The Mardyke is an area in Cork city

Cork (city)

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

, on the northern half of the long western part of the island formed by the two channels of the River Lee

River Lee (Ireland)

The Lee is a river in Ireland. It rises in the Shehy Mountains on the western border of County Cork and flows eastwards through Cork City, where it splits in two for a short distance, creating an island on which Cork's city centre is built, and empties into the Celtic Sea at Cork Harbour on the...

 near the city centre. It comprises several large open spaces. From east to west these are: Presentation Brothers College

Presentation Brothers College, Cork

Presentation Brothers College is a Catholic, boys-only, fee-paying college based in Cork, Ireland.- History :The college was founded by the Presentation Brothers in 1878, in the South Mall. Soon afterwards it moved to the Grand Parade and, in 1887, to the Western Road...

, a boy's secondary school; the cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 ground and pavilion of Cork County Club; Fitzgerald Park

FitzGerald Park

John FitzGerald Park is a Gaelic Athletic Association stadium in Kilmallock, County Limerick, Ireland. It is the home of Kilmallock GAA club and is one of the main grounds of Limerick GAA's Gaelic football and hurling teams....

, which includes Cork Public Museum; and the Athletic Grounds of University College Cork (UCC).

Athletic Grounds

The Athletic Grounds includes sport and fitness facilities used by UCC's sports clubs, the general student body, and members of the public. The Mardyke Arena, an indoor sports centre opened in December 2001, contains a gym

Gym

The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...

nasium, swimming pool

Swimming pool

A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...

 and other facilities. It is the home court of UCC Demons

UCC Demons

UCC Demons is a basketball club based in Cork, Ireland. The team playsin the Irish Superleague. They have won the Irish Superleague 6 times.Blue Demons were founded in 1966 and are the second most successful club in Irish basketball's history. They were originally based in Sundays Well, Cork City...

, a basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 team affiliated with the College though not limited to students.

Outdoors, there are floodlit

Floodlights (sport)

Floodlights are broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial lights often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is being held during low-light conditions....

 grass and all-weather pitches, used for soccer, rugby

University College Cork RFC

University College Cork Rugby Football Club is the rugby union team of University College Cork, based in Cork in the Republic of Ireland. They currently play in Division 1B of the AIB League. Founded in 1872, they originally played as Queen’s College Cork, as UCC was then known. Recent successes...

, Gaelic games

UCC GAA

UCC is a football and hurling club associated with University College Cork. UCC teams play in the Cork Senior Football Championship and Cork Senior Hurling Championship as well as the two main third-level competitions namely the Sigerson Cup in football and the Fitzgibbon Cup in hurling...

, and hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

. Kayakers

Kayaking

Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving across water. Kayaking and canoeing are also known as paddling. Kayaking is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle...

 train in the adjacent North channel of the River Lee. There is a tartan track

Tartan track

Tartan Track is the trademarked all-weather synthetic track surfacing made of polyurethane which is used for track and field competitions. It lets athletes compete in bad weather without serious performance loss and improves their results over other surfaces...

 for athletics

Athletics (track and field)

Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...

, where the Cork City Sports are held annually. The most notable performance came in the hammer throw

Hammer throw

The modern or Olympic hammer throw is an athletic throwing event where the object is to throw a heavy metal ball attached to a wire and handle. The name "hammer throw" is derived from older competitions where an actual sledge hammer was thrown...

 on 3 July 1984, when Yuriy Sedykh

Yuriy Sedykh

Yuriy Georgiyevich Sedykh is a retired Soviet/Ukrainian athlete who represented the USSR, specialising in the hammer throw....

 and Sergey Litvinov

Sergey Litvinov

Sergey Nikolaevich Litvinov is a hammer thrower who won two Olympic medals representing USSR. Additionally, he won the World Championships twice. Litvinov trained at the Armed Forces sports society in Rostov on Don...

 broke the world record six times in one evening.

The facilities were severely damaged when the River Lee burst its banks on 19 November 2009. The Mardyke Arena reopened on 15 February 2010 after repairs costing €4m.

The Mardyke is also home to Sundays Well Lawn Tennis Club.

Cricket

The Mardyke is the home ground of Cork County Cricket Club, who have played there since their formation in 1874. The ground has played host to three first-class

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 matches in 1947, 1961 and 1973. All three involved Ireland playing Scotland. It too fell victim to the floods of 2009.

Football History

The Mardyke was formerly the chief venue for football in Cork, and home to Cork United F.C.. A crowd of 18,000 watched a friendly match in 1939 between Ireland

Republic of Ireland national football team

The Republic of Ireland national football team represents Ireland in association football. It is run by the Football Association of Ireland and currently plays home fixtures at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, which opened in May 2010....

 and Hungary

Hungary national football team

The Hungary national football team represents Hungary in international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation....

, the first international played by the FAI

Football Association of Ireland

The Football Association of Ireland is the governing body for the sport of association football in the Republic of Ireland. It should not to be confused with the Irish Football Association , which is the organising body for the sport in Northern Ireland.For the full history, statistics and records...

 outside Dublin. Later, the Mardyke was superseded by Flower Lodge and then Turners Cross

Turners Cross (stadium)

Turners Cross is an all-seater football stadium located in and synonymous with the district of Turners Cross, Cork, Ireland. It is home to the Munster Football Association, and League of Ireland side Cork City FC....

.