WELL IT was certainly a far cry from the way we were reared - a long haul indeed from Petey Cooney's cow shed in Coolera or the yard behind Quigley's pub in Cooloney which served then as our dressing rooms. There we were last Sunday in the "Premium Level" of the New Stand in Croke Park, clutching glasses of chilled Australian white wine, wearing Armani suits and talking of Euro currency and intervention as to the manner born. There was no danger at all that when the match was over one of Petey's cows would eat our shirts.

This writer's first visit to the Cusack Stand was in 1955 and the change in the old place since then is truly remarkable. We had travel led in Vincent Harte's Ford Prefect, six of us jammed together like biscuits in a tin.

Young men from our parish such as Bobby Nelson and Philpot Curran had cycled from Coolera to Croke Park a few years before to see the great Mayo team of the fifties win two All Ireland championships. Their pathfinding exploits on Raleigh All Steels bikes had inspired our trip.

It was my first excursion to the GAA's cathedral. Two semi finals were being replayed on the same day. Kerry beat Mayo and Dublin beat Cavan.

The names of Sheehy and Prendergast, Flanagan and Mongey, Langan and Carney, Heffernan and Ferguson, and Sherlock and Reilly graced the field.

Very little of the matches remain in the mind. The punishing trip was made more punishing by having to stand under the Cusack. As a slender 17 year old, I got only glimpses of the matches, but I was thrilled to be there, standing in the heaving, swaying crowd.

The Cusack Stand that we saw that day is no more. In its place, a building which has been described as the most beautiful in Dublin stands as a monument to the GAA and as a sentinel for the future, not alone of the games of the Gael but of the country as a whole.

It is no surprise then that there is a surge of pride when All Ireland day comes around and we can all show off. Now not only can we boast of games of intensity and passion, but also of a stadium well on its way to matching the action on the pitch.

Of course, we will always have the begrudgers. On my way to my palatial spot in the New Stand on Sunday, I passed a group of young men who were regaling each other with scarifying stories of how hard it was to get tickets.

It didn't seem to have dawned upon them that they were among the blessed who actually had tickets or that such difficulties were caused, not by the GAA itself, but by the popularity of the games themselves. By the time that the new Croke Park is finished, Ireland will have, probably, the most modern and beautiful stadium in Europe.

At then is holding up the continuation of the development? Well, apart from the fact that the GAA still has to stage its major games in the stadium and cannot therefore continue a building programme during the summer months, there is the planning process, which requires the GAA to do a bits and pieces development.

It appears that the planning authority is insisting that Hill 16 should be the second phase of the development - in spite of the fact that a few years ago the GAA spent £1 million rebuilding that terrace to modern safety standards.

The GAA wants to go ahead with the extension of the New Stand around by the Canal End, on to the Hogan and Nally Stands, until a horseshoe shape is completed, before moving on Hill 16.

Tragic events at Heysel and Hillsborough have, quite rightly, made safety consultants nervous about standing space in sports stadiums. It seems illogical, therefore, that Hill 16, a modern terrace, is exercising official minds instead of the Canal End, where the structure which was there when I first saw it in 1955 still stands. What's the problem?

It seems to me that what is needed is government intervention. The GAA has, in every parish, hamlet, village, town and city in the land, contributed vast amounts of time, energy, inspiration, know how and money to Irish life for more than 110 years.

The Government should knock a few heads together in Bord Pleanala. While it's at it, they should give another substantial grant and/or interest free loan to the GAA to complete the Croke Park project as soon as possible.

Government funds (my money and yours) to the extent of £5 million have already been provided for the Croke Park project. A similar or even greater sum would not go amiss at this stage.

Apart from providing a big number of jobs in the construction industry, this would advance the completion of the project swiftly and provide the entire people of this island with a stadium of which to be proud.