Tolka Park

Tolka Park (Irish: Páirc na Tulchann) is an Irish association football ground located in the north Dublin suburb of Drumcondra, on the northern banks of the River Tolka. It is currently the home ground of League of Ireland club Shelbourne men's and women's senior sides. The stadium formerly held 9,680 people, but this has been scaled down in recent times due to health and safety regulations in the venue, mainly concerning the 'New' and Ballybough stands. Tolka Park has hosted national cup finals along with international matches, inter-league games, Champions League qualifiers, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, UEFA Cup, UEFA Conference League ties, Setanta Sports Cup finals and was a host venue for the 1994 UEFA European Under-16 Championship, the 2000 Rugby League World Cup, and the 2019 UEFA European Under-17 Championship. The ground has also in the past been used for boxing championships and basketball.

Shelbourne secured a 250-year lease from Dublin City Council in 2024. Uncertainty began with the sale of the ground by Shelbourne to businessman Ossie Kilkenny in 2006, the purchase of the ground by Dublin City Council in 2015, and a proposal to redevelop Dalymount Park as a shared home for Shelbourne and Bohemians.

Over the years, seven different League of Ireland clubs have used Tolka Park for home league matches on a regular basis. They are Drumcondra, Shelbourne, Dolphin, Home Farm, Dublin City, Shamrock Rovers and St James's Gate.

Tolka Park was originally home to Drumcondra, who in the 1950s, and 1960s were one of the most popular teams in Dublin.

Tolka’s first League of Ireland game was held on the opening day of the 1928-29 League of Ireland season on 26 August 1928 when newly elected Drumcondra hosted Shamrock Rovers.

In 1929, over 30 people were injured at the ground when a hoarding collapsed at a Drumcondra vs Shelbourne cup-tie. The ground hosted the first floodlit fixture in the Republic of Ireland on 30 March 1953 when Drums beat St Mirren.

On 26 January 1958 Tolka was the venue for the first all-ticket match to be played in the League of Ireland when Drums hosted Shamrock Rovers. Due to crowd issues the match was subsequently abandoned with the points awarded to Rovers. That same year, the first advertising hoardings appeared in Tolka Park which were for Guinness.

However "Drums" merged with local team Home Farm in 1972, and after the demise of Drumcondra, Home Farm moved into the ground. During Drums time in Tolka they won both the League of Ireland and FAI Cup on five occasions.

However, Home Farm never drew large crowds and Tolka fell into disrepair (though it did host the replay of the 1984 FAI Cup final). After a shock FAI Cup final win over Shels, Home Farm played their only ever home European tie in Tolka Park against French side Lens in the 1975–76 European Cup Winners' Cup first round.

In 1989, Shelbourne, who had played home games regularly in Tolka during the fifties, sixties, seventies, and early eighties, acquired Home Farm's long term lease from Dublin Corporation on the ground. Home Farm moved to their own ground in nearby Whitehall Stadium. Shelbourne invested heavily in the stadium, converting it into Ireland's first all-seater stadium and building a new stand behind the Drumcondra end goal in 1999.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Shels would regularly host top Premier League sides in high profile, profitable friendly games such as Manchester United F.C., Liverpool F.C. and Leeds United F.C. Celtic F.C. were regular visitors as well along with more unusual guests such as Club Universidad Nacional of Mexico, FC Dnipro of Ukraine, and Brøndby IF.

The first-ever League of Ireland match to be broadcast live on TV was a fixture between Shelbourne and Derry City, staged at Tolka Park during the 1996/97 season.

On 7 April 1998, an FAI Cup semi-final replay against Finn Harps F.C. was delayed due to a bomb scare.

However, Shelbourne FC ran into several severe problems that had put the future of Tolka Park in doubt. One problem was a flood in 2002 that caused extensive damage to the pitch and greatly increased the club's insurance costs. But a far more serious long-term problem was caused by the club's getting into severe debt through overspending on playing staff. In 2006, Ollie Byrne, Shelbourne Chief Executive sold the ground to property developer Ossie Kilkenny to help repay the club's debts. Legal action between the parties who bought the ground delayed its demolition and development, as had a slowdown in the Irish property market. By 2011, the club were reporting that the ground was in need of maintenance.

In June 2022, legendary Italian Dj Mauro Picotto played an exclusive set in the club bar after a Shelbourne home match.

