Football

Work begins on £500,000 upgrade to Tír na nÓg

&Eacute;amon McCarron of the DSD, Dessie Hendeson and Brian Mallon are pictured as work begins on T&iacute;r na n&Oacute;g GAC's new changing-rooms in Portadown <br />Picture: Bill Smyth
Éamon McCarron of the DSD, Dessie Hendeson and Brian Mallon are pictured as work begins on Tír na nÓg GAC's new changing-rooms in Portadown
Picture: Bill Smyth
Éamon McCarron of the DSD, Dessie Hendeson and Brian Mallon are pictured as work begins on Tír na nÓg GAC's new changing-rooms in Portadown
Picture: Bill Smyth

WORK is underway on a new £545,000 changing-room complex at Tír na nÓg GAC in Portadown, which has been funded by the Department of Social Development.

The new facilities represent a radical facelift for the Ballyoran Park club because, after years of preparing for games in dingy temporary buildings, players and officials can now look forward to using purpose-built modern facilities.

The complex will include four changing rooms - two male and two female - a referees’ changing room, first aid room, toilets and a storeroom and club development officer Michael Lavery explained the new addition is the latest instalment in an ongoing improvement process that included the completion of an outdoor gym last year.

“Three years ago, we sat down and looked at exactly what we needed and the main thing was changing-rooms,” he said.

“The changing-rooms always have been a problem because teams coming to play us are always skipped out when they arrive because they don’t want to use them - even some of our own kids didn’t like going into them. We approached neighbourhood renewal, which is for social deprivation, and that’s how we were able to access the funding.

“It was a two-year process going through the funding and, because we wanted half-a-million, it had to go before their economics branch, so there were a lot of criteria to satisfy before we accessed the money. It’s the only capital funding grant that is operating in this area this year.”

From U6 to minor level, the county Armagh club has around 380 kids playing Gaelic football and Lavery is confident the investment will allow the club to continue to expand and encourage more local people to play Gaelic games.

“Upgrading the facilities will only help establish the games,” he said.

“We held onto our status as a senior club and these things go hand-in-hand to push Gaelic games in the area. We would pride ourselves as being the biggest youth organisation in this area because we have all the groups that run in our parish here like scouts and youth clubs.

“The club has won Irish News awards over the last two years and we work very closely with the schools in the area and foreign nationals - we run a programme to introduce them into the club and get them playing Gaelic games.”

While funding isn’t exactly growing on trees, Lavery says there is money out there if clubs know where to look for it and how to apply for it.

“It’s about getting out there and knocking on doors,” he said.

“It’s a lot of hard work, but it’ll be worth it. You need to be aware what sort of grants are out there and some of the councils will do a grant finder session with you. We’re very proactive with the new council and they will take your details and tell you what’s out there. 

It’s not an easy process, money is tight out there, especially for capital. The Sports Council are looking at community hubs that can be used for Gaelic games, rugby, hockey… They’re looking at multi-sport venues rather than giving money to one club and that’s what they want to feed money into in the next five or 10 years, so it is getting more and more difficult for clubs.”