CASE STUDIES

In between chapters of this report you will find Case Studies outlining details of 8 projects which received funding during the period under review and which are now up and running. These contain typical examples of projects covering a variety of sporting activities and give a small insight into the difference such projects have made on communities and clubs and sport in general.

The 8 Case Studies are

Case Study 1 – St Joseph's Boys AFC Dublin Grant €717,000

Case Study 2 – Cushinstown Athletics Club Meath Grant €66,000

Case Study 3 – Loreto Bray Community Sports Project Wicklow Grant €305,000

Case Study 4 – Simonstown Gaels GAA Club Meath Grant €660,000

Case Study 5 – National Boxing Stadium Dublin Grant €1,600,000

Case Study 6 – Athlone Regional Sports Centre Westmeath Grant €3,800,000

Case Study 7 – National Rowing Centre Inniscarra Cork Grant €1,600,000

Case Study 8 – Culdaff Football Club Donegal Grant €51,000

CASE STUDY 1 – ST JOSEPH'S BOYS A.F.C.

St Joseph's Boys AFC, received funding in 2001 and 2002 totalling €717,000 towards the construction of a new clubhouse costing €2million, located in Sallynoggin, Co Dublin, which opened earlier this year. This was to replace the existing clubhouse and dressing rooms dating back to the 1960s with a modern facility comprising of an international 5-a-side indoor arena, 12 dressing rooms, offices, meeting rooms, physiotherapy rooms, showers, toilets & warm up areas.

This development was essential to provide modern and safe changing and training facilities for one of Ireland's leading schoolboy clubs with 3 full size football pitches, 3 seven a side pitches and one floodlit all weather grit training pitch.

The club has seen growth in all its teams from under 7s up to under 18s since the facility was built. Membership has increased from about 24 teams up to its present level of just under 40 teams and aims to have 50 teams in place over the next 3 years. The clubhouse now provides excellent facilities to hundreds of young boys and girls every day of the week with the assistance of 70 teams leaders and coaches.

In addition the club can now cater effectively for many soccer programmes run each summer and participate in FAI approved school of excellence programmes, goalkeeping coaching programmes & Futsal academies providing children from as young as 6 with a gentle and fun introduction to football and older youths with access to top class coaching.

CASE STUDY 2 – CUSHINSTOWN ATHLETICS CLUB

Cushinstown Athletics Club based in Cushinstown, Co Meath received funding in 1999 and 2001 totalling €66,000 towards the extension and refurbishment of a small indoor hall and changing rooms completed in 2001 at a total cost of over €150,000.

The previous facility was only used for warm up exercises due to its small size and used by the Athletics club only. Since its completion the facility now can be used for all indoor athletics activities allowing the club to continue training through the winter. As a result it has grown from the 5^th to the 2^nd largest athletics club in Meath with 140 juvenile and 25 senior members.

One of the club's members has gone on to break the senior women's national record in javelin while one of its junior members has broken a Leinster sprint record.

The added value of this facility is that it is now in use seven days a week and by many other sporting groups for men and women including tug of war, soccer, gaelic football and hurling teams and is proving to be a valuable facility not only to the local community but to the county with the Meath Ladies Gaelic Football using the facility for training.

CASE STUDY 3 – LORETO BRAY COMMUNITY SPORTS PROJECT

What was a grit hockey pitch in the grounds of a school in Bray has now been transformed into a multifunctional all weather community facility. A grant of €305,000 was awarded in 2000 towards the provision of an Astroturf pitch and floodlighting costing over €630,000.

Completed in October 2001, the facility which was part of the school is now owned and run by a separate board of trustees including members from the school and sports clubs in the local community. The synthetic pitch which was built to accommodate both hockey and football usage can be used all year round and in the evenings and the large pitch can easily be divided into three smaller pitches.

This is a great example of a facility which combines school and community usage to great effect to ensure that it is used to its maximum during the day and in the evenings. It is now in use during the day by four schools including a school for Travellers and after school hours and at weekends by a number of hockey clubs, soccer and gaelic football clubs, youth and community groups.

CASE STUDY 4 – SIMONSTOWN GAELS GAA CLUB

Located on the outskirts of Navan, Ireland's fastest growing large town according to the 2002 Census with a current population of 20,000 and estimates that this will treble to 60,000 by 2011, Simonstown Gaels GAA Club embarked on an ambitious plan to re-develop their sports facility in 2000.

Following extensive consultations and a detailed analysis of demand for sports facilities in light of the huge growth in population, especially of young people, in the area, the club came up with a plan to transform their local GAA club facility into a large community recreational facility.

At a cost of €2.5million and with lottery grants totalling €660,000, what once was a small clubhouse with 2 dressing rooms, a small hall and 2 pitches used mostly by the GAA club has been transformed into a large multi-sports centre with a large indoor sports hall, 6 dressing rooms, 2 redeveloped full-size floodlit pitches and a large floodlit synthetic all weather pitch.

