The Croke Park residents faced down Garth Brooks and his horde of followers and, should it come to it, they appear determined to face down Conor McGregor and his army of fans.
McGregor has of course long trumpeted his dream of fighting in Croke Park. The new featherweight champion reiterated this dream at his post-fight press conference at the weekend.
But the chair of the most feared residents association in Christendom said that they will likely oppose any such event being fixed for Jones's Road.
Pat Gates told the Mirror:
I don’t think it would be something that we would be very keen to see coming to Croke Park.
Personally speaking, I think the fights are very brutal and violent. I’d be surprised if the GAA would endorse that sport.
Gates admitted that the residents would be concerned about the potential for 'rowdiness' in the crowd at a McGregor fight.
I don’t know the type of people that follow him and what sort of atmosphere there is in terms of rowdiness, in terms of public order, they are all the things that we would be seriously concerned about.
They would be my concerns and certainly it would be something that I would hate to see the GAA endorse.
Gates said he was not speaking for the residents but said he suspected that they would hostile to the idea of an MMA fight in Croke Park.
In this battle at least, the residents association would appear to have allies in the shape of the UFC itself, who might be reluctant to sacrifice the pay per view money they would lose by staging a fight that could only go out in the early evening in the US (and that's only eastern time).
