Carrigaline GAA's major development plan will cater for thriving club

THE largest club in the largest town in the county is planning its largest ever development plan with a 10-year project to further enhance the club and make it into one of the most progressive GAA units in the county.

Carrigaline GAA Club has more than 1,000 playing members from academy to adults and boasts three full sizes pitches.

The newest pitch was opened in 2015, but such is the demand for space, the club has decided to lay two junior-sized pitches, a ball wall, new dressing rooms, a gym, additional lights on the second pitch and an upgrade and additional car parking spaces. A 200-seater stand is included in the ambitious 10-year plan.

Club sponsor Stephen McCarthy of Astra Construction, based in Carrigaline, was on hand recently to turn the first sod of the development of the two new 110m x 50m pitches, watched by club committee members including club president Pat Dineen; chairman Jim Landy ; Pat Barry, playing section; project manager, Kevin O’Driscoll; chairman of camogie club, Harry O’Sullivan; and Declan Fitzgerald, chairman of Carrigaline Ladies Football Club which will be situated behind the club’s second pitch.

ONE-CLUB ETHOS

The four acres of land were acquired by the Cork County Council under a 35-year sporting lease and will be developed by Peter Murphy Contractors, from Carrigaline, with the pitch being laid by Inniscarra-based Nagle Sports Turf Pitch Specialists.

Work has begun on clearing the site for the pitches with the grass expected to be laid early this month, but it will be at least another 12 months before matches can be played on them.

Project manager Kevin O’Driscoll remarked that Carrigaline has a ‘one club ethos’ where the men’s, ladies football, and camogie all work together and share the facilities in the club which is situated just outside Carrigaline on the Crosshaven Road.

The club is one of the oldest in the county, if not the country, having been formed in the early days of the GAA in 1884. They currently have teams in the premier senior football and premier intermediate hurling grades and have won numerous county titles in all grades and ages throughout the years, including more recently the intermediate hurling title in 2008, and the intermediate football in 2009, followed by the premier intermediate football championship title in 2015.

The ladies football and camogie sections have also achieved county success having recently won the junior C crown and the intermediate trophy in 2013.

Stephen McCarthy has been a loyal supporter of the club for many years and has been at the heart of the development of Carrigaline into what is the largest town in the county with a population of close to 20,000.

His Janeville development on the entrance to the town from Shannon Park was one of the largest housing developments in the country and he was delighted to be associated with such an ambitious project.