And, tomorrow they could realise that dream when representatives of the club, the FAI, Bord na gCon and a number of other organisations will make a presentation to a specially-convened meeting of Limerick City Council which could result in the Super Blues returning to the Market’s Field 25 years after senior football in the city moved away from the ground which many still consider its spiritual home.
Club CEO Andrew Mawhinney reckons that a move away from Jackman Park and back to the Market’s Field could mean a massive difference to Limerick FC. He could be right or he may have over-estimated the emotion the Limerick soccer fraternity have attached to that famous old ground. Then again should anyone ever make the mistake of under-estimating the affection people have for a sporting venue?
In March 1988 a woman representing Universal Studios knocked on Don Lansing’s door in Dyersville, Iowa before explaining to him that she was interested in using his farm for a movie. He couldn’t believe his ears.
That summer Don Lansing’s corn was converted into a baseball field for the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ - the book upon which the movie is based is about an Iowa farmer who cuts a baseball diamond out of his cornfield so that the ghosts of the disgraced 1919 Chicago White Sox can come back to play ball.
As the movie ends, the camera pulls away into the night sky to reveal a line of car lights backed up for miles, all of them coming to see the field. Thing is they’re still coming - ‘Field of Dreams’ struck such a chord with the American consciousness that more than 50,000 visit the site every year. This is life imitating art, imitating life.
Some people treat the place as a shrine, content to touch the bases reverently. Others come to play ball with whoever happens to be around.
The Lansing’s don’t charge anyone for the privilege of visiting this baseball shine, they ask only for donations. Dreams, they think, should be free. Extraordinary.
Brian McDonnell
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