To many outside of Northern Ireland, the country’s football can seem entirely unimportant. It isn’t as well-followed as the Premier League, nor as well-known as the Scottish Premiership, yet to those on the Emerald Isle the matches are no less important than the games in the top-flight of the other countries that make up the United Kingdom.
That might help to explain why it is that thousands of people decided to attend a rally held in the city over the failure to redevelop Casement Park Stadium to the west of the city.
What is Casement Park?
Located on Andersonstown Road to the west of Belfast city centre, Casement Park was built in the aftermath of the Second World War. It was named in honour of Roger Casement, who was an Irish revolutionary who was executed for his part in the Easter Rising.
It opened in the June of 1953, when it hosted the final of the Ulster Senior Club Football Championship between St John’s of Antrim and Armagh Harps, with the latter ending up as the victors. Less than a month later, it hosted the final of the Ulster Championship when Armagh defeated Cavan.
Yesterday SDLP MLAs met Ulster GAA to discuss the next steps for Casement Park.
Even though the Euros will not be coming to Belfast, it’s crucial that Casement is built, for Gaels across Ulster and for everyone in Belfast.
The ground was considered to be in a republican neighbourhood, which led to incidents occurring at it during the Troubles. It has, in some ways, been used as something of a political football ever since. In spite of this, it has hosted numerous different Ulster football finals over the years, whilst a facelift was given to it in 2000 and floodlights were added six years later.
The last time that it hosted a match was on the tenth of June 2013, which saw Antrim and Monaghan go head-to-head in the quarter-final of the Ulster Senior Football Championship.
What’s Happened to It
Proposals were put forward in 2006 that would have been a new multi-purpose site built where the old Maze prison stood close to Lisburn, but the idea was dropped in favour of a new ground being built in the Sydenham area in the east of Belfast.
The Ulster GAA, however, objected and decided it would rather stay at Casement Park. Three years later and plans to redevelop the ground were announced, although it took until 2011 for the Northern Ireland Executive to confirm that a grant of £138 million for redevelopment throughout the country was being made available.
@the_irish_news GAA players and supporters from Co Antrim have taken part in a march this morning, calling for the redevelopment of Casement Park. 🎥 Mal McCann #irishnews #Belfast #NorthernIreland #FYP #GAA #westbelfast ♬ original sound – The Irish News
More problems followed, including the objection of some residents and further delays came. In the July of 2021, planning permission for the redevelopment of Casement Park was confirmed, but the contractor went into administration.
The hope was that the ground would be redeveloped in time for it to be used in the 2028 European Championship, which led to its inclusion on the list of football grounds that would be used to host matches. This resulted in Unionist protests over the belief that Windsor Park should have been chosen instead.
Why the Protests Have Happened
In the middle of April 2025, thousands of people turned up to take part in a rally over the failure to carry out any sort of redevelopment of the stadium. Organised by South Antrim GAA, the march occurred ahead of the Ulster Championship game between Antrim and Armagh at the nearby ground of Corrigan Park.
Amongst those taking part in the protest were former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, with those responsible for its organisation saying that the aim was to put some pressure on the Communities Minister Gordon Lyons and Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland Secretary, to do more.
Casement Park today – what a horrible sight .
Happy memories of 3 Antrim senior football championship wins as Manager of St Paul’s +victories with both Antrim hurlers and St Mary’s footballers as a trainer.
It now cries out for help +it’s restoration to the status it deserves. pic.twitter.com/x5DGqOCMBy— Peter Finn (@Anorthosis87) October 5, 2018
With only around £120 million available for any kind of redevelopment of the stadium, it is estimated that it could cost as much as £260 million to build a new ground there. In 2024, Benn had said that there was ‘no blank cheque’ for the redevelopment of the area, which all but ended any hope of it being used in 2028.
Both Lyons and Benn defending how they had handled any planned redevelopment, with the pair of them washing their hands of any kind of responsibility. Unsurprisingly, that is part of what drove the desire to hold a protest over what was happening there.