GAELIC FOOTBALL


W


ork on the new state of the art football pitch at Liatroim Fontenoys GAC, based at Castlewellan in Northern Ireland, was completed in


2018, with the first games played there in July 2019 after the pitch had established. Costing £1.2m, the investment at this, the oldest club in County Down, included the new 140m by 100m sand-based pitch plus floodlights and parking for 100 cars. It’s a real busy sporting arena as it caters for thirty-two teams in Gaelic Football, Hurling, Camogie and Ladies Gaelic Football from fundamentals (U6) to Senior. The complex has three grass pitches and a small enclosed 3G ball wall (25m x 15m),


plus a 1km Fit Trail with car parking facilities. It is a 5ha site comprising the new pitch at 1.4ha, the old pitch at 1.2ha, training pitch at 0.5ha, with the remainder housing car parking and the fit trail. To document a brief history on Liatroim Fontenoys GAC, the club was founded back in 1888 in the rural area surrounding Castlewellan by the McAleenan Brothers and JL Savage. Initially, the club was known as Leitrim Fontenoys, but the name was changed to Liatroim Fontenoys following a proposal at the AGM in 1993.


From its formation the club was involved in playing hurling and football, featuring regularly in county finals, and became the


first and only club to ever win both the Down Senior Hurling and Senior Football Championships in the same year. Volunteer groundsmen are a vital part of groundcare for many clubs across the UK and indeed at Liatroim Fontenoys GAC, as the father and son team of Declan and Tiarnach Magee are tasked with looking after the new pitch. Tiarnach, who works full-time as a


greenkeeper at Royal County Down Golf Club (RCD), has been volunteering at Fontenoy Park for the past two years. “I initially stepped in to help out the groundsman Nicky McAtee but, as the workload with the new pitch and fit trail increased, it became too much for one


PC December/January 2021


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