A GENERATION of Gaels has already missed out on the chance to play at Casement Park and new Ulster GAA President Michael Geoghegan is seeking an urgent meeting with Minister Gordon Lyons to ensure the next generation doesn’t miss out too.
Department for Communities (DFC) Minister Lyons said yesterday that he wouldn’t change how he has handled the non-redevelopment of the West Belfast stadium but Geoghegan says the lack of action had cost the North’s economy millions.
The DUP minister says the NI Executive remains committed to seeing Casement Park delivered but the failure to secure funding for work to begin meant the derelict stadium missed out on hosting games at Uefa’s 2028 European Championships and remains years away from reopening as a venue for Gaelic Games.
“The recent economic report by Sheffield Hallum University shows the loss the European Championships was to Belfast and the great-Belfast area,” said Geoghegan who recently succeeded Tyrone’s Ciaran McLaughlin as Ulster President.
“It spells out, in great detail, the amount of revenue – millions and millions of pounds - it would have brought into the economy.
“Ulster GAA still intends to work along with the Antrim County Board to get Casement Park built as a modern, fit-for-purpose stadium. That’s what has to be done.
“It’s something that was promised to us in tandem with rugby and soccer and they have both had their stadia delivered but Ulster GAA is still waiting. It’s something I will be concentrating on in the early part of my tenure, I want to get something started on Casement Park.
“It’s not fair to the Gaels of Antrim and Ulster. A generation of Gaels has missed out on the opportunity to play at that iconic stadium and that’s a shame. I don’t want another generation to miss out so I will be trying to get a meeting as early as possible with the DFC and Minister Lyons.
“I will be doing my best to ensure that we bring this forward and we need to bring it forward urgently.”
The long-serving Armagh County Board member, who has served on the GAA’s Development Competition Control Committee, believes the GAA has been let down by district councils who fail to provide facilities for Gaelic Games. An independent survey found that three council areas (Antrim and Newtownabbey, Ards and North Down and Mid and East Antrim) provide no pitches for GAA while providing multiple soccer pitches.
The provision supplied by the Derry and Strabane and Mid-Ulster council areas (two each) appears well short of the required need and, with studies showing a 75 per cent increase in female participation in Gaelic Games in the city over the past five years even Belfast City Council’s provision of 11 pitches needs to increase.
“We need to have urgent discussions with a lot council areas because I think the GAA has been let down,” said Geoghegan.
“We talk about ‘give respect/get respect’ and over the last number of years the GAA has really come forward in terms of respect everyone’s traditions and rights but we have been badly let down by some councils in that we were are not getting proper facilities offered to us the way other sports are.
“That’s something that needs to be looked at and followed up.”
