Chronological History of Shamrock Rovers FC

1899 or 1901?

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1904-05.Back row, left to right: J. Moore, J. Hopkins, P. Early, L. Byrne (Secretary), T. Flanagan. Centre row: J. Leonard (President), C. Cox, J. Keogh, T. Purdy, P. Cleary, E. Keogh. Front row: J. Leonard junior, C. Moore, J. Sheridan, W. Penston (Captain), M. Penston, T. Whelan, G. Oliver (Treasurer). Sitting: C. Lawless, L. Dunn.

“In the summer of 1899 a small group of enthusiastic football fans held a meeting in a house in Ringsend. Their object was to start up a team in the locality to rival the only other club then in existence in the fishing village! The name of the other team? It was Shelbourne! Yes, the great rivals of Shamrock Rovers saw the light of day.”

This was the opening paragraph for an article that appeared in the match programme for the Rovers v Shelbourne game at Milltown on 11^th November, 1972 and is often referred to by Hoops’ supporters who argue that Shamrock Rovers were formed in 1899 and not 1901.

In a piece on Rovers in the FAI Cup final programme for 1940 the following is written: “The club was first formed at the beginning of the present century, with its headquarters in Ringsend and took part in junior football.” Note that the writer says the “beginning of the present century” and not the end of the previous century. Thomas P. Walsh, writing in the special publication ‘Twenty Years of Irish Soccer 1921-1941’, made a brief reference to the year that Shamrock Rovers were formed. He simply wrote: “Founded as a junior club in 1899”. Some solid information to back up that statement would have been helpful but alas no, just six words on the formation of the club. On the other hand, the ‘Coming of Age’ special souvenir programme published by Shamrock Rovers on the occasion of the visit of Cork United on 28^th December, 1941 contained an article written by ‘An Old Supporter’ and began with the following line: “It was in the year of 1901 that Shamrock Rovers were first formed.”

The article that was written for the game against Shelbourne in 1972 referred to previously also mentioned the fact that the club’s name was taken from a spot in Ringsend called Shamrock Square. That should have read Shamrock Avenue. ‘The Square’, a local reference and not the official name, followed years after Shamrock Avenue was demolished. Other references in that article to the period that followed the very early years appear to have been taken directly or indirectly from the article written by ‘An Old Supporter’ in 1941. That being the case, it really is extraordinary that the year of formation was given as 1899 and not 1901.

The article written by ‘An Old Supporter’ for the ‘Coming of Age’ programme in 1941 was seriously accurate in every aspect and was very detailed. It was also an usually long article to appear in a match programme at that time, even a special souvenir one. It is not known who contributed the article but whoever he was he quite clearly had a knowledge of Shamrock Rovers that was second to none. ‘Old Supporters’ assertion that Rovers were formed in 1901 cannot be dismissed easily. It is likely, that as the club was only forty years in existence at the time he wrote this article, he may have had first hand knowledge or was very close to somebody else who had.

A lot of mystery surrounds Larry Fitzpatrick too and his reported role in the formation of the club. Some family members say he was never known as Larry but as Luke - the name he used himself in the census forms of 1901 and 1911. ‘Larry’ may have been a nickname. Some old timers said in the past that he was not a founder member, others said he was. Some said he was not a fisherman but was a glassblower. Maybe he was both. Fitzpatrick was known to have owned a trawler and Mary Jane, his daughter, later to become Mary Jane Cunningham, was a well-known figure in the Ringsend area as she used to sell his catch to the locals.

‘The Hoops’ book did not credit ‘Larry’ Fitzpatrick as being a founder member of the club, rather more as being a committee member instead and those old timers from Ringsend who assisted in providing information for the book were of the view that he was not one of the founder members. This could be unfair to Fitzpatrick but strangely his name does not appear in any listing of committee members during those early turbulent years of the club, unlike Lar Byrne, whose residence was 4 Irish-town Road and who has never been given the credit for the role that he and his family played in the development of Shamrock Rovers. Lar’s son, Andrew, followed in his footsteps and was to serve the club as secretary for nearly thirty years right up to his untimely death in 1945.

