{"id":352609,"date":"2026-02-23T20:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/352609\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T20:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:33:08","slug":"minister-halts-funding-for-league-of-ireland-astro-pitches-after-louth-derby-scenes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/352609\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister halts funding for League of Ireland astro pitches after Louth derby scenes \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> has stopped all funding for League of Ireland<\/a> astro pitches after fans threw flares on to the pitch during last Friday\u2019s Louth derby between Dundalk and Drogheda United<\/a> at Oriel Park.<\/p>\n

Significant damage was caused to the turf by the fireworks. O\u2019Donovan, who attended the match, has called for \u201clifetime bans\u201d and \u201cadequate custodial sentences\u201d for those responsible.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan said the match \u2013 the first played on the Department of Sport-funded astro surface at Dundalk\u2019s Oriel Park ground \u2013 was at times \u201clike an air raid\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan told RT\u00c9 Radio on Monday morning that people at the clubs must know who was involved in the disturbances. \u201cThere\u2019s somebody who always knows these things . . . because there was too many missiles being thrown out at the one time. I mean, I saw it myself, it was like an air raid. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s people standing cheek-by-jowl beside these people and they know who they are. They\u2019re from the same town.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chair of Drogheda United, Sinn F\u00e9in TD Joanna Byrne, declined to respond to questions about the incident. She declined to say whether she witnessed Drogheda supporters throwing flares onto the field or if she would help gardai with their inquiries. Byrne was present for the ribbon cutting by the Minister before the game.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in said she would not be commenting.<\/p>\n

Last week Byrne said she would not resign as chair after differences with the club owners over her calls for Ireland not to play games against Israel.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement issued on Sunday, the two clubs confirmed a 12-year-old supporter sustained burns to his face after being struck by a flare thrown in the stand.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan added: \u201cSomebody\u2019s hair could have been set on fire very easily here. Their clothes could have been set on fire. These people didn\u2019t give a damn what they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan acknowledged that stopping funding for astro pitches in the League of Ireland would \u201churt a lot of people\u201d, but added \u201cwe can\u2019t be making investments on behalf of the taxpayer . . . to literally see them being set on fire\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he had spoken to his officials on Monday morning, telling them \u201cany and all astroturfs going into League of Ireland clubs are to be stopped until I\u2019m satisfied that the League of Ireland and the FAI are going to take this seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan said he had asked the League of Ireland and the FAI for \u201cconcrete proposals to stamp out hooliganism once and for all\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, unfortunately, now it is a plague in all their houses. But the field looked like it was pock-ridden with badger holes at the end of the match the other night. And all these lads think it\u2019s hilarious. Set fire to Dundalk\u2019s field. <\/p>\n

\"SignificantSignificant damage was caused to the Oriel Park pitch by the throwing of flares during last Friday’s match between Dundalk and Drogheda United. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cNow I don\u2019t think that\u2019s funny. I don\u2019t know anyone that thinks that funny. It\u2019s criminal damage. I expect the garda\u00ed to deal with it and I expect these people to be brought before the courts and I expect them to receive adequate custodial sentences, or whatever, that comes from the type of reckless endangerment and criminal damage that we saw on Friday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the pause on funding for astroturf pitches would not affect junior leagues. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan raised the prospect of certain games being played behind closed doors in the future. He said it would be \u201cunfortunate\u201d and clubs would lose \u201ca lot of money\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you can\u2019t have a situation where you bring innocent people into a match and there\u2019s a danger of them literally being set on fire,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan has stopped all funding for League of Ireland astro pitches after fans threw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,6435,23664,15,16,5,36103,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-352609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-league-of-ireland","19":"tag-louth","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-patrick-o-donovan","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116121855905250563","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}