A LACK OF coach parking at Croke Park is leading to irritation for GAA spectators, as well as residents around Croke Park.

Tomorrow, Kerry will take on Dublin in the All-Ireland Football final.

But Damien Long, an executive member of the Coach Tourism and Transport Council (CCTC) and owner of TravelMaster, said spectators are reluctant to get a coach to Croke Park due to a lack of coach parking near the stadium.

This in turn leads to parking issues in the area, with people opting to drive to the game instead, while local residents also contend with some unruly spectators making their way back to their bus.

“We have a major issue with Dublin City and the only ones who are responsible for it is Dublin City Council (DCC),” Long told The Journal.

“They are an absolute disaster because they don’t seem to understand how it works, and they won’t ask for help either.

“They keep telling us they will find a solution for Croke Park, but they’re actually taking away solutions.”

Long explained that coaches were previously able to park in Mountjoy Square, which is around a ten-minute walk from Croke Park and could hold up to 60 coaches.

“It wouldn’t cause any hassle to traffic, it was a perfect spot, and all of a sudden, they took it away,” said Long.

“They took it away around six years ago but didn’t give us any reasons.

“We were told maybe it was to do with leaving a clear way to get fire brigades and ambulances through or because there are a lot of apartments there now and they don’t want the buses there during match days.”

Long said Dublin City Council then directed coaches to Alfie Byrne Road, just off East Wall Road, a thirty minute walk to Croke Park.

“That was fine and we were parking there and all of a sudden, they put a cycle lane in there and a huge number of cyclists were blocking all the parking, saying that they didn’t want buses there because we were blocking their cycle route.

“DCC came back eventually and said you can’t park anymore but we don’t actually have an option for you.”

Long said the next option DCC came up with was Whitehall GAA pitch, which is 45 minutes away.

“People are getting off buses in Whitehall and have to walk over 40 minutes through housing estates and down roads with no signage on how to get to Croke Park,” Long told The Journal.

Nial Ring is a councillor for the North Inner City.

He said a balance needs to be struck between the fan’s need and resident’s needs and add that it is a “no-brainer to me to bring back” coach parking in Mountjoy Square.

“I don’t know what the reasoning is behind it being closed, and Whitehall certainly doesn’t make sense as a lot of people wouldn’t be able to walk for 45 minutes,” Ring told The Journal.

“Maybe sometimes when it’s just gone on for so long, people just get comfortable in the way things are run, maybe it’s time to have a total review.”

Long told The Journal that “the CCTC is willing to sit down with everybody, the guards and the council and the National Transport Authority, and tell them how it should be done”.

“We’re the experts who actually know how a bus turns and drives,” said Long.

“Dublin City Council needs to put their hands up and admit they’re wrong, they don’t know what they’re doing, and ask for help, but they won’t do that.”

Local councillor Nial Ring said he “would absolutely be happy to put in a question to the chief executive to ask him, ‘will you sit down with the residents, the coach drivers, the GAA and the guards?’”

He added: “I’d be surprised if the coach drivers aren’t being listened to because they take a lot of cars off the road and they know what they’re doing.”

Long meanwhile says there is an easy solution: “Put the bus parking back on Mountjoy Square or between Clonliffe Road and East Wall Road, for just the day of the events, make it bus parking and buses only.

“It would stop Dublin city becoming absolutely gridlocked on the day of an event.”

Ring agrees on the need to re-open Mountjoy Square, and added that he would “no issue” with closing off East Wall Road for the day and just allowing residents and coach parking.

‘Nightmare for residents’

“Dublin City Council don’t realise how much of a nightmare it is for residents,” said the CCTC’s Damien Long.

“You imagine an event like Coldplay next year. The people we drive to Coldplay will get off the buses at four o’clock in the day and will walk 45 minutes to Croke Park.

“Some of them are only 17 and 18 years old, it’s their first time in Dublin for some, and they will come out of Croke Park at the pitch dark when it’s a completely different looking road and they’ll get lost.

“Their parents are then on the phone worried that their child won’t make it home.

“They have no understanding of what it is like for people from rural Ireland to have to go to Dublin for the day, they don’t understand it and they don’t want to know about it.

Long said the long walks people face to return to their coach causes a lot of the things that annoy local residents.

“People coming out of concerts at 11pm after being drinking, you make them walk 40 minutes past houses, they start to get annoyed or aggressive, they might pull flower boxes off a wall or damage the mirror of a car, something to annoy the residents.

“But if the bus was outside the stadium, it would stop all that. You’d come out of the stadium, walk to the bus and go home.

“It’s a very simple solution to a very serious problem.”

Croke Park has asked spectators to “have consideration for local residents and refrain from littering, illegal parking and anti-social behaviour”.

Ring said another major gripe is the lack of toilet facilities on match days.

“We’ve asked for port-a-loos to be installed but that doesn’t seem to happen at all.

“As a result, unfortunately people’s gardens or back lanes are used as public toilets and that’s a huge issue.

“You shouldn’t have to pay €90 for the tickets and basically have nowhere to go to the toilet until you get into the stadium.”

Ring added that the area around Croke Park becomes gridlocked even for residents on match days.

“We have a cordoned off area around Croke Park where residents can only be allowed and park, and that will go up at 11am this Sunday.

“So if a person goes to Mass at 10am, when they come back, there’s no parking for residents.”

Ring also hit out at illegal parking in the area on match days.

“What also irritates a lot of people is the parking on the footpath on Clonliffe Road.

“People come early, park on the footpath, no clamping takes place and then people with buggies or elderly people or people with disabilities find it very difficult to go up and down that particular road.

“They park in front of signs reading ‘Access required 24/7’, but there seems to be a don’t care attitude of, ‘I’m only here for the day’.

“The guards are busy enough looking after 80,000 people, you can’t have them going up and down the road giving out tickets, but it’s known that people have an attitude of, ‘park anywhere and it’ll be grand’.”

Prior to last week’s All-Ireland Hurling final, gardaí urged spectators to use public transport or city centre car parks were possible. 

Gardaí added that vehicle clamping will be in operation for cars illegally parked, and confirmed that no coach parking or drop-offs would be facilitated in the vicinity of Croke Park. 

⚠️Vehicle clamping will be in operation for cars that are illegally parked.

⚠️No bus/coach parking or drop-offs are being facilitated in the vicinity of @CrokePark.

🚍 @DubCityCouncil coach parking is available at the following locations: https://t.co/AOaMOUvs1q

— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) July 23, 2023

In addition to the “no-brainer” of re-opening Mountjoy Square for coaches, Ring said it’s time to “think outside the box”.

“Clonliffe College, literally about 50 yards from Croke Park, it’s closed now because it was sold off,” said Ring.

“That has exacerbated the problem hugely because that would have taken 200-300 cars.

“I had a motion passed in our development plan that we push for a new rail station at Croke Park, because there is a rail line going both ends of Croke Park and it seems stupid that a rail way station shouldn’t be built.

“That would help the problem and in these days of climate crisis, wouldn’t it be great if we could get 5,000 people out of cars and into the train if the train stopped at Croke Park.”

Dublin City Council has been approached for comment by The Journal.