So where might the view have possibly come from that Rovers year of formation was 1899? It is known from the original records held at the offices of the Leinster Football Association that the club first registered with the association in 1901. Rovers did not join a league until 1903 but did take part in the Leinster Junior Cup a year before. It wasn’t unusual at the time though for clubs to partake in cup competitions only. At that time men worked long hours over six days a week, many teams were army teams too and the players were not able to turn out on a very regular basis. It is likely that the two years from the time of formation in which Shamrock Rovers did not participate in a league has been misinterpreted and instead of allowing for the gap between 1901 and 1903 some people have incorrectly read this an being a two-year period of non activity between 1899 and 1901.

The notion that any club would have been formed in 1899 and not actually join a league for a further four years should probably be dismissed. These were times when people had very little in the way of entertainment. There were no such commodities as radios, televisions, mobile phones, iPods, internet, social networking or cinema. People were poor and couldn’t afford to socialise or travel. Newspapers were bought only by the well off. Families were large and were lucky if they had a two roomed tenement to live in. Football was a new pastime and was spreading rapidly in the city of Dublin. It provided a new interest and even junior teams attracted huge crowds whenever they took to the pitch. Given those circumstances it just wouldn’t make sense that having set up a new football club, those involved in Rovers would want to take their time hanging around for four years before finally joining a league.

Further support for the view that Rovers were formed in 1901 came at the time that ‘The Hoops’ was published. Martin Sheridan, Billy Behan and George Gregg, sons of men who helped to establish the club during those early years, each stated that their fathers told them Rovers was formed in 1901. Each of these men would have been regarded as an authority on Shamrock Rovers’ past and their views should be not be easily dismissed.

A history of Shamrock Rovers published by the Irish Independent in the week approaching the 1962 FAI Cup final mentions the fact that the club was formed in 1901. This and the other pieces referred to above provide conclusive proof that 1901 was not a version that only saw light when ‘The Hoops’ was published.

Strangely, the Cunninghams, who ruled the roost at Milltown for almost forty years, do not appear to have ever offered an opinion of when the club was formed. The year of formation did not appear in either the club directory, as published and updated in the match programme as normal practice for decades, nor on official club headed paper. In fact, there doesn’t seem to have been much discussion at all concerning the formative years of the club. Because the Kilcoynes had 1899 painted on the gates at Milltown doesn’t mean this should be accepted as gospel. They may have been influenced by the article which appeared in the match day programme in 1972. They knew and probably cared even less about the club’s past than the Cunninghams.

If any contemporary references to 1899 can be unearthed and proved beyond doubt to be genuine then great, the argument will be at least on a level with 1901. If it can be proven to be the actual year of formation then better still; but such a happening seems most unlikely. Until then though, supporters of the club can make an informed choice. There are those who will never accept a view other than the 1899 version, but they have yet to offer some evidence to back up their view.

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George Kelly scaled a dizzy height to obtain a unique view of Tallaght Stadium on a match day

Rovers at Milltown

Shamrock Rovers played at Milltown from 1922 to 1987. Milltown was just a sleepy village on the outskirts of the city at the time Rovers took up residence there. That was a time when the main mode of public transport consisted of trams and horse drawn cabs operated by hackneys. It might appear that Milltown was an usual location for Rovers to choose for their home ground but considering they played further out of the city, at Windy Arbour, for the 1921/22 season as members of the Leinster Senior League, perhaps Milltown didn’t seem much of an inconvenience for the club’s supporters. For most, it was simply a twenty-five or thirty minute walk along the route of the River Dodder which led from Ringsend and passed through Milltown.

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An aerial view of Glenmalure Park in the 1980’s also showing the area at the rear of the ground where Rovers’ ﬁrst pitch back in 1922 was situated

In any case, Shamrock Rovers had no choice really but to settle at Milltown when the opportunity to secure a ground there arose. Twice before in the history of the club they had to withdraw from football as they could not secure a private ground. The ground at Windy Arbour became unavailable towards the end of the 1921/22 season so obviously this was only a temporary measure. Their successful application to become members of the League of Ireland was confirmed just weeks before the season was due to begin so a ground had to be found quickly.

