Wexfordsoccerto getitsowngrounds
June 1997
Wexford soccer has received a major boost as Wexford Corporation has agreed to sell lands at Carriglawn to the Wexford & District Soccer League to develop a permanent home there for ‘ the beautiful game’.
League officials are delighted that after a number of years of planning and fruitless searching, they have finally now got concrete plans for building a county soccer ground.
Work on the site will start as soon as a price is set and the transfer of deeds arranged. There could be soccer action on a new pitch in Carriglawn as soon as Christmas, according to the Wexford youths team manager and well-known builder, Mick Wallace.
The site is on a major slope but this will be used to make a ‘ terraced’ effect, with a car park and buildings on top, and the pitches on ‘steps’. ‘It’s a crazy surface, but location is everything,’ said Mr Wallace.
Indeed, the state of the Carriglawn site will add greatly to the costs of developing the complex, but it is better than being out in the sticks, according to Mr Wallace.
Location is everything and for that reason the Carriglawn site is perfect. There are six schools within one mile of the site – five of which have no outdoor sporting facilities.
The complex will be open to these schools, according to the League. It will also host inter-county games at all levels, domestic cup semis and finals, and prestigious representative games.
The total cost of the development will be £400,000 and the League has already saved £70,000, got £50,000 from the National Lottery, and has been promised finance for another £85,000.
‘We will have to make a countywide appeal then to raise the rest of the funds,’ according to Mr Wallace. and members of her family had to crawl from beneath their bed covers at 3 a.m. each morning to prepare food to keep the cubs alive.
Bonnie was quick to volunteer to adopt the cubs after their sett was accidentally damaged during building work, resulting in the cubs being abandoned by their mother. Their new home became a cardboard box in the front room of the Breen household, insulated with a hot water bottle.
Generous donations of condensed milk from Nestlé Ireland and puppy food from Masterfoods (distributors of Pedigree Chum) helped Bonnie and the members of New Ross Badgerwatch to keep the cubs alive.
The slow rehabilitation process was then stepped up last month when the cubs were introduced to their new wildlife habitat on South Kilkenny farmland. Daily visits were extended each week, and the cubs were already quite familiar with the area before being released last Wednesday.
An artificial sett has been constructed, and initially, the cubs are being locked into it during the daytime, before being released for a few hours each evening to forage and develop their own natural nocturnal habits. Eventually, they will be given complete freedom to come and go.
Bonnie intends to continue paying daily visits to the sett for as long as possible. ‘I’m not saying goodbye to them yet,’ she said. ‘Hopefully I will be able to see them for some time to come.’