Overcrowding at Clones

[Armaghtothebone]

I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I've always gotten seat tickets for Clones, but if the stuff on the Armagh v Fermanagh Ulster Final thread is true( and I do'nt doubt the honesty of the posters) then it is very very serious.
One of the wonderful things about our games is that you can take all the familly.We might slag each other rotten on here and at work/school/pub/wherever but God forbid we had an incident like Hillsborough/Bradford/Ibrox, no matter who was invloved.

I suspect that the powers that be in the GAA read or are made aware of these forums.

A Message to them

GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER. 

[Maguire01]

Is it not just generally the case that people stand close to the entrance/exits rather than move along, with one part of the hill being too full and another part not full?

[Armaghtothebone]

Is it not just generally the case that people stand close to the entrance/exits rather than move along, with one part of the hill being too full and another part not full?

With all due respect Maguire01 not interested in reasons, only potential outcomes. There are enough stewards to make sure the crowd is evenly spread.

Just a thought...would we have the largest "standing crowds" in the country?

If so I would have thought that the "Duty of Care" on the GAA and its appointed agents would have been monumentally high. I suspect that any steward who threatens a paying spectator with a line such as "Stop causing trouble" when a complaint is made, is walking headlong into a very dangerous legal minefield.

[ExiledGael]

All the tickets for the the Hill on Sunday were not similar. Had both kinds in my own group and some said the Hill, others said the Hill Terrace (think those originated from Ticketmaster). This confused the shit out of the stewards at the weekend and led to people being redirected wrongly.
Simply terrible organisation and a large degree of ignorance from the stewards.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

The hill has been opened for over ten years and full dozens of times and I've never heard of any injuries of any kind. I'd say that no one was in any serious danger at any point on Sunday.

[Maguire01]

If so I would have thought that the "Duty of Care" on the GAA and its appointed agents would have been monumentally high. I suspect that any steward who threatens a paying spectator with a line such as "Stop causing trouble" when a complaint is made, is walking headlong into a very dangerous legal minefield.

I sometimes wonder what way a complaint is made for a steward to react like that. Fair enough, i'm sure some stewards are knobs, reflecting the general population, but to get a reaction such as 'stop causing trouble', or something to that effect, i'd wonder what way the complaint was posed in the first place.

[Tankie]

I'm sure O'Neill has a few suggestions on how to make sure over crowding wouldnt happen again! 

[illdecide]

I don't care how long there has been matches in clones or how many people have been to them the simple fact of the matter is they are breaking the law (north & south) because the exits that are used for entry and exits are continuously blocked with standing spectators as there is no room for them on the terrace. As someone mentioned it will not be long before something happens, can u imagine if a serious row broke out what would happen to the smaller kids in the crowd

[blasmere]

I might be wrong here but I thought I had heard of someone breaking a leg on the hill at one Ulster final on a very wet day, it was quite a while ago, sometime in the early 90's, perhaps at the Derry v Donegal final in 93.

[timmyot501]

I was standing at the back of one of the sections against the rail.  Some of the problem before the game was that people were sitting on the steps as the crowd got bigger.  This led  to stewards thinking our section was full yet when the people stood up just before the throw in there was plenty of room.  The stewards had no option but to move the people onto the next section.  However the amount of people who ignored the stewards too was quite large.  They just carried on as if the steward wasn't there. Its a thankless job.

[Hardy]

You have a point, Maguire, though stewards should be trained to act responsibly and to a procedure, no matter how they are addressed. However, in the case I mentioned, though I wasn't there, I'm assured the approaches to both the steward and the blazered official (who turns out to have been a high official in the Ulster Council) were courteous.

Fionntamhnach, who used to post here, used to steward at Clones, I think. I don't know if he's still around, but I'd be interested to hear from him or anyone else who knows, what training and preparation stewards are given and what procedures they operate to, particularly health and safety procedures in the event of potentially dangerous incidents.

[meathie]

as far as I remember not much training at all. A friend of mine used to do stewart at Crokers, I dont remember a huge amount of preparation 

[Maguire01]

I might be wrong here but I thought I had heard of someone breaking a leg on the hill at one Ulster final on a very wet day, it was quite a while ago, sometime in the early 90's, perhaps at the Derry v Donegal final in 93.

Back in the pre-terrace days when the hill was a grass bank and turned into Woodstock/Glastonbury when it rained, most likely.

[southdown]

The above post seems accurate, if memory serves me correctly when Down played Tyrone in the '94 Ulster Final it was in the "new look" Clones.

[corn02]

Down v Armagh was very bad, especially up tpwarsd the East terrace end.


Worst crowding I have ever seen at at GAA match was the Hill during the 03 final. I know it would have been same amount of tickets as always, but our section was jammed.