Galway v Laois

[AZOffaly]

but sure Pairc Ui Rinn broadcasts football matches. I'd say Miller was spinning a line

[The Real Laoislad]

but for hurling a different setting on the lights is used,and when the cameras are in a different setting again is used so in fact he could be telling the truth

[AZOffaly]

Ara he could be indeed. I'm only wondering, because somewhere I am sure that I saw a hurling match under floodlights on the TV, but I could be raving.

[The Real Laoislad]

Leinster Express

Sport --  The lights are on
TWO good teams, a big crowd and a great atmosphere should signal the start of the floodlit era in Laois GAA this Saturday when the county's senior football team square up to Galway in the second round of the Allianz NFL.
Steven Miller reports

The turning on of the lights should be a splendid affair and the completion of the €1m project will further consolidate O'Moore Park's status as the next best ground in Leinster after Croke Park.
For Laois, the installation of the lights will open up a range of possibilities. The first of which is big Saturday night games (Laois are to play all their home league games under lights this season) that will bring big business to the county. Further down the road - most likely next autumn - they will be a valuable tool as the annual club fixture backlog kicks in.
All round it looks like a good move. When the GAA decided a couple of years back that they wanted two floodlit venues in every province, Laois stepped forward and were delighted when they were chosen, along with Navan, to be one of Leinster's two grounds to benefit.
It did come at a cost though - just short of €1m - but with a three-way even split of the finances, Laois got a good deal.
Leinster Council and Croke Park also paid a third of the price and with Laois granted a €250,000 grant by the National Lotto for the floodlights, their part of their bargain should be offset considerably.
"When we got the opportunity to get the lights in we went for it," says Laois GAA treasurer Tony Walsh. "If anyone in business was offered the opportunity to get a project worth €1m done and it would only cost them a third of that I think they would be foolish not to take it.
"In pure financial terms it mightn't make sense but we see it as something that will be there for all the generations to come.
"It will probably only be after we're long gone that the benefits of it will be really seen. It would have been a sin to refuse it and the reality now is that we have a state-of-the-art ground that we can be really proud of."
Another nice bonus for Laois is that the lights installed are the only ones in the country outside Croke Park that hurling can be televised under. While at the moment there is no night time home NHL game fixed, Laois' good geographical location could see a number of top hurling games being played there at some stage.
From a distance the lights look hugely impressive. They'll be even more so when they're turned on this Saturday.
Each of the four poles have 54 individual lights, all focussed on a different part of the field to ensure maximum exposure and minimal shadows. They will be controlled by computer and have three distinct settings: one - football game; two - televised football game and three - televised hurling game.
Auxiliary lighting has also been installed on the terraces, in the stand and all of the routes in and out of the ground while new turnstiles have also been put in.
Fears that the lights would develop into the proverbial white elephant, though, are being played down.
"The Leinster Council and Croke Park wouldn't be investing that amount of money if they don't intend playing games there," adds Walsh.
For now anyway, Laois will just hope that the football team can get the new era off to a winning start.
Although a home league tie against Kildare or Offaly would probably have been the ideal crowd puller for the Laois' first game under the new O'Moore Park floodlights, that it's Peter Ford's Galway team that's on their way should ensure one thing: a close match.
They have played in each of the last three seasons with two draws and a one-point win for Laois in 2005. Go back even further to the last clash before that, in 1997, and the records will show that they also drew.
Plans are afoot for an official ceremony on the night but other than that it will be similar to any other home game. Tickets will be available as usual outside the ground.


07 February

[The Real Laoislad]

If it's in the Leinster Express it must be true