Planning for the future in Castlelyons
A fine crowd turned up in Castlelyons Community Centre last Friday to hear about ambitious plans to provide top of the range facilities for the
area’s youth.
You can’t advance without land and the GAA have been very fortunate in securing an additional 9.5 acres adjacent to their existing pitch. Provision of another pitch is deemed essential to cater for the 80 adults and almost 300 young people (boys and girls) currently involved in GAA activities in Castlelyons. Laying out the new pitch, to include groundworks, fencing, ball stop nets, dug out and internal roadway is estimated to cost €400,000.
LOOKING FURTHER DOWN THE LINE
All going well and with the necessary funding, it’s proposed to construct a floodlit community walkway, astro turf facility and hurling wall.
FUNDRAISING AND MORE FUNDRAISING
Grants and loans go some way to providing the necessary finance, however, there’s no getting away from the need to fundraise extensively inside and outside the parish. A designated development steering committee, under the chairmanship of former Castlelyons hurler, Mick Spillane, has been set up. Assisting Mick are the very able, Margaret Doran; the current chairman of Castlelyons GAA, John McCarthy, along with the chairman of Castlelyons Camogie Club, Thomas Quirke. While this quartet are spearheading the operation, they are receiving a lot of assistance from dozens of volunteers.
Speaking at last Friday night’s event, Mick Spillane said ‘a concerted and co-ordinated fundraising effort’ was necessary to get plans over the line. Overall, the mood of the meeting was positive, with the consensus being the development plans were vital in safeguarding the future of Gaelic Games in Castlelyons.
YOUR ASSISTANCE REQUIRED
Anyone interested in contributing financially should contact any of the 4 aforementioned individuals.
To date, there has been an excellent response to a direct debit scheme that patrons can avail of - cheques are also very welcome. For those who favour cashless transactions, the steering committee has set up a Revolut account.
TEAM EFFORT
Castlelyons GAA, Castlelyons Camogie and Castlelyons Ladies Football have joined forces to make this development a success. While it will take time, there’s a collective will to make these plans a reality and provide the parish of Castlelyons with facilities everyone can be proud of.