So just how did Rovers come to play at Milltown? Before the publication of ‘The Hoops’ in 1993 (Paul Doolan/Robert Goggins) there appears to have been no effort made to document the development of the club and much of what was known was based on bit pieces that appeared in the newspapers or match programmes over the years and hearsay. The former Rovers player, John Joe Flood, who was one of the rather famous ‘Four F’s’ in the forward line of the early 1920’s, did say in an RTE Radio documentary in 1981 that the club acquired a pitch at Milltown through an aunt of committee member Mikey Dunne. It was always understood though that the Jesuits had been Rovers’ landlords from the time the club first arrived at Milltown. It was stated in ‘The Hoops’ that on 23^rd September, 1923, Shamrock Rovers signed a rental agreement with the Jesuit Order for the use of a pitch at Milltown. That was correct information which had been confirmed by the Jesuits. It wasn’t clear though how they managed to play there for the period covering the 1922/23 season, their very first as members of the League of Ireland, but now it can be confirmed that what John Joe Flood said about Mikey Dunne’s aunt was possibly correct. There was a lady by the name of Mary Ann O’Neill; she was a market gardener who grew fruit and vegetables at Milltown. She agreed to lease a piece of land there to Shamrock Rovers for a period covering 9^th September, 1922, to 31^st March, 1923 for a rental fee of seventy pounds. As stated, after that the Jesuit Order became landlords of the property. Perhaps Ms. O’Neill had sublet the land to the club for that first year or perhaps she was the actual land owner and sold out to the Jesuits.

The pitch on which Rovers played at that time was not the same one that became known as Glenmalure Park. The original pitch was located at the rear of Glenmalure Park and ran end to end in an east-west direction as against the north-south direction of Glenmalure Park. The switch came about in 1926 and presumably suited both landlords and tenants as it was located adjacent to the main road. To gain entry to the original pitch it was necessary to walk down a laneway that led from Milltown Road to the location of the pitch.

Rovers staged an official opening of their new ground in 1922 with an exhibition game against an English League club, believed to be Bradford City. In 1926 Belfast Celtic played Rovers in a game staged to mark the official opening of the ground that became known as Glenmalure Park. The game was played on Sunday, 19^th September with certain elements up north taking an exception to the Belfast club playing on a Sunday.

The Jesuits remained as landlords right up to the time the Kilcoynes committed their ghastly act in 1987. What is clear from the records made available by the Jesuits to the authors of ‘The Hoops’ is that Shamrock Rovers always struggled to pay the rent due on the ground. Luckily, the landlords were quite tolerant and did not have any other use for the land. At times they were concerned though, especially during the early to mid 1930’s, but correctly came to the conclusion that Joe Cunningham, with whom they dealt with directly after the club was restructured in 1935, was an honourable man and was someone who had the influence to improve matters on the Rovers’ side. Rovers were in serious financial difficulty and owed a considerable amount on the rent but it was Father Hannon who spoke up for the club saying that he knew Joe Cunningham well and considered him to be a worthy person.

The lease agreements were always for short periods only of four to five years at a time, perhaps the reason for this was the difficulty shown by the club in meeting their payments. But even throughout the period in which the Cunninghams were at the helm, Shamrock Rovers were ‘tardy’ in making their rental payments. That’s a word used by the solicitors acting on behalf of the Jesuits but who also noted that in the end the payments always came through. It could be said perhaps that as Joe Cunningham was a shrewd businessman the rent was simply kept on hold until it became absolutely necessary to make the payments and sure enough the Cunninghams were known for their reluctance to part with their money easily.

It is worth mentioning at this point that, prior to the restructuring of the club in 1935, Shamrock Rovers was run on a committee basis. Post 1935 committee members in the main were no more and were replaced instead by a handful of directors. The club engaged the services of Michael Noyk, solicitor, as their legal representative. Noyk, a Lithuanian national, was a well-known Irish Republican activist who represented many of those who took part in the 1916 Easter Rising. He can be seen sitting in the front row of the official club photograph taken at the end of the 1935/36 season. The photograph of the group of players and officials was taken in front of the main grandstand at Glenmalure Park and reflected the new professionalism that had been introduced into Shamrock Rovers, both on and off the pitch.

