£20,000 facelift for St. Patrick’s Park

November 1991

Enniscorthy’s St. Patrick’s Park will be used for matches and some training when the GAA season re-opens in the spring. But County Treasurer Bill Nolan says that he wants no more of the heavy usage which led to the park requiring a complete and costly overhaul.

Bill turned down repeated requests to stage games at the venue during the past summer – so much so that the place became known as ‘The Holy Ground’. The committee responsible wanted to give the new grass time to establish itself properly.

The Wexford County Board has already pumped about £20,000 into drainage, re-seeding and levelling work at the Pearse Road stadium.

‘This is one of the best pitches in Wexford if it is treated right,’ stressed Bill Nolan this week. ‘The goalposts will not go up until I say so. There is no point in spending a lot of money and then tearing it asunder in a few weeks.’

The intention is that St Patrick’s Park, which used to hold crowds of up to 12,000, will open only during the months of fine weather. The pitch, which has been treated with 300 tonnes of sand, may well be used for county championship fixtures during the coming season, just as it was in days gone by.

However, the management are determined that there will be no repeat of the numerous training sessions in all weathers which eventually made the place almost unplayable. The Wexford football squad have been training instead at the nearby Showgrounds on the Ross Road, while the county hurlers usually meet in Gorey.

Further expenditure is planned at the ground to bring changing and spectator facilities up to scratch. A worker has been taken on under a FAS scheme to do some of this, and dressing rooms with a meeting room and toilets are also on the drawing board.

In the recent past, St. Patrick’s Park was used mainly for football matches, because the surface was so uneven. Now it may become a favoured hurling field since such great care has been lavished on the ground, which is due to receive a further load of sand next week.

‘The surface there is now second to none,’ claimed Bill Nolan, ‘and we intend to maintain it like that. You cannot have it both ways, training on it seven nights a week and still expecting to have it right for a Sunday match.’