Harbinson deems Casement Park stall ‘an absolute disgrace’
Antrim senior football manager, Lenny Harbinson, has labelled the inertia around the crumbling Casement Park stadium an “absolute disgrace”, after their defeat to Tyrone in the Ulster Championship quarter-final on Saturday.
The game was played at Armagh’s Athletic Grounds as Antrim have no home venue capable of hosting such a fixture, although the low attendance of 5,409 could have comfortably been housed at Ballycastle or Dunloy.
On the morning of the game, Harbinson’s side assembled at the iconic venue on the Andersonstown Road before continuing their journey.
Harbinson, who famously managed his own club St Gall’s to an All-Ireland club title in 2010, explained: “We met at Casement.
"We went in to see the Casement Social Club, Casement has been very good to Antrim down through the years and continues to be very good and supportive of Bob Murray and the committee there.
"So we were delighted to get in there.
“But, it’s an absolute disgrace that since 2012 when Casement closed down, we don’t have a home pitch. Yes, it’s been well-documented, it’s gone back and forth through the courts. But it’s gone on for far too long.”
It has emerged that a redeveloped Casement Park would be the only Northern Ireland venue in any proposed UK and Irish bid to host the Fifa World Cup in 2030.
The North’s Department for Communities (DfC) has indicated that it will form part of the planned bid for the tournament.
An essential criteria to host a World Cup game is a minimum seating capacity of 40,000 — the redeveloped Casement Park would be the only venue to meet this requirement as it stands.
It remains to be seen if such factors could push along the painfully slow progress of the project.
“Decisions should have been made by the legislators from a point of view of planning and there is a political element to it,” continued Harbinson.
The second largest city in the island of Ireland and we don’t have a proper stadium… That’s wrong and it shouldn’t have gone on for as long as it has. Casement should be built.
At present, Antrim GAA is benefitting from a tranche of funding for their ‘Gaelfast’ programme, which targets growing Gaelic Games in the city.
In the meantime however, the lack of a proper home — Antrim having signed over Casement Park to the Ulster Council in 2012 — has robbed a generation of players of their Antrim identity, says Harbinson.
“Well, we are stood here in Armagh when we should have been standing in Casement,” he pointed out.
“That’s wrong. Yes, thank you to the people of Armagh and the Ulster Council, it is a great facility but it’s our home match.
“The knock-on impact on down the road is youngsters, be they from south-west Antrim, Belfast, who are driving past Casement every day, the iconic stadium… It needs to be built.
"The knock-on impact it has on youngsters, it could give them a home, a focal point, gives them a desire to want to play Gaelic Games in Belfast, in what should have been and needs to be a fantastic stadium.”
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