The Gaelic Athletic Association, in an historic move, has voted in favour of temporarily allowing non-Gaelic sports to be played at Croke Park in Dublin.

The decision puts an end to a 100-year ban on sports other than traditional Gaelic sports – such as hurling and Gaelic football – being hosted at the 80,000-capacity stadium.

The temporary suspension of the controversial Rule 42 has been brought in because the city’s other main sporting arena, Lansdowne Road, is due to undergo major redevelopment in the next two to three years, meaning Irish rugby and football fixtures would have had to be played outside of Dublin – probably at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The vote, which was passed by 227 votes to 97, carries great symbolic significance, as it was at Croke Park that British militia opened fire on a Gaelic football crowd in 1920, killing 12 spectators and one player. The subsequent backlash saw the strict banning of all non-Gaelic sport at the venue.

It is understood that the venue will host rugby and football from 2007, when work at Lansdowne Road is expected to start.