A SENIOR GAA official has admitted the association could have had better engagement with residents opposed to the major re-development of Casement Park in west Belfast. Residents are considering legal action to stop the building of a 38,000-seater stadium on the Andersonstown road. It is understood the Gaa now feels it will have to offer to buy some homes next to Casement. Ryan Feeney, the Ulster Council's head of public affairs, said he "deeply regrets" that some opponents of the re-development are Gaa members. "There's things you can always do differently and better and I'd be the first to hold my hands up and say perhaps there's things we could have done a lot better in terms of engaging with the residents," he told the BBC. "I lead that process and I take responsibility for that." Residents claimed the Gaa had ignored their concerns. But Mr Feeney said the association had been "transparent and open" and had gone "above and beyond what we had to do in the consultation process because it was the right thing to do". Asked what he would have done differently, Mr Feeney said: "I would have ensured that we would have spread the net wider in terms of engaging with the residents". One of the residents, Yvonne Mulligan, said she and her husband were worried about the impact of the planned stadium. "It is going to have a major detrimental impact on us," she said. "People's health is suffering, people are depressed, they're anxious, they can't sleep at night. It just consumes your life."
