There were not enough gardaí present at Lansdowne Road stadium in Dublin to prevent a riot from breaking out during a notorious abandoned friendly match against England 30 years ago, according to newly released records.
The fixture on February 15th 1995 had to be stopped after 27 minutes when some English fans, located in the upper section of the west stand, tore up seats and fittings and threw them at the people below.
The Republic of Ireland were leading 1-0 in the friendly match when the unrest broke out.
More than 20 people were injured and taken to hospital, some with head injuries. Around 40 people were arrested.
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Many of the hooligans involved in the violence were later confirmed to have been involved in the far-right organisation Combat 18. The violent scenes were immediately condemned by Ireland manager Jack Charlton, England manager Terry Venables and many politicians.
The government appointed former chief justice Thomas Finlay to oversee a review into what happened on the night in question.
Records released as part of the State Papers shed light on internal government conversations about the incident.
[ Night of shame when English hooliganism showed its hand at Lansdowne RoadOpens in new window ]
A memo to cabinet, dated April 4th 1995, outlined the findings of the Finlay report. Ministers were told “the Garda reserve and public order units in the stadium were insufficient” and “insufficient meetings were arranged between individual groups of stewards or security men and Garda personnel”.
The documents also note certain information “conveyed in the pre-match meetings between the gardaí and the FAI were not clearly understood or remembered in the absence of written confirmation”.
“Information received from the English national criminal intelligence service by the Garda Siochána was not sufficiently conveyed to officials of the FAI,” the file added.
Ministers were told the violence was “targeted, planned and intended” and “the segregation of English fans was inadequate”.
The Finlay report recommended limiting the number of away fans allowed at future matches to less than 10 per cent and to move their seats to “a portion of the north end of the lower deck of the east stand”.
Changing the location of away fans in the stadium was subsequently introduced and is largely in place in the rebuilt Aviva Stadium on the same site to this day.
