*Frank Healy Park.
FRANK HEALY PARK the home of the Clare District Soccer League (CDSL) is to be made into a full-size astro pitch.
Chairman of the CDSL, Donal Magee confirmed that they are “nearly” at a proposal stage with plans for the County Grounds.
In September 2024, the CDSL was allocated €410,656 to upgrade Frank Healy Park. The funding was issued under the Sports Capital and Equipment Programme. “It is embarrassing,” one of the county’s leading soccer coaches Denis Hynes stated in December at the CSSL AGM over the slow pace of the development.
Speaking at Monday’s AGM of the CDSL, Shannon’s Magee paid tribute to all clubs for their efforts in the season just gone but noted, “the weather played a big part in a lot of games being cancelled”.
Magee said Thomas Lineen of St Pat’s AFC who is also a senior project and site manager has provided help in bringing the grant funding to half a million euro “to make it a full-size astro. We have our solar panels and the lights, this pitch will become available to our clubs to train and play on, it will alleviate problems with Lees Rd and other facilities to make sure we have it available to use. We are nearly there at the proposal stage to go out”.
A bridging loan has brought the finance set aside to €500,000, Magee stated, “we haven’t had to borrow from anybody”.
Lineen told the AGM he was awaiting confirmation on the grants by the end of this week to verify the procurement process “and make sure we don’t make any blunder”.
There was a conscious decision by the Chairman not to invest as much in the County Grounds this season prior to any development. “We didn’t put much into the pitch and I apologise for that, I wasn’t going sinking more money into, I wasn’t taking €10,000 plus on it”. He added, “Christy (Ryan) has done an excellent job with it, I was trying to look at the big picture”.
Discussions have been held with the CSSL but they will not be partners in the development, the Chairman outlined. “We were in discussions with the CSSL, they were in the background but we don’t need their assistance. We made the facility available as much as we could for underage football, they’ve been using Lees Rd and spending quite a lot of money, we will give them a better rate and let them use our facilities”.
Better infrastructure will ease the fixture pressures experienced in the CDSL, Donal said while admitting he was not a big fan of astro-turf pitches. “Clashes will put more pressure on, the way to go is having better infrastructure and more astro pitches, I’m not excited about it because I prefer playing on grass, we need to get astros in the right areas”.
Donal informed the AGM that the CDSL will attempt to get another piece of land adjacent to Frank Healy Park, construct new changing rooms and a clubhouse. “This would be a centre of excellence to benefit each and every child in the county”. He continued, “We’ve had a lot of club members come to us saying pitches were unavailable”.
Paying tribute to his fellow officers, Magee said, “David O’Grady has done one year and is worn out, the fixtures secretary job is very difficult and we all have issues with facilities not being available”. Nigel Bradish’s exit as Registrar will be a “huge loss” while he praised Eoghan McNulty for doing “an outstanding” job as PRO and was hopeful he would stay involved despite not being elected at the AGM.
Flan Hehir had a big part to play in securing additional monies on grants, “we would be lost without him,” the Chairman said of the departing Assistant Secretary.
Efforts of continuing officers, Ronnie Pyne, Frank Gormley, Carolann McDonald, Jimmy Houlihan, Chris Harrington, Paul Fitzgerald and Paul Kennedy were all acknowledged by the Chairman.
Work of the media in promoting the game was also applauded by Magee. “I’d like to thank Natasha (Barton), Joe (Buckley), Eugene (McCafferty) for the photography and coming to all the Cup finals, thank you to Páraic (McMahon), Derek (Dormer) and Derrick (Lynch) for the promotion of the CDSL through The Clare Echo and Clare FM”. The contribution of sponsors was also acknowledged by the Chairman.
“Everybody is working hard with their clubs, tonight we’re losing three officers, we need a fixtures secretary, registrar, Eoghan has said he might stay on, we all need extra help, if anybody is available come on board and give a hand especially at end of season with presentations,” he added.
He was hopeful the Premier Division would become even more competitive and that he was honoured to serve in the role of Chairman. “I will stay on for one more year, it has been a great honour and privilege to represent our league, a terrific league, I’m very proud to say I’m from Clare and representing the league, we’ve always boxed above our weight, the Premier League was tighter and I’d like to see that again, go back twenty years ago and we had six clubs competing, I’d like to see that return”.
“Our main job is to promote and encourage our game which is difficult becauser the GAA is very strong, I’m respectful of the rural clubs who have a strong pool, we can do a bit more. Hopefully I can push on a bit more with the committee, we’ll get our new pitch, we are there, if there is something we can do, we’ll do our bit to help,” he continued.
Bernard Kilmartin of Shannon Hibs stated during the meeting that it was “not fair on lads” to be playing games on Bank Holiday Mondays “especially the May Bank Holiday. Having games on a long weekend, your whole weekend is taken up with it”. “In a perfect world it wouldn’t happen, sometimes games are caught up,” the Chairman advised to which Kilmartin suggested, “have it of a Friday evening instead of a Bank Holiday Monday”.
Games will be facilitated on Thursdays and Fridays at Frank Healy Park once the astro is up and running, Magee stated “to alleviate pressure on referees and facilities. The astro will hopefully take a lot of pressure off games and we can use as much as we can”.
