Stop blaming unionists for the Casement Park debacle

If only unionists had the influence ascribed to them by their opponents. Since last Friday, when the British government withdrew a funding pledge for Belfast’s Casement Park GAA stadium, fingers have pointed at unionism in general and the DUP in particular for somehow scuppering the project.
“Sectarianism is sadly a reason as to why Casement won’t be built,” tweeted Border poll campaign group Ireland’s Future, without further elaboration. Suspicion has not been confined to nationalism. An Alliance MLA was among those to accuse DUP sports minister Gordon Lyons of encouraging London’s decision by “dragging his feet”.
Much of this reaction appears to have been provoked by a sense of unionists enjoying Casement’s setback. In Northern Ireland politics, as in sport, few things are as enraging as the gloating of the other team’s supporters. Some unionists are openly delighted and most will be indifferent at best. An opinion poll last year found just 12 per cent of unionists backed the then Conservative government’s plan to host Euro 2028 matches in a rebuilt Casement Park. That does not mean unionists caused the plan to fall through.
Sinn Féin has been clear the fault lies with London. Although the DUP has no love for Casement, it has agreed to the redevelopment as an executive priority. Both main parties at Stormont have to go through the motions of schemes they dislike. Lyons could not commence the work without clarity on funding, which he sought without success from the current and previous British governments, as did Sinn Féin, Ulster GAA and the Irish Football Association. This was not about getting funding in place, although that would have been helpful. London refuses to put any figure on its offer, saying this would prejudice commercial negotiations, while still demanding Stormont guarantees any overspend. It is absurd to suggest Lyons could have dealt with this by just showing a bit more enthusiasm.
The DUP’s original sin over Casement was almost two decades ago. The party can scarcely be blamed for anything that has happened or not happened since. In 2008, it blocked a £140 million shared stadium for soccer, rugby and GAA, planned for the site of the former Maze prison. Unionists were fearful that associated developments would become a republican “shrine”. Instead, the money was split between each sport. Soccer and rugby built new stadiums but Casement got stuck in a decade of planning objections from West Belfast residents, with final permission not granted until 2022.
It is fair to assume none of the objectors were unionists. The party keenest to support them was People Before Profit, which spied a local issue it could use against Sinn Féin. Ironically, the Trotskyites had their first northern councillor elected as a defender of bourgeois property. By the time the planning saga ended, projected costs had doubled.
Sinn Féin took responsibility for sport when devolution was restored in 2000. Its minister asked the GAA to increase its £15 million contribution, the GAA declined, then devolution suffered another collapse. In 2023, the UK Government made Casement the Northern Ireland venue for the Euros, creating a specification and deadline that doubled costs again to £300 million.
[ Mark Hennessy: London’s abandonment of plans to fund Casement Park revival will come as no surpriseOpens in new window ]
Throughout it all, the DUP’s focus has been on classic Stormont horse-trading. It wants any extra contribution to Casement matched by extra funding for smaller soccer stadiums across Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin agreed a smaller stadiums programme in 2015 but has held money back while Casement is stalled. This is the real game going on in the executive, with London’s offer adding complication. The looming Euros deadline pushed costs to over £400 million, according to the UK’s new Labour government. That and the mounting risk of missing the deadline compelled cancelling the plan.
But Casement will still be rebuilt, to a more appropriate design and presumably a lower cost. There should still be funding from London, plus at least €50 million from Dublin, which offered to contribute in February.
What remains of the Euros plan is rancour and paranoia, a sorry legacy for what was meant to be an inspiring cross-community project. The hapless Conservative government rushed into a vision that risked problems beyond the financial.
There are sports that bring unionists and nationalists together: rugby, golf, yachting. Football is not a dependable addition to this list, the good work of many Northern Ireland supporters notwithstanding. The GAA is an explicitly nationalist organisation – not a fault, but a fact that cannot be glossed over with trite hopes for sporting harmony. A Euros tournament co-hosted by the UK and Ireland involves five sets of home supporters, with multiple rivalries that overlap in Northern Ireland.
When the British national anthem was booed at an England-Ireland match in Dublin this month, a common reaction was “what did you expect?”
We should still aim for better, but not with boundless naivety and a blank cheque.