Both the indoor sports hall and the all weather pitch opened during 2002 and are in constant use by the surrounding community for a huge range of activities such as basketball, badminton, soccer, tennis, hockey as well as gaelic games. Apart from the wide range of sports clubs that come from all over the county and beyond to use it, the facility is in use by 7 local primary & secondary schools, including 2 special needs schools.

It 's main floodlit grass pitches have played host to many inter-county matches and are frequently used by the Meath County teams and in 2003 it was awarded the GAA Leinster Club of the Year.

CASE STUDY 5 – NATIONAL BOXING STADIUM

The National Stadium in Dublin was originally built in 1939 as the only purpose built boxing stadium in the world. As the headquarters of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, it was in need of substantial renovation when in 1999 the Department awarded a grant of €1.6million towards the total cost of refurbishments of €2.2million. This work is now completed though a further phase is planned.

In addition to hosting each year the national youths, junior and senior finals, the facility has plays host to tournaments involving many visiting nations, recently beating Belgium & Germany in January 2003 and Wales in March. It will also be hosting visits of teams from Botswana, Poland and France in the near future and there are hopes that it will host the World Junior Boxing Championships in 2006.

The refurbishment of the facility is part of Ireland's High Performance Strategy in conjunction with other measures such as grants under the International Carding Scheme providing support to the top athletes in the build up to the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. This commitment to support top class sports has seen Ireland's Andy Lee winning a silver medal in last year's World Junior Championships in Cuba and Ireland topping the medals table in 2002 & 2003 in the Four Nations Tournament.

CASE STUDY 6 – ATHLONE REGIONAL SPORTS CENTRE

This facility was developed by Athlone Urban District Council to respond to sporting and leisure needs of the midland's largest town and it's surrounding population. Designated as one of the 20 provincial RAPID towns of high disadvantage, this regional project was prioritised for funding and received in total €3.8m in funding towards the overall cost of €7.5m.

The centre, which was opened in May 2002, has an extensive range of facilities to cater for the widest possible sporting needs in the region. These include a 25m swimming pool, an aerobics studio, an indoor sports hall and an outdoor Astro-turf pitch.

The facilities are now of great benefit to local schools, clubs and groups with special needs. The centre has initiated special programmes to encourage usage of the facilities by families and older members of the community. These programmes along with running a series of football and touch rugby leagues has helped encourage many new people to use the facilities and participate in sport. The current usage of the centre is at 28,000 visits per month.

CASE STUDY 7 – NATIONAL ROWING CENTRE

At an expected total cost of €4.6million, the Irish Amateur Rowing Union commenced the development of Ireland's National Rowing Centre at Inniscarra, County Cork in 2001. With the assistance of €1.6million in grant allocations in 1999 & 2002, phase 1 is now complete incorporating an international standard rowing and canoeing regatta course. Alongside this is a substantial boathouse housing four boat-bays with capacity for up to one hundred boats and modern changing & shower facilities for participants.

Since its completion in mid 2003, the centre has hosted 4 major regattas including the National Championships and the Home International Regatta with athletes from Scotland, England and Wales competing. With a international standard facility in place, the IARU has applied to host the U23 Nations' Cup ( the unofficial world championships at this level) in Ireland in 2005.

In addition to hosting top class events the facility will be Ireland's training facility for its top class rowers who have been obliged heretofore to train at world class facilities abroad. This of course will be of major significance to athletes such as Sam Lynch, Gearoid Towey and Sinead Jennings who have won World Championship gold medals in recent years and will enable the IARU to expand its future international squads at junior and senior levels.

CASE STUDY 8 – CULDAFF FOOTBALL CLUB

Located on the north coast of Donegal near Malin Head, this soccer club has experienced a large increase in its numbers over the last number of years which placed such a demand on its single playing pitch that some training and home games took place outside of the Culdaff area.

With a grant of almost €51,000 allocated in 2000, the club undertook an ambitious project to develop an all-weather grass pitch alongside their main pitch to cope with the increased demand. The club had to work in close co-operation with Dúchas as the site is located beside a Special Area of Conservation and the project was completed in 2002 at a total cost of €82,000.

This project now means that the club has training and playing facilities available all year round that can better cope with its two senior teams, five teams from ages under 18 down to under 10 along with its ladies team. The facility is also used by the local school football team and for community games.

Together with the high standard of coaching available, including five soccer coaches qualified to UEFA 'B' Licence standard, this improved facility is seeing participation increasing by about 30% in the last 2-3 years alone and is no longer experiencing the drain of talented players to clubs outside the area. They were proud to have one of their junior goalkeepers selected for the Ireland U-12 squad to play at the Nations Cup in Paris in 2003.