts he went to avoid visiting GAA clubs or attending fixtures until earlier this month - including skipping Armagh’s historic All-Ireland triumph.
The DUP’s interest in stadia funding is restricted to its desire to see certain Irish League football teams receive grants to help build new stands as part of the sub-regional stadia programme. On a local radio programme last week, a former DUP special adviser cast doubt as to whether Derry City would be viewed as eligible recipients for the funds on account of playing in the League of Ireland - as if the taxes and rates paid by Derry people were somehow of less worth than those paid by supporters of Belfast teams. That’s something Sinn Féin will need to have clarity about very quickly to avoid a confrontation on a second sporting front.
Keir Starmer has suggested the British government may yet help deliver a new Casement Park, giving hope that the 34,500 capacity stadium which has received planning permission may yet progress. That capacity is crucial as any new stadium must be of sufficient size to replace Clones as the provincial headquarters and offer Ireland’s largest sporting organisation an alternative venue to Croke Park for competitive senior championship games at the business end of the season.