Shamrock Rovers’ ground was often referred to as Milltown Park but the name Glenmalure Park began to appear as early as 1932. The club was run on a committee basis prior to the takeover by Joe Cunningham in 1935 and it was the committee who embarked on a major development scheme at the ground in the late 1920’s. They engaged an English builder by the name of John Calton to construct a grandstand on the Western side and, along with new dressing rooms, a covered shed was also erected along the Eastern side; it would be some time before terracing would follow there though. Committee members and supporters carried out an enormous amount of work at the ground in conjunction with the work that was carried out by Calton. Milltown had taken on the look of a proper football ground and offered a degree of comfort to those who attended the games. During the summer of 1939 the club engaged in a major ground improvement scheme; the building of terracing along the entire unreserved side of the ground was the biggest job undertaken at Milltown since the construction of the grandstand some eleven years before. The next task was to involve the removal of the wooden paling that fenced off the pitch from spectators and this was to be replaced with a concrete wall. The War years put a skid on the pace of the works at Milltown as the country was plunged into economic stagnation and money was scarce. Thankfully though, work recommenced quickly after the War ended. The following piece appeared in the match programme for the league game against Cork United at Milltown on 3^rd February, 1946: “…since our last game with Cork over 900 yards of concrete terracing have been installed at our ground, and a standing stand, which is nearing completion in the reserved enclosure, and would have been completed for today’s match only for the adverse weather conditions. The holding capacity of this stand, when completed, will be approximately 700 people, commanding one of the best views on our ground. We are sure that the efforts of the Directors to make our patrons as comfortable as possible will be much appreciated.”

It was not until the early 1950’s that terracing was completed at the venue. Several of the players at the time were employed on this project. They would work during the day building the new terraces and then train during the evening! At this time too a gym was built underneath the stand and this would have been a unique facility for a League of Ireland club to have.

There was a great social scene at Glenmalure Park, particularly during the War years. As well as club functions being staged at the bar which was located underneath the main stand, darts, snooker and other competitions were held there. Rovers even staged their own cricket competition during the summer months for their members. It has to be said though that membership was rather exclusive as the ordinary Shamrock Rovers supporter simply could not have afforded the joining fee.

Efforts by the club as far back as 1935 to open a bar facility at the ground ran into trouble when a Father Flynn representing the Pioneers objected to the concept. The new committee saw the benefits of having the ground used to maximum effect in an effort to bring in more finance. In July, 1936 the club made a formal application to the courts for a Sports Club Licence and stated that their intention was to stage tennis, croquet, billiards, card playing etc.

The Cunninghams did try to make Glenmalure Park open to the community. Junior cup finals and Schoolboy internationals as well as FAI Cup semi finals were played at Milltown (used as a neutral ground) and the odd boxing competition was also staged at the ground. Groups were permitted to stage collections on match days and a regular feature was the Dundrum Brass & Reed Band who provided the pre match and half time entertainment. From time to time, the club permitted the band to stage a collection in order to support their existence and actively encouraged supporters to be generous. A boxing competition was held in 1940 in an effort to ease financial difficulties. The club wanted to acquire a loan from the bank in order to clear the debts and needed a long term lease on the ground to secure this but the Jesuits stated that such a deal would have to approved by the church authorities in Rome.

It was not just the Cunninghams though who utilised the ground - the old committee that preceded them had previously rented the pitch out as tennis courts during the summer months at one stage during the early 1930’s.

Donore Harriers Athletic Club were amongst outside organisations to also use Glenmalure Park and staged their Golden Jubilee meeting there in June, 1943. In July, 1966, a major boxing event was staged at Milltown with the John McCormack (Ireland) vs. Pieter Hein (Germany) bout the main event.

An extraordinary personal feat was achieved at the venue in the opening league game of the 1935/36 season. Paul Scully, Rovers new signing from Bohs, netted six goals in the 9-3 defeat of Bray Unknowns at Glenmalure Park. Some players have managed four goals in a single game but Scully’s record remains unequalled to this day.

Rovers qualified for European competition for each year from 1962 to 1970 inclusive and, like the European Cup games of 1957 v Manchester United and 1959 v Nice, all of these games were played at Dalymount Park on account of Glenmalure Park not being suitable; the lack of floodlights there being the major deficiency. It was not until 1978, when having won the FAI Cup in Johnny Giles’ first season at the club, Rovers qualified for the UEFA Cup and played their first ever European game at Milltown when they hosted Apoel Nicosia on 13^th September in a game they won 2-0. Giles himself made a little bit of history that evening when he scored the first goal in a European competition at Milltown. The other goalscorer was Steve Lynex.

Drumcondra FC installed floodlights at Tolka Park in 1953 and around the late 1950’s the Cunninghams indicated a desire to follow suit at Milltown. This led to some tensions with the landlords who weren’t too keen on the idea. Eventually the two parties came to an agreement, the Jesuits with-drew their objections after Rovers gave guarantees to ensure that noise levels would be kept to a minimum in order that student priests studying in buildings adjacent to the ground would not be disturbed. For some reason the Cunninghams did not proceed with the plans though.

