Tolka Park – stadium description

This northern-Dublin stadium lies in a unique setting, with three stands facing the riverside. This is possible thanks to the river Tolka meandering around the stands where the football pitch was opened in 1953. Already in the first year the stadium saw its first floodlit game, long before local rivals Bohemian FC inaugurated their masts.

Altogether a massive number of 7 clubs played home games here, beginning with Drumcondra, the largely popular club of 1950s, named after local district. Already in early years of the stadium Shelbourne FC also moved here, becoming anchor tenant and owners of the stadium in 1989. Thanks to this club's investment the stadium received new stand along the west end and became Ireland's first all-seater. It was also Tolka Park that saw the country's league first televised game in 1996.

Unfortunately Shelbourne were forced to sell the stadium to escape from debt in 2006. Since then the future is very uncertain. The stadium is most likely to be demolished, but 'Shels' are yet to find a new home, while the current one falls into disrepair. For safety reasons capacity has been cut from almost 10,000 to 6,000.