At the opening of the new all-weather pitcch facility in Knockmitten on Monday Photo by Ben Ryan
New playing pitch boost for sports clubs
Monday saw the opening of the Knockmitten Park Recreation Area.
The area is set to include a brand new all weather playing pitch facility as well as a half court basketball area.
Speaking of the project Councillor Shirley O’Hara stated: “The project is in line with the South Dublin County Councils aim to support and promote the health and wellbeing of the people of South Dublin County.
“Provision of artificial grass pitches allows for intensive sports use, to help accommodate some of the active recreational needs of our growing county.”
“I acknowledge the local community who bore us during the construction stage and I would like to thank Knockmitten Football Club in particular who were involved in this project from the planning stage through to completion on site.”
The Echo spoke to chairman of Knockmitten United Jimmy McGuirk who will now have access to the pitch to facilitate their training sessions. McGuirk has been involved in the club for 41 years along with his family. They have been waiting for a development like this for a long time with initial talks and committees being made almost 20 years ago.
“It took a long time. It started with us going in with the [community] centre but between different things it just didn’t work out. Then we went and did it ourselves. We weren’t really getting anywhere with things.”
The club would have plenty of meetings with local councillors in the area such as Eoin O’Broin and William Carey who McGuirk described as “excellent” and helped bring about the development of the pitch.
“We applied for different grants, we got this, we got that and we had a price on it. Then with covid and everything that happened and obviously prices went up when everything came back around again.”
“What we had to do in the end was give back our grants that we’d gotten to apply for the grant which we used today. We got the bigger grant. That’s when it started again then.”
McGuirk spoke of the need for the club to develop the pitch.
“In the winter we’re training anywhere and everywhere. Next year we’re going to have 26 or 27 teams. That’s from under 8s all the way up to senior. If you look at that now, five hours every weekday.
“An hour for training that’s 25 slots and we might have 27 teams. Younger ages we could mix it but still it’s only one training session so we’re still going to have to play somewhere else.”
McGuirk spoke on the possibility of further development of club facilities.
“We were thinking oh there’s room for a nine aside pitch down there or an 11 aside astro there but you know yourself I think that’s a long way away but that would be the next thing that we’d be looking at. It’s hard to know with the council.”
A special mention goes to Leah French and her mother Dolores Byrne who ran the Knockmitten Community Centre.
According to McGuirk, Leah, who sadly passed away in January of this year, was responsible for re-establishing a relationship between the football club and the community centre and played a crucial role in getting the club to where it is today.
“She did unbelievable work. She was great, unbelievable the way she brought the community together. Put things on. She revitalised the whole thing.”