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Early 1940’s: Back row, left to right: Willie Fallon, Mattie Clarke, Mick McCarthy, Edmund ‘Emo’ Sheeran, Shay Healy, Joe Creevy. Front row, left to right: Harry Finnegan, Matt Doherty, Jimmy Dunne, Billy Meek, Tommy Foy

Floodlit football did become a feature at Glenmalure Park in 1982 when the SRFC Development Committee put up the guarantees on a £70,000 loan to meet the cost of installing the facility. The official opening in April featured an exhibition game between Rovers and an AUL Selection.

Following the construction of terracing all around the ground in the early 1950’s there was little or nothing added to the venue in the decades that followed. The 1950’s witnessed a huge surge in attendances at League of Ireland games, helped in no small way by the emergence of the great ‘Coad’s Colts’ team at Milltown. Big games involving Rovers and Drums, Shels, Waterford and Cork Athletic would attract an attendance in the region of 20,000. Some references have been made to crowds of up to 25,000 and one claim is that an incredible 30,000 attended a women’s international at Glenmalure Park. Unfortunately, there simply is no way of establishing what was the biggest crowd ever to fit into Glenmalure Park.

The Cunninghams sold out to the Kilcoynes in 1972 and for the best part of five years Milltown and indeed Rovers in general appeared to become victims of a downward spiral. Instead of restoring the club to its most recent glory the Kilcoynes appeared obsessed at running the club on a financial shoestring. The team was run down as they pursued a youth policy and by the time the end of the 1976/77 season came about the crowds that had once thronged the famous South Dublin venue had disappeared and the ground itself had become seriously run down. Louis Kilcoyne’s claims that he and his brothers were the ones who took over a dilapidated venue from the Cunninghams and immediately set about tidying it up don’t completely add up. At the beginning of each new season fans returning to the ground after the summer break could not but help notice the clean up the place would have been given. Such work was undertaken year in year out by a small band of club volunteers who would normally put their hands into their own pockets to pay for white paint, rollers and other utensils. It was thanks to these guys that Milltown looked fresh and tidy at the beginning of each new season.

In 1977 the Kilcoynes took the opposite direction to the one they had taken previously. They invested heavily and enticed Johnny Giles to turn his back on his career in England and come home to Dublin to manage the Hoops. Giles already had a connection with Rovers, his sister Pauline was married to Louis Kilcoyne. Money was put into the team and into the ground. Restoring Glenmalure Park to a decent venue was part of what Giles sought from the club’s owners. The most notable change was the complete removal of the terracing that ran from the dressing room area up to the grandstand; this was considered unsafe and after its removal a car park was built in its place. The club bar was renovated and turned into a night club and a second bar and function room was added.

The legacy that Giles left behind though was not just Alan Campbell and Liam Buckley but also a magnificent playing surface. Giles wasn’t particularly impressed with the conditions of pitches in the League of Ireland in general and he certainly set a new standard when he insisted that resources be put into the pitch at Milltown. Glenmalure Park became one of the finest playing surfaces in Ireland or Britain. At a time when the Irish and English seasons ran simultaneously the pitches at Old Trafford and White Hart Lane, for example, would be seriously bare from the ravages of winter but at Glenmalure Park in Dublin there was a lush carpet of smoothly cut grass that any top footballer would have found it a pure delight to play on.

Unfortunately, the operation of the Hoops nightclub brought a little bit of trouble to the club as nearby residents were disturbed by unacceptable conduct and noise outside the venue in the early hours of the morning. As well as directing their complaints to the Kilcoynes the residents also made their feelings known to the Jesuit Order.

The Jesuits agreed to sell Glenmalure Park to the Kilcoynes in 1986 but after it became known in 1987 that the Kilcoynes planned to sell the land for property development the religious order distanced itself from the move and insisted that in so far as they were concerned the Kilcoynes had led them to believe that the ground would continue to be used as a sporting facility. So just why did the normally shrewd Jesuits agree to sell a piece of their land in a prime location? Well, like the Cunninghams, the Kilcoynes were slack in paying the rent on time and the Jesuits found this to be a lot of hassle. Selling the land seemed to be a good idea at the time and a solution to the never ending task of having to chase the owners of Shamrock Rovers for the rent.

