Ballybunion Golf Club to vote on female members

WORLD renowned Ballybunion golf club is to scrap its 100 year ban on female members so that it can benefit from State and European funding as it draws up multimillion pound plans for the development of a new clubhouse and the provision of coastal defences.

Government and European policy dictates that clubs and organisations which discriminate against women members will not benefit from grant aid.

Club captain, Jim Maher, confirmed this week that the male membership of Ballybunion Golf Club now plans to hold an emergency general meeting to change its constitution to end the ban on full membership for women. He predicted that the motion will be carried and that women who were up to now only entitled to associate membership will be allowed full membership. Internal club re-organisation on how this will be achieved have yet to be worked out.

The club has plans to build a new £1.5 million clubhouse combined with the construction of extensive coastal defences to protect the seaside course from the ravages of the Atlantic. The plans have yet to be finalised but it is expected the dual package will run into millions of pounds.

EC and State funding form an integral part of the club’s proposed financial engineering to bring their plans to fruition and Mr Maher confirmed the club has already received notification of a standby EC allocation pending the rule change and a minor alteration to EC regulations.

Mr Maher conceded that pressure to change the clubs constitution stemmed primarily from the need to get State and European funding and that the female associate members were not the main lobby behind the move.

“We would not get the money if we did not change the rules,” he said.

Mr Maher said the change would have come sooner or later regardless of the EC and Government rules on discrimination.

Ballybunion Lady Captain, Angela Fahy, said the lady members of the club are delighted with the proposed rule change adding that most lady members were looking forward to full membership.

It is understood that Ballybunion will benefit from grants totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds following the rule change. This money will come from both State and EC sources

The bulk of EC funding is expected to go towards coastal defences which is regarded as a priority by many members of the club