Kilrush multi-games use area ‘next piece of puzzle’ for sports facilities in Clare

THE development of John O’Sullivan Park, Lee’s Road is – arguably – the greatest community success story in County Clare over the last two decades. Thousands of people and various community groups and clubs use state-of-the art facility every week as a social outlet, from casual joggers traversing the woodland trails and the Saturday Park Run crew, to underage athletes taking to the field of play as they develop and hone their skills on the multi-use pitches.
Lee’s Road was officially opened in 2005 and is now of such importance to communities in Clare, it begs the question, what did we ever do without it, prior to the landmark development?
Tim Forde is General Manager of Sports & Recreation with Active Ennis and Active Kilrush. “I was brought in to overview indoor and outdoor facilities owned and managed by Clare County Council and in order to make the public aware of what facilities as a company we were responsible for we branded them Active Ennis Sports & Leisure and Active Kilrush Sports Complex.”
Tim is a Shannon native and he quips that the extent of his knowledge of sporting facilities in Ennis growing up “was that Tim Smyth Park had a soccer pitch, and that was it. Lee’s Road, which was dedicated to John O’Sullivan after he passed, is certainly a state-of-the-art facility that is second to none as far as we’re concerned.
“It is the jewel in the crown for sports and recreation in County Clare,” he says of Lee’s Road. Such is its success, it brings its own set of challenges. “It’s so popular it’s difficult to accommodate everybody. Anybody who has visited from other project management perspectives, looking at developing something similar, have been more than impressed and even some have been intimidated by how well it’s structured, and what it can do.”
John O’Sullivan Park contains a 130-acre triple loop woodland walk, a skateboard park, an exercise unit, three conventional grass pitches, an astroturf facility, synthetic running track and more. Active Ennis are currently trying to secure funding for resurfacing of the running track and installing additional facilities with our athletics offering as well.
Its success continues to be an inspiration for Tim and his team who are continually expanding the facilities available to the people of Clare. “We have been doing that, trying to develop facilities around the county. The astroturf pitch in Kilrush was a recent addition, we developed the integrated GAA pitch and two soccer pitches there. We resurfaced the Cloughleigh astroturf and the astroturf in Lee’s Road, all those projects, we had to go and fight for funding from the government in order to protect our assets. We recently put in place a new meeting room and dressing room facility in Tim Smyth Park which also hosts one of the country’s first what’s called ‘changing places’, it’s a disability friendly toilet and shower facility.”
The popular playground at Tim Smyth Park is a crucial outlet for children and to complement this, are a number of benches with integrated chess boards for people to play chess or checkers while their children are playing. Both Lee’s Road and Tim Smyth Park are recipients of Green Flags from An Taisce for Park Management and biodiversity and sustainability.
On the horizon, Tim divulges, is the imminent development of a MUGA (multi-use games area) for Active Kilrush to complement their outdoor facilities in West Clare. “The MUGA in Kilrush would be the next piece of the puzzle, along with changing rooms. You’re talking about a multi-use games area which could be used for basketball, tennis, volleyball, 5-a-side soccer, it’s a multiple use synthetic surface. We have one in Tim Smyth Park.”
On the indoor side Active Ennis boasts a 25m swimming pool, a kids training pool, a state-of-the-art gym, two saunas and two steam rooms, an aerobic studio and changing facilities. With the arrival of a new year, its role in the community is brought into sharp focus.
“As everyone knows, people make their new year’s resolutions now and at the moment we’re running our January promotion which is discounted 3-month membership for the gym and pool, or a 12-month membership discounted during the month of January,” says Tim. “Our demographic is from age 4 to 100 is what I would say, there’s something there for everybody. We runs programs such as lunch crunch; a teen gym participation programme; ‘My Time’ which is designed for active ages where we introduce people to various disciplines like yoga, Tai Chi, aerobics, aqua aerobics, a taster for them to do those things. We’re very involved with swim lesson programs for the public and for schools. We engage with a number of charities such as the Brothers of Charity, where they come here and do their physical activity in the gym or pool area. We give people fitness programmes and assessments for whatever they’re trying to achieve in the gym.”
Tim believes County Clare are leaders in the field of structure and facilities, and working closely with Clare Local Sports Partnership they endeavour to ensure “that everyone who is living in this county or visits, has the ability to be actively participating in physical activity when they’re here and encouraging that”.
“It’s all positive feedback. My job is probably the good news job in the County Council because it’s all positive, it’s about providing facilities, providing opportunities, and making sure people can safely and enjoyably be active and sustain activity long into their lives.”
To find out more about Active Ennis facilities and programmes, visit https://www.activeennis.ie/. For information on Active Kilrush Sports Complex, visit https://www.activekilrush.ie/.