Could there be some doom and gloom on the horizon?
Following Monday morning’s announcement that The Rolling Stones will headline Croke Park this summer comes the rather predictable news that the Croke Park Residents’ Association is expected to officially object to the concert taking place.
In scenes all too reminiscent of the now-infamous Garth Brooks saga of 2014, the Chairman of the Clonliffe and Croke Park Residents’ Association has confirmed his group’s “strong and assertive” opposition to the Stones gig – which is subject to a licence from Dublin City Council – going ahead.
“We will be objecting to it,” said Pat Gates, speaking on RTÉ News at One on Monday afternoon.
“An Bord Pleanála have actually restricted the number of concerts to protect the local residents, so it would be mad for us not to object to this concert,” he added. “We would feel that it is again opening the floodgates, and [that] Croke Park are going back again, really testing us. We have to challenge that.”
It was noted to Gates that Croke Park officials have applied for additional licences in the past, and thus are in a confident position to get the Rolling Stones show over the line.
“Absolutely, they’re going to try that,” said Gates. “But we’ll be saying very strongly to the city council that they have an obligation and a duty to protect the amenities of the local community.
“We are citizens that they are there to protect, and we expect them to do that and not to allow the intensification of use of Croke Park, because we do have to put up with quite a lot over the year, when you count all the GAA games and the additional concerts.”
Gates added that the locals “lose” over 30 weekends a year in relation to living near Croke Park; “probably more than [for] any other stadia in Europe.”
The Chairman was then asked if the Residents’ Association could have taken steps to avoid a collision with concert promoters in the wake of the Garth Brooks affair.
“Nothing really has moved on since that,” admitted Gates. “We still experience the same types of disruption, and another concert is another intensification of that.”
Gates will chair a meeting of the Residents’ Association on Monday evening with a view to devising a “strong and assertive” official objection to bring to Dublin City Council.
Should it go ahead, the Rolling Stones gig in May would mark the fourth concert at Croke Park this year, surpassing the limit of three set by An Bord Pleanála, following two previously scheduled dates for Taylor Swift and one for Michael Bublé.
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