Over 1,000 Shels fans watched their side win the 2024 League of Ireland Premier Division on three big screens on the final day of the season as the club was officially only allocated 300 tickets for the final match in Derry.

On the opening day of the 2025 League of Ireland Premier Division season, the Tolka Park floodlights failed at half-time against Derry City. The issue was eventually resolved with the second half starting approximately 50 minutes late.

While Shelbourne's senior teams have been playing at Tolka Park, they have won 8 League of Ireland Men's Premier Division titles, 6 FAI Cups, 2 League of Ireland Women's Premier Divisions and 2 FAI Women's Cups. The 2025 season is the men's side sixty-first season and the women's side seventh season playing home league games in Tolka Park. The men's side have played 20 home UEFA club competition games in Tolka.

In 1987, the then owners of Shamrock Rovers, the Kilcoyne family, attempted to move the club to Tolka Park. Rovers played there for a season, but the games were boycotted by some of their fans, who were trying to save Glenmalure Park from demolition.

Rovers returned to the ground in 1996 which they rented for a time from Shelbourne on and off (1996–1999, 2001–2002, 2004–2005 and 2006–2008) while Tallaght Stadium was being developed. They eventually moved into the Tallaght Stadium in 2009. Rovers' home tie against Sligo Rovers during the 2009 season was moved to Tolka Park amid safety concerns due to construction on-site at Tallaght before the club friendly against Real Madrid. During their time in Tolka, the Hoops played three European ties at the venue, against Omonia Nicosia in the 1987–88 European Cup, against Altay in the 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup, and against Djurgården in the 2002–03 UEFA Cup.

Down the years, several other League of Ireland clubs have used Tolka Park for domestic and European games. Dolphin used Tolka during their final two seasons (1935–36 and 1936–37) in the league for some games, St James's Gate during the mid-1990s, and Dublin City during their short existence in the early 2000s.

In the 1984–85 European Cup Winners' Cup, U.C.D. hosted eventual tournament winners Everton at Tolka and drew 0:0 in front of 10,000 fans. In 1990, Bray Wanderers played Trabzonspor in the European Cup Winners' Cup in Tolka. St Patrick's Athletic played two European ties in Tolka during the 1990s, against Dinamo București and Celtic. In 1999 Bohemians played home league games for two months in Tolka due to redevelopment work at Dalymount Park and in 2000, two UEFA Cup ties against Aberdeen and Kaiserslautern. Dundalk played their 2002–03 UEFA Cup tie against Varteks in Tolka.

In March 1993, Drogheda United hosted Aston Villa in a friendly match in Tolka Park.

Tolka Park has staged two full internationals for the Republic of Ireland men in 1981 and 1993. Both matches were friendlies against Wales.

Anne O'Brien scored a hat-trick at Tolka Park in 1971, as her Vards team beat St John Bosco 3–2 in the final of the Drumcondra Cup. Tolka Park hosted the 2010 FAI Women's Cup final, in which Áine O'Gorman scored a hat-trick to help Peamount United beat Salthill Devon 4–2. The Republic of Ireland women have sporadically played games at Tolka Park including a 0–0 friendly draw against France in September 1978 and a 1–0 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (UEFA) defeat by Poland in November 1997.

In March 2019 Shelbourne's women's team announced that they would play their home fixtures at Tolka Park, instead of the isolated AUL Complex. In October 2021 the TG4 Irish language television network broadcast the first ever Women's National League match. Alex Kavanagh scored the goal in Shelbourne's 1–0 win over DLR Waves at Tolka Park.

The Irish Rugby League Team have also played home games at the ground and hosted two games of the 2000 Rugby League World Cup.

The venue hosted the 1984 FAI Cup final replay in 1984 and hosted the final from 1999 until the second final in 2002 then the fixture was shifted back to Lansdowne Road. The stadium hosted the first Setanta Cup Final when Linfield defeated Shelbourne in 2005 and hosted the final in 2006. Tolka hosted two games in the 2011 UEFA Regions' Cup. The venue has also hosted numerous FAI Intermediate Cup and FAI Junior Cup finals as well as League of Ireland Cup finals.

Tolka Park has also hosted 15 games for the League of Ireland XI representative side, the first being against the Irish League representative team in 1960.

In August 1938, September 1939 and April 1947 it held boxing championship bouts.

