Brian O'Driscoll powering down towards the Hill; Robbie Keane turning somersaults at the Canal End; games of attrition on Wednesday nights in the winter under lights; and of course, summer Sundays, the lifeblood of Croke Park.

It was summer Sundays that made it the magnificent stadium it is today; summer Sundays that made all the rest possible. On the day after Brian Dooher raised the Sam Maguire in the Hogan Stand last year and reduced 82,000 people to tears, concert promoters MCD were in taking measurements for this year's concert programme.

Arsenal were over as well, taking notes and inspiration for their own new field of dreams. And the FAI and the IRFU have inspected the corporate suites, sorting out the small print that will ensure that 2007 is the busiest year in more than a century.

Suddenly, the shrewish criticism of the GAA's acceptance of Lottery funds to rebuild their headquarters is silent. Suddenly, Croke Park is a public amenity, the GAA its benign park keeper. Ball games permitted, and then some.

Goose pimples guaranteed.

Before it was Croke Park, it was the City and Suburban Racecourse, known locally as Jones's Road. Built in 1870 and owned by businessman Maurice Butterly, the racecourse had, by the early 20th century, fallen almost into disuse.

Its best client was the GAA, who'd first used Jones's Road in 1891 for an athletics meeting and who'd rented the ground for its All Ireland finals since 1903. In 1908, when Butterly died, Frank Dineen, a former GAA president and secretary, bought the almost derelict site for £3,250 with a view to securing it for the association.

Curiously, the fledgling GAA wasn't as far-sighted as Dineen.

In 1905, three years after the death of Archbishop Croke . . . a founder and first patron of the GAA . . . Central Council established a memorial fund in his name without any clear intent on how to spend it. Many favoured a statue in Thurles; others, like Dineen, believed a ground of their own was more important.

By 1912, the fund still had less than £300 in it . . . almost half of which had come from US benefactors. To swell the coffers, the association organised an Archbishop Croke Memorial Tournament the following summer and thanks to an unprecedented level of public interest in the final between Louth and Kerry, increased their fund to £2,400.

Two groups then emerged within Central Council. The first favoured purchasing Dineen's ground and naming it for Archbishop Croke. The second was still stuck on the statue in Thurles. Dineen, who had struggled with a massive bank loan and had put terraces around the pitch since, outlined an ambitious plan to build a massive stadium on the ground. By October 1913, he'd convinced the majority. Three days before Christmas, Jones's Road changed ownership for £3,625 and the GAA's future headquarters was secure.

Volumes of history have been written there since, but its first chapter remains its darkest. On 21 November 1920, during the All Ireland final, an armed group of Black and Tans invaded the pitch and shot dead 13 spectators (including two children) and one footballer . . . a direct reprisal for the massacre by Michael Collins's agents of a number of British officers the night before (Collins was known to frequent Croke Park), effectively bringing the War of Independence towards its conclusion. It is believed that the lack of IRA men on the casualty list led Lloyd George to hasten secret talks leading to a truce six months later.

The establishment of the Free State injected new life into Croke Park. The first modern Tailteann Games were held there in 1924. A rodeo came hard on their heels. Two years later, the sole stand at the ground was named after Michael Hogan, the player shot dead on Bloody Sunday. By the early 1930s, the swelling crowds at the big games forced the GAA to invest in an ambitious new stand. The Cusack Stand, demolished in 1993, set new standards in stadium engineering. It was followed, in 1950, by the Canal End, and two years later by the Nally Stand. The rebuilt Hogan Stand opened in 1959.

The capacity of the ground was 85,000, but back then, capacity and reality rarely met. The 1961 All Ireland Final between Down and Offaly drew a crowd of 90,556 . . . an attendance record that will never be beaten in these postHillsborough times.

There were other occasions of huge interest. Athletics meetings had been phased out at the end of the 1920s, but not before Otto Pelzer set a world 1,500m record there in 1926.

The Patrician Year Mass was held in 1961. Muhammad Ali fought there a decade later and defeated Al "Blue" Lewis. In 1984, the first of the International Rules series came to Croke Park and a year later U2 opened the first rock concert in the park with the words "the Jacks are back".

When the stadium rebuilding plan was unveiled in 1990, the fingerprints of the Jacks were all over the plans. After much debate, it was decided to leave the Dublin fans' beloved Hill 16 in place. Aesthetically, many believe it was a mistake . . . the only one the GAA has made in the redevelopment.

The new stadium is horseshoe shaped instead of a perfect oblong, its perfect lines brutally interrupted by an ugly nod towards sentimentality.

But it will be a handy place to keep the English if we draw them in the European Championships. Peter McKenna, stadium director, has already considered the security implications of handing his baby over to the FAI and the IRFU and is enthusiastic at the prospect.

Like the rest of us, he agrees that the new Croke Park has surpassed all expectation, and pays tribute to Peter Quinn, the former GAA president who dreamed the dream . . . "and a brilliant team, most of whom, you must remember, worked for nothing. You have to reflect on 11 years . . . we've only been in a Celtic Tiger economy for seven years, so it wasn't the thing to do. It was very brave."

The redevelopment of the jewel in the GAA's crown might be finished, but for McKenna and his team, a whole new chapter is opening up. Attendance last year was up 60% on five years ago and new challenges lie ahead. Not a bad place to come to work, all told. "Genuinely, if you really like a sport, there's no job like it. No job as good. It's a cathedral. Sometimes, you'd be moved to tears."

Croke Park Occupation: Theatre of Dreams Born: As the City and Suburban Racecourse, 1870;

reborn as Croke Memorial Park, 1913; rebuilt as world class facility 1993-2003.

Married: To the GAA, in spite of current suitors In the news: The GAA has completed the deal with the IRFU and FAI, clearing the way for soccer and rugby games next year