RORY Gallagher sees no reason why the city of Belfast cannot develop into a Dublin-type superpower in the not-too-distant future, with the right levels of investment from the GAA
Gallagher, whose Donegal side face Antrim in next weekend's Ulster Senior Football Championship quarter-final, has experience of playing in both cities and thinks it's time more as much attention was paid to the northern city as the capital.
“Belfast definitely does not have the facilities that Dublin has,'' says Gallagher.
“Having played in both cities and witnessed at first hand the limited facilities which St Gall's had, I think that's obviously a huge factor.
“We won an All-Ireland club title and there was never any floodlights. The showers got damaged for a period and we just didn’t shower.
''But it did not bother us. We trained and we had a great team spirit among ourselves and that was priceless and I learned some lessons there.
“But the clubs out in the country, like Cargin, Creggan and Portglenone had much better facilities.
“The city is more expensive for the land and the areas they are living in, they don’t have the finance.
“Dublin is miles ahead in terms of facilities”.
Gallagher added: ''The club scene in Antrim is pretty strong but for some reason as a county they have never united.
“And not having Casement Park as a home venue is a big blow”.
So if the GAA put the same 10-year investment plan into Belfast then could Belfast and Antrim rise?
“Yes. Belfast definitely needs more investment for floodlit venues, all-weather pitches for kids to play football and hurling, and the hurlers need to be included in this also.
“I don’t believe that Belfast has got the support that Dublin has from Croke Park.''
And a functioning Casement Park would be a huge bonus too.
“They really need that as a home venue. It would be a great psychological boost.
''But more than that, they need more help with the clubs, which need better facilities for the amount of young kids they have coming through.''
When asked about the recent impasse between the Antrim players and the county board, he said: “That was a strong statement from 34 players against whatever issue they perceived and that is a sign of unity from the players.
“Antrim are re-building their team.They came out of Division Four last year with a fairly experienced team, some players and others from 2010-2012, but they have lost Michael McCann, Kevin Niblock and Justin Crozier.
“Kevin O’Boyle hasn’t played this year, Bam Neeson is not playing and those are players that have served them well over the years.
“Antrim did not perform as well as they would have liked in the Championship.
“I don’t think they were overly concerned about losing them as I think the county felt they needed to bring in new, more athletic players.
“They would feel that they were unlucky not to survive in Division Three as they missed a penalty in the last minute of their match against Armagh that would have got them over the line and then Longford got a last minute equaliser”.
One player who Gallagher will be very wary of next week is CJ McGourty, who he rates very highly.
“He is unbelievably talented, has a great gift for finding space, a lovely skill set and is a great finisher.
“He has been in and out of it for a number of years and has travelled the world.
“They are a very talented family, with his older brothers Kevin and Kieran, with whom I played for St Gall's.
‘They were unique and they are very passionate about club football and when he decided to go back to county football means that he will be a big threat to Donegal.''
