Fionnuala Murphy was only three when British soldiers took over Casement Park, the Gaelic games stadium where her uncle worked and was forced to hand over the keys as sectarian violence rocked Northern Ireland in 1972.
Now it stands overgrown and derelict in west Belfast. A rebuild has long been promised, and the most recent proposal is to use a new Casement in Euro 2028 — which will be co-hosted by Ireland and the United Kingdom — before it reverts to being a home for Irish sports like hurling and Gaelic football.
But over 25 years since “the Troubles,” the violence between mostly Catholic nationalist groups identifying as Irish and typically Protestant unionists loyal to London, the Casement project is caught up in old divisions.
