Oriel Park

Oriel Park is a UEFA Category 2 football stadium located on the Carrickmacross Road in Dundalk, Ireland. The stadium is the home ground of Dundalk Football Club and is owned and operated by the club on land that has been leased from the Casey family since the mid 1930s.

The ground has a capacity of 3,100 for European matches (i.e. 3,100 seats) and 4,500 for domestic games (i.e. with the remainder standing). Oriel Park's attendance record is an estimated 18,000, set in 1982 for Dundalk's European Cup Winners' Cup second round tie against Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

History

In 1919 land owned by the Casey family, known as "Casey’s Field", was made available for junior football matches in the new Dundalk & District League by the League's founder, P.J. Casey. Casey, at the time the Secretary of local junior club Dundalk Town, subsequently joined the management committee of Dundalk G.N.R., before becoming Treasurer of the League of Ireland in 1932. With Casey's assistance Dundalk F.C. moved to Casey's Field on a long-term lease, where the club has remained to date. The club named their new ground "Oriel Park" after the medieval Irish kingdom of Airgialla. Almost 10 years to the day after Dundalk had played their first League of Ireland match away to Fordsons, the same club (as Cork F.C.) were the first visitors to Oriel Park, with Dundalk winning on a 2-1 scoreline.

Ground developments

Oriel Park started as little more than a field with a slope. The ground was levelled and workmen from the Great Northern Railway Works in the town supplied fencing and rudimentary terracing made from sleepers. Offices and changing rooms were re-purposed railway carriages. But over the years the club endeavoured to improve what was theirs, often at considerable financial risk:

• 1936: Capital expenditure on the preparation of the new ground stated to be £987 19s.

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