GAA ANTRIM GREAT NEIL ON PARK REBUILD GET ON THE CASE’
McManus wants UK govt to cough up for Belfast venue
NEIL McMANUS has called on the British Government to cough up the shortfall to rebuild Casement Park.
Although site clearance work is ongoing at the Belfast venue, which has been closed since 2013, in recent months, construction needs to start by the summer if the 30,000-plus capacity stadium is to be completed by 2027, UEFA’s deadline for it to host games in Euro 2028.
Costs around the project have spiralled in recent years with the original bottom line figure of £77.5m (€90.2m) jumping to a mammoth £308m (€358.3m), according to a Department for Communities estimate issued to Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris last December.
The Stormont Executive has pledged £62.5m (€72.7m) to the project and the GAA £15m (€17.5m) while the Irish Government has made a €50m (£42.8m) commitment, though it still leaves a significant funding gap, with HeatonHarris saying yesterday that “any taxpayer contribution to the Casement Park project will need to be made on a value-for-money basis” and that “there is no blank cheque here”, while pointing out that a contractor has yet to be appointed.
Difference
But former Antrim hurler McManus insists that the British Government should make up the difference to honour the promise that was made to the three main sporting bodies in the North, irrespective of Euro 2028 deadlines.
He said: “I’d nearly take a step back from it and say the long and the short of it is that there were three stadia promised, three stadia commitments made from the British government.
“One was Kingspan (formerly Ravenhill), one was Windsor and the other was Casement. They have to fulfil the third one of those, regardless of the European Championships.
Belief
“I’m firmly of the belief that the British government should pay for it. They’ve promised three stadiums, they’ve delivered two of them which leaves the GAA isolated on its own.
“Historically we’ve been neglected by the government in the North, as a GAA community, and they should fix that.
“The GAA have been consistent in terms of what this will do for West Belfast, for Antrim Gaels, for Ulster and it’s so important to the Association as a whole, not just Belfast or Ulster.
“The GAA has been underwhelmed
WORK TO DO: Casement Park in Belfast; Neil McManus at the launch of the Bord Gáis Energy GAA Legends Tour Series of Croke Park. After over a decade of partnership the Bord Gáis Energy Legends Tour Series of Croke Park returns once again for 2024 and includes a star-studded line up of Gaelic Games players. Visit crokepark.ie/legends by the support that the (British) Government has given and there’s an opportunity here for them to demonstrate that they do care about the Association and what it provides for so many of the people living in the North.
“Let’s build Casement Park and show people that you care because you can talk but you have to demonstrate things,” added McManus, who will take part in the Bord Gais Energy Legends Tour series at Croke Park this summer. McManus, who turns 36 in June, retired from Antrim duty last year but will continue to hurl for Cushendall for a few years yet. Whether he’ll get the chance to play at Casement before his club career ends remains to be seen.
“I’d absolutely love to. In 2005, I played my first county final, which was in Casement Park, 10,000 people there, ourselves and Loughgiel Shamrocks and it was phenomenal. It will stay with me forever.
Enjoy
“I’d love to do that again but I would be unsure if that will happen for me. I got to play in Casement and to enjoy maybe five years there, five or six, but there’s a whole generation of Antrim Gaels who haven’t been there and who will finish their careers (without doing so).
“Some of them are in their early 30s now and haven’t played in Casement Park. That is a crying shame, so it is.
“Even the young people now from West Belfast, where hurling is really struggling, they haven’t been to a game there and there’s nothing that would light a fire under those young people like going to see a game where Antrim are playing under the floodlights some night with Dublin, say, coming up to the road.
“That would be fantastic and nothing could do more for the development of hurling in Belfast than that.”