Club left in the lurch over new pitch

A leading city GAA club which has been left without a home pitch for the past three years, due to the construction of a dual carriageway on part of its grounds, will be informed of plans for a long-awaited new facility next month.

The St Michael’s players, based in the Westside, have been unable to play a home League game since part of their grounds were taken over for the redevelopment of the adjoining Seamus Quirke Road (SQR) in April 2010.

A two year delay to the completion of the road has hampered plans for the club members to return to their own ground and caused uproar among players and parents who have been forced to travel long distances to designated ‘home’ games.

There was further disquiet among the club’s membership this week when it emerged that a slip road from the SQR, right next to their ground, may not now go ahead because a retail giant is unwilling to foot the €3.5 million bill. 

There is currently a ‘ghost lane’ next to the St Michael’s pitch, which will eventually lead to a site owned by former Mayor of Galway, Micheal O hUiginn, which has been the subject of a controversial on-going planning application.

However, senior Galway City Council official, Ciaran Hayes, told this newspaper that he expected to complete a full report on the revamp of the Westside Sports Campus – including the provision of a new pitch for St Michael’s – in time for next month’s meeting of the local authority.

He defended the decision to ‘cut off’ part of the GAA grounds, leaving the club with just three-quarters of a regulation sized pitch, on the basis that a new link road will be constructed between the SQR and the commercially zoned site at some stage.