FORMER TAOISEACH BERTIE Ahern says he was criticised by people who were “anti-sport” for attempting to build a national stadium, in an RTÉ documentary.

The ‘Scannal’ series takes a look at the infamous ‘Bertie Bowl’ tonight, a building that was intended to be a national stadium that would host rugby, soccer and GAA games.

Speaking about the criticism he received for persisting with his idea for a stadium at Abbotstown that was never built, Ahern says:

“You had people writing in-depth reports about the stadium, people who were never in Croke Park or Lansdowne Road in their life. In fact, they were probably anti-sport.

“They became experts, the smoked salmon wine-drinking people that talk about these issues. I had to contend with that. It was hard going.

You’re always faced with this when you’re fighting for sport, and you always will. They will go down to a hospital and find a 90-year-old woman on a trolley and they’ll say, ‘oh this guy wants to build a sports stadium.”

The documentary explores the other projects for building sports stadiums that were happening in Ireland at the time, including the redevelopment of Croke Park and the FAI’s plan to build its own stadium, which was to be called Eircom Park.

Ahern’s Government gave £60 million to the GAA to finish the reconstruction effort in Croke Park in 2001.

This gesture led to plenty of criticism for Ahern, as a vote was taken at the GAA’s annual Congress for rule 42 to prevent soccer or rugby from being played at GAA headquarters.

“Croke Park got the money all the way along, and were going to get the money all the way along, so it didn’t matter what happened with the rule,” says Ahern.

“Some people criticised us for that. And of course people, who were anti the GAA, and called them the grab all association, would take that view.

“The people who were anti-GAA wanted to politicise it and said you shouldn’t give another penny of taxpayer’s money unless they change the rule. They do not understand the DNA of the GAA.”

The Eircom Park initiative was spearheaded by the then chief executive of the association, Bernard O’Byrne, and was estimated to cost around £65 million to build. The idea was eventually scrapped.

“They had that plan at the time,” says Ahern about Eircom Park in the documentary.

“It was Bernard O’Byrne and a few others involved in it.

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“They were trying to put it together. From our point of view, it didn’t make much sense frankly. Our financial people looked at this in Government and didn’t think it would ever stack up. The private investors, we didn’t see they were there.

We’re talking about the old Mickey Mouse solution to a big problem.”

Scannal will be aired tonight on RTÉ 1 at 8pm.

– First published 08.00, 21 April

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