Delight at €225K for West Muskerry AC
West Muskerry Athletics Club is set to receive a whopping €225,000 allocation to build a new indoor sports facility, it was announced yesterday.
Speaking on Wednesday, club representative Colette O’Riordan, said: “Our club training is tonight, so I’d say there will be fierce excitement. Everybody is thrilled. It’s a long time coming, it’s been a long-term dream of ours. The club is in operation for 30 years.”
Following the announcement by Shane Ross, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and Brendan Griffin, Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, a post on the club’s Facebook page read: “Fantastic news just in. The club has been awarded €225,000 for the next phase of our development. We would like to thank Minister Michael Creed and Minister for Sport Brendan Griffin, all the local councillors, and everyone who has helped get us to where we are today, and we are looking forward to the future.”
The allocation will be spent on new club house and sports hall. Up to now, the club had been operating with the bare minimum of facilities, without changing rooms, or toilets.
Speaking about the facilities Ms O’Riordan said: “At the moment we don’t have changing rooms. We have no toilets, we have nothing.”
The funding is part of a €2.58 million allocation from the Regional Sports Project, which will benefit 15 projects in Ireland. Minister Ross and Minister Griffin announced the final set of allocations under the 2018 round of the Sports Capital Programme (SCP).
Minister Ross said: “I am delighted to announce a further €2.58 million in funding for sports projects. All of the projects receiving allocations will play an important role in supporting the objectives of our National Sports Policy.”
Ms O’Riordan believes the project will have a dramatic effect on the local community, saying: “It’ll have a huge effect on the community. Even for their mental health. It’ll be a sporting outlet for young people.
“We have 290 club members nearly, seniors, juniors, and special needs - a mixture of everything. We won’t know ourselves!
“We’d like to thank everybody who helped us to get to where we are today,” and she jokingly concluded, “we’ll definitely get a few Olympians out of it!”