Morton Stadium
Dublin (Santry), Dublin, Ireland
Morton Stadium, Dublin (Santry), Ireland — opened 1958, 4 rugby league games hosted, home of No rugby league club has ever been based here -- it is fundamentally Ireland's national athletics venue (home to Clonliffe Harriers) and has also hosted several football clubs (Shamrock Rovers 1999-2001, Dublin City, Drumcondra, Shelbourne Ladies, Raheny United, Sporting Fingal). For rugby league, it has hosted the Ireland national team for occasional international fixtures only, not as any club's home ground. Now managed by Dublin City University as the National Athletics Stadium..
Ground facts
| Opened | 1958 (A general athletics-venue opening date, not rugby-league-specific -- rugby league did not arrive until 1962. Renamed "Morton Stadium" in the early 1990s (exact year not pinned down by any source) after Billy Morton, the athletics administrator who initiated the original track; previously known simply as the athletics ground/track built for Clonliffe Harriers. Capacity is genuinely disputed within Wikipedia's own article: the infobox states 8,800 (800 seated), while the same article's body text separately states "a small covered stand with 800 seats and three sides of open terracing, bringing the total capacity up to 4,000" -- independently re-confirmed via direct re-fetch of the Wikipedia article, which shows both figures verbatim. Both are disclosed rather than one being silently picked; the lower 4,000 figure is also consistent with the venue's own recorded top rugby league crowd.) |
| Home club | No rugby league club has ever been based here -- it is fundamentally Ireland's national athletics venue (home to Clonliffe Harriers) and has also hosted several football clubs (Shamrock Rovers 1999-2001, Dublin City, Drumcondra, Shelbourne Ladies, Raheny United, Sporting Fingal). For rugby league, it has hosted the Ireland national team for occasional international fixtures only, not as any club's home ground. Now managed by Dublin City University as the National Athletics Stadium. |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 4 |
| Top recorded crowd | 4,000 |
| Capacity | Disputed -- see opened_caveat. Commonly cited at 4,000; Wikipedia's infobox separately states 8,800 (800 seated). |
| Floodlights installed | Not confirmed in any source found. |
| Surface | A cinder athletics track originally (1958); resurfaced with a tartan (synthetic all-weather) track in 1978; re-laid with a Mondo surface in late 2010 alongside a new indoor 60m track -- an athletics track surface, not a dedicated rugby/football pitch, so rugby league matches there were played on or around an athletics infield. |
| First rugby league match | 27 May 1962 -- Dublin Hospital Cup Final: Huddersfield 20 def Widnes 28 (crowd 4,000, the venue's top recorded rugby league crowd) |
| Last rugby league match | 9 Nov 2019 -- European Qualifiers A, Game 3: Ireland 25 def Italy 4 |
| Years used | 1962–2019 |
| Location | Dublin (Santry), Dublin |
Name history
- unnamed athletics ground / Santry Stadium — 1958-early 1990s
- Morton Stadium — early 1990s-present, also informally "National Athletics Stadium"
Rugby league history
Overwhelmingly known for athletics rather than rugby league: on 6 August 1958, the year it opened, Australian Herb Elliott set a world record for the mile (3:54.5) here, in the first race where five runners broke four minutes for the mile. It regularly hosts the "Morton Games" international athletics meeting and Irish National Senior Athletics Championships, and hosted 2003 Special Olympics World Games athletics events. The venue's four rugby league matches are a minor footnote: the 1962 Dublin Hospital Cup Final (Huddersfield vs Widnes) was effectively an English rugby league cup final exported to Dublin; the 2018-2019 fixtures were low-key Ireland national team European Championship and European Qualifiers matches with modest crowds (200-250).
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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