FANS ATTENDING the All-Ireland football final tomorrow have been warned they will not be allowed to congregate on Jones’s Road outside Croke Park before or after the match, or to gain access to the road before the game without a match ticket.
These restrictions are being imposed under a stringent new Garda pedestrian plan drawn up following safety issues after the recent All-Ireland hurling final.
A GAA spokesman said anyone intending to go to the Croke Park Hotel on Jones’s Road before kick-off would need to have their ticket before entering the road.
After every major event there was a post-match review with the Garda, he said, and, following problems after the drawn Kilkenny-Galway hurling final on September 9th, new arrangements were being put in place.
He said that after finals, the losing team’s supporters usually left first while the winning team’s fans stayed on for the presentation of the trophy. When the hurling final ended in a draw, however, all the fans left together, giving rise to acute congestion, particularly on Jones’s Road.
“In the interest of efficient crowd-management, patrons will not be allowed to meet or congregate on Jones’s Road . . . and will be asked to follow the instructions of stewards and gardaí,” the GAA spokesman added.
Ticket checks will be in place from 10.30am at the corner of North Circular Road and Jones’s Road (Gill’s Corner), and Clonliffe Road and Jones’s Road.
Only fans with Nally, Hogan, Premium, Suite and Ard Comhairle tickets will get on to Jones’s Road, while access to the Croke Park Hotel car park, with a valid parking pass, will be via Gill’s Corner only.