As far back as 1974, just two years after the Kilcoyne brothers took over from the Cunninghams, negotiations took place between the Jesuits and the Kilcoynes regarding a possible complete buyout of the land. The Kilcoynes offered £17,000 to purchase the freehold but being the sensible people that the Jesuits were they wanted to include a clause in any possible agreement that would allow them to regain ownership of the land if Shamrock Rovers did not require it at any stage in the future. If only they had inserted this particular clause in the agreement of 1986 the fate of Glenmalure Park may very well have turned out differently. The talks in 1974 met a dead end and the Kilcoynes did not pursue it, perhaps the timing was no longer right for them as the country had slipped into recession.

Around the early 1980’s though the Kilcoynes again began to sound out the possibility of buying out the ground. It seems that, whatever their intentions were, they always had this idea somewhere on their agenda.

Glenmalure Park in the 1980’s was not exactly a modern stadium. It offered basic facilities; the dressing room facilities were primitive. Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Celtic played here in the final years; God knows what they thought of the place. But to the ordinary Hoops fan, Milltown was heaven. It was quaint, it had history, it had been home to generations of Rovers fans. The very thought of the place being sold off for property development was itself unthinkable.

Then in April 1987 the shocking news broke that the Kilcoynes intended to move the club out of the ground and build houses there. Indeed, within months Rovers were playing at Tolka Park and the ground that had been home to Shamrock Rovers since 1926 was quickly allowed to spiral into a derelict and ugly sight.

A prolonged battle to save Glenmalure Park was finally lost in March, 1990. Nothing more could be done to save the ground. Many a fine footballer had graced the pitch at Milltown, many a great tussle between fierce rivals had been witnessed. A visit to Milltown on Sunday was the highlight of the week for many fathers and sons and indeed mothers and daughters. Lifetime friendships were made there; couples met and fell in love there and got married! Shamrock Rovers was Milltown and Milltown was Shamrock Rovers.

The Kilcoynes believed they were within their rights to acquire Glenmalure Park and then profit from it for non football purposes. They failed to understand the history of the venue or what it meant to the supporters. They disrespected the memory of those who, sixty years before, had given their free time to turn the ground from a pitch into a stadium. The sacrifices made by ordinary committee members, working class men, stood for nothing as the banks came knocking on the door of the Kilcoynes.

The little piece of green that makes up part of the development known as Glenmalure Square is where big Bob Fullam shrugged off many a full back to plant the ball into the back of the net, it’s where Paddy Moore and Paddy Coad thrilled the crowd with their natural skills, where Davy Cochrane had the crowd on their feet, where Frank O’Neill danced along the wing encouraged by the roar of the crowd and where Pat Byrne stood before delivering many a superb free kick past an opponents’ helpless goalkeeper.

Glenmalure Park and Milltown will remain forever an important piece of Shamrock Rovers folklore. Something that will never be forgotten.

WHERE ROVERS HAVE PLAYED:

1903/04: Registered ground given as ‘The Strand’, Ringsend

1904/05 to 1905/06: Registered ground given as ‘Ringsend Technical School’

1914/15: Ringsend Park

1916/17: Shelbourne Park

1920/21: Ringsend Park

1921/22: O’Rourke’s Field, Windy Arbour

1922/23: to 1925/26: Elm Park (otherwise known as Milltown Park)

1926/27 to 1986/87: Glenmalure Park (part of Milltown Park and situated alongside first pitch)

1987/88: Tolka Park

1988/89 to 1990/91: Dalymount Park (to 16^th September 1990)

1990/91 to 1995/96: Royal Dublin Society Grounds, Ballsbridge (RDS)

1996/97 to 1998/99: Tolka Park

1999/00 to 2000/01: Billy Morton Stadium, Santry

2001/02: Tolka Park. Then Richmond Park from 12^th October to 18^th January. Then Tolka Park again

2002/03: Tolka Park, July to 5^th November. Then Richmond Park from 8^th November to 24^th January

2002/03 to 2003 (new summer season): Richmond Park to 1^st September and then Tolka Park to 30^th November

2003: Belfield Park (for one home game)

2003: Turner’s Cross, Cork (for one home game)

2004: Richmond Park

2005: Dalymount Park

2006 to 2008: Tolka Park

2009 to present: Tallaght Stadium

*From time to time Rovers played the odd game at Dalymount Park and Tolka Park and also on the ground of their opponents as they surrendered home advantage. For reasons that are not clear, they also played occasional home games at Shelbourne Park and St. James’s Park in the period before they moved to the new pitch at Milltown. Presumably, this was on account of the original pitch not having good drainage and falling foul to adverse weather conditions.