Louth GAA nominated Inniskeen to stage their home All-Ireland senior football championship encounter against Meath as they believe it is the most suitable venue in the region to host the fixture.
It means Ger Brennan’s side will play two of their three round-robin games in Monaghan as the Farney County have home advantage against Louth in the second round of matches.
The Wee County must play their opening round home match outside Louth as there is currently no suitable venue in the county capable of catering for the game’s expected attendance, so they will instead hop across the border to play it in Monaghan on the weekend of May 25th-26th.
St Mary’s in Ardee has been used by Louth for league games in recent years, but the capacity is limited to around 2,800.
A health and safety report is being finalised in relation to the capacity for Inniskeen Grattans, but it is expected to fall between 7,000 and 7,500, so the fixture is likely to be a sell-out.
“We wanted to try keep the game as local as possible and we felt Inniskeen was a good fit in that regard,” said Louth secretary Bob Doheny.
Inniskeen is only 18 kilometres from Ardee and just 16 kilometres from Dundalk, while Louth midfielder Tommy Durnin currently plays his club football for Inniskeen Grattans.
“There would be a good relationship with Inniskeen already, so it felt like the most appropriate venue” added Doheny.
As the county continues to wait for its new ground in Dundalk to be constructed, the Louth footballers have regularly selected Páirc Tailteann in Navan as a home venue for championship matches, including for last year’s All-Ireland round-robin fixture against Cork.
But with Louth and Meath both fancying their chances of advancing from Group Four, there was no way the Wee County would willingly provide their neighbours a gift by nominating Navan as the venue to play Colm O’Rourke’s side.
Louth’s second fixture is away to Monaghan before playing Kerry in a neutral venue in their last group game.
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