On 8 June 1951, Jack Doyle faced “Two Ton” Tony Galento in a professional wrestling match in front of 22,500 attendees.

In 1959, the world famous Harlem Globetrotters played two basketball matches in Tolka Park on a specially imported court.

The Richmond Road Stand or "Main Stand" runs the length of the north side of the pitch. The Technical area is located at the stand as well as the Directors' Box, Box office, Stadium Bar and First aid area. The stand is named after Richmond Road which is directly behind the stand. The club bar is situated underneath Section E, which is at the eastern end of the stand.

The Riverside Stand runs the length of the south side of the pitch. Today it is mainly used for Broadcasting and seating home fans. It is named after the River Tolka which runs behind the stand.

The Drumcondra Stand or "New Stand" is located behind the goal at the west end of the ground and it is the most recent stand opened in 2000. The stand is named after the town of Drumcondra which is located behind the stand. The Ultras within the club's support base formerly congregated in the Drumcondra Stand, but it has been closed since 2019 due to major structural issues with the roof. The Drumcondra stand also houses the dressing rooms. The club shop is located beside the stand.

The Ballybough End is located behind the goal at the east end of the ground. It is named after the neighbourhood of Ballybough which is located behind the stand. The Ballybough stand became neglected over the years due to the decreased attendance of Shelbourne. It was deemed unsafe and closed by the Dublin Fire Brigade Health and Safety Unit in 2010. The stand was reopened in time for the 2022 season to house away fans. The broken seats that formerly occupied the stand were removed and replaced with standing barriers, transforming the lower half of the stand into a terrace with a capacity of 800. This may be increased in the future pending other infrastructural improvements. In July 2023, the away allocation for visiting clubs in the Ballybough End increased by 250, for a total capacity of 1,050.

• Scenes for a Lucozade Sport ad in 1992 featuring then Republic of Ireland national football team star Niall Quinn were shot in Tolka Park.
• A chapter of Dermot Bolger's novel, A Second Life, takes place in Tolka Park, during a European competition match in which Shelbourne overturn a first-leg defeat over Ukrainian side, Karpaty Lvov, and the novel's narrator and his young son are ushered off the pitch by Ollie Byrne during a celebratory pitch invasion.
• Scenes from the 2000 movie Mad About Mambo were shot in Tolka Park.
• The ground has appeared in the fictional football drama Dream Team when Harchester United were drawn to play Shelbourne in the UEFA Cup in 2001.
• The ground appeared in the football comedy Fran where Fran's club St Peter's United lost a cup final held at Tolka Park.
• The promotional music video for the 2021 song To Have You by For Those I Love was recorded in Tolka Park.

Following the sale of Tolka Park in 2006, Shelbourne had been trying to relocate to a new ground. Plans for a new stadium in Finglas and Swords came to nothing, as has an FAI-backed proposed ground-share with North Dublin neighbours Bohemians. Plans were underway in March and April 2015 for the Council to take back ownership of the land, and for Shelbourne to groundshare Bohemians in (newly Council-owned) Dalymount Park. On 4 October 2016 Shelbourne announced that they would leave Tolka Park for a newly refurbished Dalymount Park. In April 2021, the Dalymount redevelopment was expected to conclude by 2025.

A local campaign called 'Save Tolka Park' was set up with the aim to secure the future of the stadium and prevent the stadium from being demolished. In February 2022, the city council agreed to examine the feasibility of the sale of the stadium back to Shelbourne.

Tolka Park is served by Irish Rail commuter services that stop at Drumcondra, on routes to and from Dublin Connolly serving M3 Parkway, Maynooth, and Hazelhatch/Celbridge. Most services to/from Longford and Sligo also serve Drumcondra. The stadium is also served by Clontarf Road DART station which is approximately a 2 km walk away.

Dublin Bus routes 1 | 13 | 16 | 33 | 41 | 41b | 41c | 44 also stop near the stadium on the Drumcondra Road. DB routes H1 | H2 | H3 | 15 | 27 | 27X | 42 serve nearby Fairview while the N2 stops on Griffith Avenue.

• List of rugby league stadiums by capacity

• The Hoops by Paul Doolan and Robert Goggins (ISBN 0-7171-2121-6)

• Shelbourne Tolka Park The Dublin Groundhop Stadium video tour

53°22′03″N 6°15′07″W / 53.36750°N 6.25194°W / 53.36750; -6.25194