Derelict stadium for Euro 2028 highlights Belfast’s bitter divide

Fionnuala Murphy was solely three when British troopers took over Casement Park, the Gaelic video games stadium the place her uncle labored and was pressured handy over the keys as sectarian violence rocked Northern Ireland in 1972.

Now it stands overgrown and derelict in west Belfast. A rebuild has lengthy been promised, and the newest proposal is to make use of a brand new Casement in Euro 2028 — which can be co-hosted by Ireland and the United Kingdom — earlier than it reverts to being a house for Irish sports activities like hurling and Gaelic soccer.

But over 25 years since “the Troubles,” the violence between principally Catholic nationalist teams figuring out as Irish and usually Protestant unionists loyal to London, the Casement venture is caught up in previous divisions.