Pearse Stadium ( ga, Páirc an Phiarsaigh) is the principal GAA stadium in

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

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

Galway GAA The Galway County Boards of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ( ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael Coiste Chontae na Gaillimhe) or Galway GAA are one of the 32 county boards in Ireland; they are responsible for Gaelic games in County Galway, and f ...

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by ki ...

and

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

teams use the stadium for their home games. The stadium, amongst others in the province of

Connacht Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms ( Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and ...

, is also used for games in the

Connacht Senior Football Championship The Connacht Senior Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition for the senior county teams of Connacht GAA. All of the counties of Connacht participate in the championship, as well as counties London and New York. The winning ...

History

Early years

The stadium opened on 16 June 1957, as 16,000 people came to watch

beat Tipperary in

, and Kerry in football, and to watch Bishop Michael Browne bless the facility. The stadium was opened by GAA President,

Séamus McFerran Séamus McFerran (10 January 1916 – 31 August 1968), was the 18th president of the Gaelic Athletic Association (1955–1958). McFerran born in Belfast, was elected chairman on the Antrim County Board in 1944, and was the Antrim delega ...

. Among those invited were the 12 surviving members of the 1923 all-Ireland winning hurling team. The area on which the stadium was built was known locally as The Boggers. The site was offered to the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

by the town secretary Sean Gillan, and terms of purchase were negotiated. Much of the land was very wet and boggy. Work was being carried out to deepen the

River Corrib The River Corrib ( Irish: ''Abhainn na Gaillimhe'') in the west of Ireland flows from Lough Corrib through Galway to Galway Bay. The river is among the shortest in Europe, with only a length of six kilometres from the lough to the Atlantic. ...

at the time, so the infill from the river was used to fill in parts of the pitch and give it an elevated sideline. Pearse Stadium hosted many hurling and football matches since, but it fell into disuse in the early 1990s.

Re-opening

The stadium was renovated in 2002 and reopened in May 2003 with a capacity then set at 34,000. Since the major redevelopment of the ground, it has regularly hosted the

final in recent years. In 2006 the International Series versus Australia was played in Pearse Stadium which was the first time it took place outside GAA Headquarters

Croke Park Croke Park ( ga, Páirc an Chrócaigh, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and h ...

. On 21 June 2008, Irish vocal pop band

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporar ...

held a concert for

Back Home Tour The Back Home Tour is a world tour by Irish boyband, Westlife in support of their 9th studio album, Back Home. The band will be touring the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand. The tour was seen by 385,000 fans. The tour is divided into tw ...

supporting their album Back Home. Singer Ed Sheeran also held two concert in Pearse Stadium on 12 and 13 May 2018 and an additional stand was made so the stadium could host a total 63,000 fans over the two nights.

Parking and safety

The stadium occasionally receives negative publicity due to the lack of dedicated off-street parking. In response to repeated representations made by local residents as well as community groups campaigning on pedestrian rights and road safety issues, the Garda Siochana handed out large numbers of parking tickets on at least two occasions in October 2010. Some GAA fans saw this as harsh, and one disgruntled supporter even described the Fixed Charge Penalties issued to illegally parked vehicles as a "blatant attack" on the GAA itself. However, both the GAA County Board and the Garda Siochana were adamant that they had issued repeated warnings in advance and insisted that illegally parked vehicles were ticketed after these warnings were ignored. A nationwide health and safety survey of GAA grounds in 2011 resulted in the certified capacity of the stadium being reduced to 26,197.

References

External links