Shannon Athletic Club have renewed their efforts to build a 400m running track.
Shannon Athletic Club (AC) has reapplied for permission for an Olympic running track with track facilities, an enlarged car park, floodlighting, and changing rooms after receiving €740 funding from Clare County Council under the Clare Local Area Grant Scheme 2025.
This is the first attempt made by the club to continue building the track since its suspension in 2020.
The Clare Local Area Grant Scheme encourages and assists community and voluntary groups to take part in the development of their communities and improve the quality-of-life experience in their areas. After being awarded €740, Shannon AC were able to hire a new planner and pick up where they left off on the 10-year-long attempt at building a 400m running track.
The sports club based in Tullyvarraga were originally conditionally granted permission for the development in 2015 and was further granted an extension of duration in 2020 for another five years (July 31st, 2025). However, according to planning consultant Andrew Hersey in November of this year, “This extension has now expired and the works are not completed on site”.
In 2020, it was noted in a planner’s report that “a portion of the development has commenced, namely a section of the running track. However, none of the buildings have commenced”.
The 3.130-hectare site to the south of Shannon Town currently contains the existing grounds of the athletics club, with a portacabin and floodlighting. Then Assistant Planner Garreth Ruane and Senior Executive Planner Brian McCarthy stated in a 2015 report, “Parts of the grounds have become dilapidated and do not appear to have been used in some time”.
The track is planned to surround a sports field containing a hammer and discus cage, pole vault, and shot put, with a long jump track just outside the track. The changing rooms would consist of a small toilet block, decorated with black powder-coated metal cladding and larch cladding details.
Shannon AC announced the continuation of the development in November, “It’s been months (ok… YEARS!) of hard work, fundraising, emails, meetings, coffees, more meetings, and a few grey hairs – but today is a massive milestone for Shannon Athletic Club and for the future of sport in our town. Just imagine… Kids sprinting their hearts out, future champions discovering new talents, international standard facilities right here in Shannon, a place where the whole community can walk, run, roll, throw and grow together… The future of Shannon starts here”.
Shannon AC was first established in 1969, but suspended operations in 2020. In 2023, a meeting was organised to assess the level of interest within the community and a new committee was formed to revive Shannon AC. Since last year, Shannon AC have been fighting to improve their facilities and numbers, now having over 235 members and counting.
In 2024, the club were able to reopen, and with the help of contractor John Crowley, they started working on improving their facilities: Clearing and levelling the grounds to ensure safety and usability, installing gravel layers at the entrance for better accessibility, constructing a secure wooden fence, building a perimeter jogging track, and upgrading and repositioning lighting fixtures.
As well as this, former Councillor Gerry Flynn assisted in securing funding to develop a brand-new, gravel-layered car park, accommodating approximately 40 cars. Shannon AC’s new Layout Plans now show the site’s carpark to facilitate a total of 107 car parking spaces, including three disability spaces, and four coach spaces.
The plans for this site date back as far as 2004, when the club were granted permission to construct “dressing room facilities, car parking, boundary fencing, entrance, floodlighting, to service proposed all-weather facilities incorporating a 400 metre running track, all all-weather training facilities, and all associated ancillary site works.”
As part of the seven conditions outlined in 2015, Shannon AC were told that all existing pipes encountered beneath the proposed structure should be encased in 100mm concrete, floodlighting shall be angled so that no light is emitted above the horizontal plane through the fitting, and that the lights should be fully installed within the lifetime of the permission as granted.
A decision will be made about this proposal by January 29th, and public submissions can be made up until January 8th.
