This article is from page 2 of the 2006-01-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE overwhelming support from GAA club officers around the county for a move away from Cusack Park has sparked this week’s overture to the Clare County Board by some of Ireland’s leading property investors.
Club support for selling Cusack Park and developing state-of-the-art stadium facilities in the environs of Ennis was the main finding of a Clare People survey undertaken for the January 17 edition of the paper.
The survey results represented a ringing endorsement of a county board campaign to sell Cusack Park, which was effectively launched at the annual GAA Convention on December 11 last. It was there that board chairman Michael McDonagh announced that because of traffic congestion in the town centre “we might have to develop a new stadium”.
Since The Clare People broke this story in its December 13 issue, the Cusack Park question has become the burning issue within Clare GAA.
This issue was moved on to a higher level when The Clare People survey showed that 78 per cent of respondents backed the county board’s plan to sell Cusack Park to the highest bidder in return for the building of a stadium with proper carparking and road access infrastructure that was capable of hosting Munster championship matches.
That’s what has been laid on the table by a consortium that includes Ennis businessmen Noel Connellan and Sean Lyne and Lisdoonvarna-born builder Bernard McNamara.
They have promised to build a 42,000 seater stadium on the Quin Road together with 800 parking spaces on site in return for Cusack Park.
This bid has been tabled with the county board only two weeks after The Clare People survey revealed a massive mood for change within GAA officials at club level.
Forty-two club officials questioned by The Clare People said that Clare GAA should leave Cusack Park. Only nine officials were in the vanguard of a campaign to retain the existing Cusack Park as the county GAA grounds and redeveloping it into the future.
However, among the objectors were the chairmen of Éire Óg and Clarecastle. Éire Óg chairman Ollie Hanrahan said “any proposal to sell Cusack Park is an absolute disgrace”, while Clarecastle’s Paschal Russell called Cusack Park “the soul of Clare hurling, we can’t forget that tradition”.
They were backed by former board vice-chairman Michael Lee sho described Cusack Park as “the jewel in Clare’s crown” that should be redeveloped on the back of planning permission secured by the county board in December 2003.