THEY’VE MADE WEXFORD considerable favourites to beat Dublin at Parnell Park this Saturday afternoon.
Whoever was setting the odds for this one didn’t get the memo: Dublin don’t do defeat at The ‘Nell.
That’s not entirely accurate, of course, but there’s enough of a body of evidence to suggest that the poky little Donnycarney venue is Dublin’s fortress.
The Dublin hurlers trailed Offaly there last Saturday evening by three points as the clock ticked into the 68th minute. By full-time Dublin were three ahead.
There were just 5,394 at the game, and the number may not be a whole pile greater for the visit of Wexford, but in such a small arena it felt like a packed out Croker.
“I think the main thing here, genuinely, is the energy you get from the stand,” said new Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin. “The home crowd is huge for us. You do hear a bit around teams not wanting to come here. It’s probably for that reason.”
Anthony Daly felt the same sort of house pride about Dublin GAA’s compact home which backs onto Clontarf Golf Club in a small plot of land next to Donnycarney Church.
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In his six seasons in charge of Dublin, between 2009 and 2014, Daly presided over 13 league and Championship games at Parnell Park, winning nine, drawing one and losing just three times. Remarkably, Dublin sent Galway, Waterford, Tipperary, Limerick, Offaly, Carlow, Wexford and Daly’s native Clare home from Parnell defeated in that time. Only Kilkenny, Cork and Galway managed to get the better of them.
Anthony Daly signs autographs in 2011. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
Daly guided Dublin to two All-Ireland semi-finals, losing narrowly in both, and claimed National League and Leinster titles, in 2011 and 2013.
None of the managers that followed him, not Ger Cunningham, Pat Gilroy, Mattie Kenny nor Micheal Donoghue, were able to replicate anything like that success.
What they did all enjoy though is capital gains when it came to playing in Parnell Park.
Dublin kicked off the Cunningham era in 2015 with a big home win over Tipperary there and beat Galway twice in the Dublin 5 district too. In Gilroy’s solitary season in charge, 2018, they were unfortunate not to beat Kilkenny there in the Championship, losing by two points.
Kenny’s Dublin teams were unbeaten in six league and Championship games across the 2019 and 2020 seasons at Parnell Park, most notably overwhelming a star-filled Galway at the venue in 2019 to end the Tribesmen’s summer.
Admittedly, there has been less of the stardust around the place since the start of the 2021 season. Between Kenny and his successor Micheal Donoghue, Dublin teams ran out 14 times in league and Championship games at Parnell Park, breaking marginally better than even with seven wins, six defeats and a draw from the start of 2021 to the end of 2024.
So far under Ó Ceallacháin it’s a perfect record of two wins from two there, although Wexford are likely to present a stiffer challenge than what Offaly and previously Carlow offered.
In all, since the start of the Daly era, a 16 and a half seasons time span, Dublin have played 44 times in either league or Championship at Parnell Park and won 28 times, losing just 13. It equates to a win percentage of 64% compared to just 34% of the 38 games they have played in the same timeframe, in the same competitions, down the road at Croke Park.
Even allowing for the fact that Dublin typically faced top notch opposition at Croke Park, including provincial finals and All-Ireland semi-finals, the bigger question is why would they ever choose to play there instead of Parnell Park?
Donoghue was happy to do so in 2023, figuring that if GAA HQ was where the big prizes were going to be handed out, specifically the Leinster and All-Ireland titles, then it made sense to become as comfortable as possible with the ground, a la the Dublin footballers.
And Dublin did beat Wexford and draw with Galway at Croke Park in the 2023 Leinster SHC. But Dublin’s longer-term Croke Park record is poor, with Offaly most recently defeating them there in this season’s league. And that defeat ultimately cost Dublin promotion to Division 1A. Would it have been a different result at Parnell Park? The outcome of last weekend’s rematch suggested so.
“We were always going to play these games here, it was never actually on the cards that Dublin would play in Croker,” said Ó Ceallacháin, clarifying the situation around this season’s Leinster championship games. “It wasn’t an option.”
The last time Wexford were at Parnell Park, for a similar Round 2 Leinster SHC encounter in 2019, the sides drew. They will be forewarned of what is about to come their way this weekend. Daly reminded listeners just this week on his Irish Examiner podcast of what a valuable asset the ground is to Dublin. They will play there once more in the provincial round robin, against Donoghue’s Galway on 25 May.
Donoghue was in charge of Galway when Dublin scored that landmark 2019 win and a repeat result could very well catapult the hosts through to another Leinster final. Croker would be calling then and if Ó Ceallacháin can turn that place into a fortress, well, Dublin really will be onto something special.
