Croke Park DUBLIN

The area occupied by the current day Croke Park Stadium today was previously two adjoining plots of land:

• ‘Butterly’s Field’ (owned by Alderman Maurice Butterley since 1864).
• An adjoining plot of 12 acres containing ‘an orchard, dwelling-house, yard and garden together with the fields adjoining’(leased by a Mr John Bradley since 1829).

On September 10th 1891 ‘Butterly’s Field’ played host to its first GAA Athletics meeting. 

In 1894, the City and Suburban Racecourse and Amusements Grounds Ltd, (a newly-established company) purchased a 21-acre area of land ‘on the south side of Clonliffe Road in the parish of Saint George and County of Dublin’. They leased the grounds for a variety of sports meetings and whippet racing and soon began to rent it out to the GAA on occasion. 

• ‘Butterly’s Field’ becomes known as the City and Suburban Racecourse aka Jones’ Road.

On March 15th 1896 the first All-Ireland finals were played at Jones’ Road (prior to this All-Ireland finals were played at various locations around the country). Over time these grounds came into the ownership of the GAA. 

For a complete view of the timeline detailing the history of Croke Park from 1864 to the present day SEE Crokepark.ie

WATCH The earliest video footage of the ALL-IRELAND FINALS AT CROKER