You can never tear down the walls on theatres of dreams

A couple of years back on a visit to London, for no particular reason I set out on foot to find Upton Park, previously the hallowed football ground of West Ham United until they relocated to rent what had been the Olympic Stadium in a different part of London.

I knew there’d be nothing much to see because Upton Park – or the Boleyn Ground to give it its proper name – is now a housing complex, with just one iconic image to link it to its footballing glory days.

There’s a statue that goes back to England’s World Cup win of 1966, depicting the three West Ham players on that side – Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters – joined by non-Hammer Ray Wilson, for no greater reason than that he was holding Moore aloft with the World Cup.

I’d previously gone to see Highbury, former home of Arsenal before relocating to the Emirates (which isn’t a place but rather a sponsorship). The old ground is now a luxury flats complex.

Closer to home, Shamrock Rovers’ former home at Glenmalure Park is also now a housing estate with a small plaque the only indication that this was once a League of Ireland cathedral until the Kilcoynes saw more money in bricks and mortar and kitchens.

There are many more such sites that still draw football fans who wallow in nostalgia – Manchester City’s former base at Maine Road, Derby County’s Baseball Ground, Brighton’s Goldstone Ground …. the list goes on.

And while reality tells you these are now houses and flats and shops, the mind’s eye still shows you the ghosts of former greats who haunt their old hunting grounds.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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