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'You do hear a bit around teams not wanting to come here' - Dublin's Parnell Park effect
THEY’VE MADE WEXFORD considerable favourites to beat Dublin at Parnell Park this Saturday afternoon.
Whoever was setting the odds for this one didn’t get the memo: Dublin don’t do defeat at The ‘Nell.
That’s not entirely accurate, of course, but there’s enough of a body of evidence to suggest that the poky little Donnycarney venue is Dublin’s fortress.
The Dublin hurlers trailed Offaly there last Saturday evening by three points as the clock ticked into the 68th minute. By full-time Dublin were three ahead.
There were just 5,394 at the game, and the number may not be a whole pile greater for the visit of Wexford, but in such a small arena it felt like a packed out Croker.
“I think the main thing here, genuinely, is the energy you get from the stand,” said new Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin. “The home crowd is huge for us. You do hear a bit around teams not wanting to come here. It’s probably for that reason.”
Anthony Daly felt the same sort of house pride about Dublin GAA’s compact home which backs onto Clontarf Golf Club in a small plot of land next to Donnycarney Church.
In his six seasons in charge of Dublin, between 2009 and 2014, Daly presided over 13 league and Championship games at Parnell Park, winning nine, drawing one and losing just three times. Remarkably, Dublin sent Galway, Waterford, Tipperary, Limerick, Offaly, Carlow, Wexford and Daly’s native Clare home from Parnell defeated in that time. Only Kilkenny, Cork and Galway managed to get the better of them.
Daly guided Dublin to two All-Ireland semi-finals, losing narrowly in both, and claimed National League and Leinster titles, in 2011 and 2013.
None of the managers that followed him, not Ger Cunningham, Pat Gilroy, Mattie Kenny nor Micheal Donoghue, were able to replicate anything like that success.
What they did all enjoy though is capital gains when it came to playing in Parnell Park.
Dublin kicked off the Cunningham era in 2015 with a big home win over Tipperary there and beat Galway twice in the Dublin 5 district too. In Gilroy’s solitary season in charge, 2018, they were unfortunate not to beat Kilkenny there in the Championship, losing by two points.
Kenny’s Dublin teams were unbeaten in six league and Championship games across the 2019 and 2020 seasons at Parnell Park, most notably overwhelming a star-filled Galway at the venue in 2019 to end the Tribesmen’s summer.
Admittedly, there has been less of the stardust around the place since the start of the 2021 season. Between Kenny and his successor Micheal Donoghue, Dublin teams ran out 14 times in league and Championship games at Parnell Park, breaking marginally better than even with seven wins, six defeats and a draw from the start of 2021 to the end of 2024.
So far under Ó Ceallacháin it’s a perfect record of two wins from two there, although Wexford are likely to present a stiffer challenge than what Offaly and previously Carlow offered.
In all, since the start of the Daly era, a 16 and a half seasons time span, Dublin have played 44 times in either league or Championship at Parnell Park and won 28 times, losing just 13. It equates to a win percentage of 64% compared to just 34% of the 38 games they have played in the same timeframe, in the same competitions, down the road at Croke Park.
Even allowing for the fact that Dublin typically faced top notch opposition at Croke Park, including provincial finals and All-Ireland semi-finals, the bigger question is why would they ever choose to play there instead of Parnell Park?
Donoghue was happy to do so in 2023, figuring that if GAA HQ was where the big prizes were going to be handed out, specifically the Leinster and All-Ireland titles, then it made sense to become as comfortable as possible with the ground, a la the Dublin footballers.
And Dublin did beat Wexford and draw with Galway at Croke Park in the 2023 Leinster SHC. But Dublin’s longer-term Croke Park record is poor, with Offaly most recently defeating them there in this season’s league. And that defeat ultimately cost Dublin promotion to Division 1A. Would it have been a different result at Parnell Park? The outcome of last weekend’s rematch suggested so.
“We were always going to play these games here, it was never actually on the cards that Dublin would play in Croker,” said Ó Ceallacháin, clarifying the situation around this season’s Leinster championship games. “It wasn’t an option.”
The last time Wexford were at Parnell Park, for a similar Round 2 Leinster SHC encounter in 2019, the sides drew. They will be forewarned of what is about to come their way this weekend. Daly reminded listeners just this week on his Irish Examiner podcast of what a valuable asset the ground is to Dublin. They will play there once more in the provincial round robin, against Donoghue’s Galway on 25 May.
Donoghue was in charge of Galway when Dublin scored that landmark 2019 win and a repeat result could very well catapult the hosts through to another Leinster final. Croker would be calling then and if Ó Ceallacháin can turn that place into a fortress, well, Dublin really will be onto something special.
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