{"id":168209,"date":"2025-09-25T10:53:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/168209\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T10:53:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:53:18","slug":"ireland-is-home-turf-for-rooney-family-as-steelers-lead-nfl-into-dublin-game-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/168209\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland is home turf for Rooney family as Steelers lead NFL into Dublin game \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUBLIN (AP) \u2014 No trip to Newry was complete for the late Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Daniel M. Rooney until he stopped by the Whitegates community center that he helped get off the ground in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways visited for half an hour for a cup of tea with the people,\u201d recalled local businessman Feargal McCormack. \u201cHe loved a cup of tea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The kettle will be warm when the Rooneys visit Newry on Thursday before crossing the border \u2014 Northern Ireland is part of the U.K. \u2014 into the Republic of Ireland for the Steelers\u2019 game against the Minnesota Vikings at Croke Park in Dublin.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFILE – Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 24, 2009, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on his nomination.. (AP Photo\/Charles Dharapak, file)<\/p>\n

Indeed, Sunday\u2019s showdown \u2014 Ireland\u2019s first time hosting a regular-season NFL game \u2014 represents a Rooney homecoming, technically in two countries.<\/p>\n

The family traces its roots to Newry, a small town located 5 miles from the border. Steelers President Art Rooney II is scheduled to be there for an event with the Ireland Funds, a philanthropic organization that his father cofounded more than 30 years before becoming U.S. ambassador to Ireland in 2009.<\/p>\n

There was little doubt about which team would lead the NFL into the Emerald Isle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rooney family name carries a tremendous amount of weight, so when they initially expressed an interest in playing a game in Ireland, it meant that a lot of people sat up and took notice,\u201d said Henry Hodgson, general manager of the NFL UK and Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the connections and the doors that the Rooney family name opens, because they\u2019ve given so much back to Ireland, they certainly helped make this happen,\u201d Hodgson said.<\/p>\n

From the Steel City to building bridges<\/p>\n

The Steelers were dominating the NFL in the mid-1970s \u2014 winning back-to-back Super Bowls in \u201975 and \u201976 \u2014 when Daniel Rooney turned his attention to the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. He cofounded the Ireland Funds, which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to promote peace.<\/p>\n

Rooney also cofounded the Newry-Pittsburgh Partnership in 1990 to boost business and educational exchanges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that he was coming to Newry and that he was encouraging delegations to come \u2014 the confidence he gave in those very early years was very significant to ultimately the success which has followed,\u201d said McCormack, a Rooney family friend and senior partner at accounting firm AAB.<\/p>\n

McCormack compiled the Rooney family ancestry: Steelers founder Arthur J. Rooney\u2019s great-grandfather emigrated from Newry around 1846.<\/p>\n

As U.S. ambassador to Ireland, Daniel Rooney made it a point to visit \u201call 32 counties\u201d in Ireland \u2014 that\u2019s 26 in the Republic and six in the North.<\/p>\n

And of course, have a cup of tea in each.<\/p>\n

Belfast to Dublin<\/p>\n

Under the NFL\u2019s global markets program, the Steelers hold league-granted rights on the \u201cisland of Ireland.\u201d They can sign commercial deals and hold fan events, all part of the league\u2019s aggressive international growth efforts.<\/p>\n

Dan Rooney, Steelers vice president of business development and strategy, has been the team\u2019s quarterback for growth in Ireland and Northern Ireland. He\u2019ll be in Belfast on Thursday with Steelers greats Jerome Bettis and Ike Taylor for a flag football clinic.<\/p>\n

The Steelers have teamed up with the Gaelic Athletic Association, which owns Croke Park, to help grow its fan base in Ireland.<\/p>\n

One regret: Not playing in Dublin sooner<\/p>\n

The former ambassador, who died in 2017, had hoped to bring a regular-season game earlier. Croke Park lobbied to get one in 2013 but instead the league added a second London game that year \u2014 the Steelers played one of them, losing to the Vikings 34-27.<\/p>\n

Art Rooney noted at the time that his father had been \u201cpushing to have a game in Dublin.\u201d In 1997, the Steelers beat the Chicago Bears 30-17 in a preseason game at Croke Park.<\/p>\n

Croke Park connections<\/p>\n

A fan of Gaelic games, Daniel Rooney was a frequent visitor to Croke Park. The GAA says Rooney also played a quiet role in the redevelopment of Ireland\u2019s biggest stadium by encouraging designers to make it more multifunctional.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe has to be acknowledged on that regard,\u201d GAA head of communications Alan Milton said.<\/p>\n

Mike Tomlin has always acknowledged his respect for the late ambassador.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly will be thinking a lot about him when we\u2019re there,\u201d the Steelers head coach said Tuesday. \u201cYou talk about a guy that certainly had a lot of passion for Ireland. \u2026 I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be smiling down at us this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBLIN (AP) \u2014 No trip to Newry was complete for the late Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Daniel M. Rooney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-168209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}