Donnybrook Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as Energia Park, is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

in Donnybrook, Dublin 4,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. The stadium has a capacity of 6,000, including a 2,500 seat covered grandstand which was completed in early 2008.

History

The stadium, also sometimes known as Donnybrook Rugby Ground, is located on the former fair green used for the Donnybrook Fair until the mid-1850s. Used for games by

Bective Rangers Bective Rangers Football Club is a rugby union club in Dublin, Ireland founded in 1881. The Club is affiliated to the Leinster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union and play in Division 1A of the Leinster League. The club plays its games at ...

and

Old Wesley Old Wesley Rugby Football Club was founded in 1891 from the past pupils of Wesley College, Dublin. Since then it has become one of Leinster's most famous clubs. It plays in Division 1B of the All-Ireland League. The club won the Leinster Seni ...

since at least the early 20th century, the ground was also the home stadium of

Leinster Rugby Leinster Rugby ( ga, Rugbaí Laighean) is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland and the most successful Irish team domestically. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugb ...

- until they moved competitive games to the nearby RDS Arena in 2007. In March 2018 Energia began a sponsorship deal, to rename the stadium as Energia Park for 10 years.

Rugby union

Primarily used for

and

are two local clubs who play their home games in Donnybrook.

also still play some friendly games in Donnybrook, with Ireland A, Ireland Women's Team and Leinster underage sides playing home games in the stadium. Between 2015 and 2018, it hosted the Ireland under-20s home matches in the

Six Nations Under 20s Championship The Six Nations Under 20s Championship is an international rugby union tournament. It is the under-20s equivalent of the Six Nations Championship. Originally the tournament was in an under-21 format but changed to under-20s in 2008. England ...

. Since 2016, it has hosted the Ireland women's team's home matches in the Women's Six Nations Championship. The stadium is also the principal venue for competitions organised by the Leinster Branch and competitions at all levels from under 13 to junior and senior adult level are played at the ground. This includes games in the Leinster Schools Senior and Junior Cups, and it hosts several games in each competition each year.

Other uses

In August 2012 the stadium played host to two US high school

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

teams,

Jesuit Dallas Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas (commonly referred to as Jesuit Dallas or Dallas Jesuit, and formerly known as Jesuit High School) is a private, college-preparatory school for young men under the direction of the Society of Jesus a ...

and

Loyola Academy Loyola Academy is a private, Catholic, co-educational college preparatory high school run by the USA Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus in Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, and in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicag ...

Wilmette, Illinois Wilmette is a village in New Trier Township, Cook County, Illinois, United States. Bordering Lake Michigan and Evanston, Illinois, it is located north of Chicago's downtown district. Wilmette had a population of 27,087 at the 2010 census. The ...

. Jesuit defeated Loyola 30–29 with a last minute game-winning field goal. The stadium has also hosted music events. For example, it hosted a

Michael Bublé Michael Steven Bublé ( ; born September 9, 1975) is a Canadian singer. A four-time Grammy Award winner, he is often credited for helping to renew public interest and appreciation for traditional pop standards and the Great American Songboo ...

concert in July 2008, and gigs headlined by The National and Future Islands in June 2018.

Gallery

File:Donnybrook Stadium - geograph-400316.jpg, Grandstand prior to renovation File:Donnybrook Stadium - 2 - geograph-400324.jpg, View from behind the posts File:Donnybrook Stadium aerial view.jpg, Aerial view post renovation

References

Leinster Rugby Rugby union stadiums in Ireland Donnybrook, Dublin Bective Rangers Old Wesley Sports venues in Dublin (city) American football venues in the Republic of Ireland 1964 establishments in Ireland Sports venues completed in 1964 {{Ireland-sports-venue-stub