Welcome home for hurlers is switched to Pearse Stadium

Date Published: 17-Sep-2012

By Dara Bradley

The Galway senior hurling team’s homecoming ceremony after the All-Ireland final replay will take place in Pearse Stadium in Salthill, and not Cathedral Square or Galway Harbour.

Galway City Council has confirmed that it is 90% certain at this stage that the homecoming, due to be held on October 1, the Monday after the replay with Kilkenny, will be staged in Pearse Stadium.

Council officials met with Hurling Board officials last Friday to discuss alternative venues to hold the homecoming other than the Cathedral.

The original celebration was fixed for the Cathedral but that was obviously postponed following the pulsating All-Ireland final draw.

City Councillor Ollie Crowe (FF), in the Galway City Tribune, last week called for the homecoming to be switched to Galway Harbour after he branded the Cathedral ‘unsafe’ and ‘unsuitable’.

A Council spokesperson yesterday, however, ruled out the docks as a homecoming venue because a number of Galway International Oyster Festival events are taking place at the harbour that weekend.

The spokesperson explained that it has decided to err on the side of caution and move the event from the Cathedral to Pearse Stadium, which would be able to cater for crowds of around 30,000. At best the Cathedral would hold 15,000 but the Council spokesperson explained that if Galway win – and they are planning on the basis that they do – then larger crowds are expected.

“With the Cathedral, there are issues of what happens when it is at capacity and how do you stop more crowds from getting in? We carried out a risk assessment and decided that Pearse Stadium would be a better venue,” he said.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel