Football

Jarlath Burns reaffirms GAA’s commitment to finding path forward for Casement Park project

The GAA president was speaking at the Irish News Ulster GAA All-Stars awards night

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GAA president Jarlath Burns GAA president Jarlath Burns has said that the GAA is still committed to building Casement Park (Brian Lawless/PA)
By Liam Grimley

GAA President Jarlath Burns has reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to building Casement Park.

This comes after the project was denied the funding needed for the stadium to be ready for the UK and Ireland’s hosting of the EURO 2028 tournament by the UK Government.

The funding was needed to build the stadium to UEFA’s standards required of an international soccer stadium.

Casement Park was due to host five games at the tournament, however, has recently been eliminated as a host stadium following the funding dispute and continuing inaction on the west Belfast site.

In a speech given at The Irish News Ulster GAA All-Star ceremony, Jarlath Burns assured attendees that he and the GAA were still adamant that Casement Park would be built.

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“We as an organisation remain committed to building Casement and providing Antrim GAA with a home”, said Burns, who is entering his second of three years in office as GAA President.

“It has been a long road and how quickly we can reach the end destination will be determined by the clarity which we are urgently seeking from the other stakeholders involved.”

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Hilary Benn speaks during the Labour Party Conference
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Hilary Benn speaks during the Labour Party Conference (Peter Byrne/PA)

Upon being appointed the Northern Ireland Secretary, Hilary Benn said that Casement “will be built”.

The question still remains of where the remaining funding will come from for the new home of Antrim and Ulster GAA.

At present, Antrim’s inter-county teams play at Corrigan Park in west Belfast and have done so ever since Casement closed its doors in 2013.

In the Shared Island initiative last year, the Irish government stated that they would add €50 million to the pot for the venue, which would benefit the island-wide GAA organisation.

Contractors with excavators clear the concrete seating terraces at GAA stadium in Belfast
Contractors with excavators clear the concrete seating terraces at GAA stadium in Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA)

For the stadium to be ready for EURO 2028, the estimated cost was £300-400 million, however now that the possibility of the stadium hosting Europe’s best is gone, the financial burden has somewhat eased with the main focus on the project now being just building a GAA-only stadium, which would be significantly cheaper.

Burns continued: “Needless to say, the same focus shown by Ulster teams on the field of play in 2024 will continue to be shown by Ulster GAA and everyone else involved in the project, in the weeks and months ahead to chart a path forward for the stadium.”