Kildare GAA stadium redevelopment to commence at the end of the month

The St Conleth’s Park project will cost close to €17 million and it will see the capacity rise to 15,000.

REDEVELOPMENT: Kildare GAA, Kildare, GAA, Hurling, Gaelic Football, Football, St Conleth's Park, generic, stock 27 June 2018; A general view of St Conleth's Park in Newbridge, Kildare. Photo by Matt Browne/Sportsfile

The redevelopment work on Kildare GAA’s St Conleth’s Park is due to commence at the end of the month.

The two-year Newbridge project, which is due to cost close to €17 million, will bring the capacity to 15,000 with its new 3,000-seater stand as well as floodlights and increasing the size of the playing surface. The stand will also feature dressing rooms, a Club Kildare Lounge, multi-purpose rooms and shops. Naming rights are also expected to be sold.

A total of €5m is being funded from Kildare’s infrastructure fund; €3.6m coming from Croke Park and Leinster Council, €4m from the Immigration Investment Programme, €2 million from the county board and a €2.3m loan from the Bank of Ireland.

Some of Kildare’s home championship and league games in this year’s championship and next season are due to take place “outside the county” as a result of the reconstruction, county chairman Mick Gorman told “The Kildare Nationalist”. Either their Sam Maguire or Tailteann Cup home game in May will be staged elsewhere.

The last fixture there for the foreseeable future will be the Allianz FL Division 2 final round game against Meath on March 26. It is hoped that the venue will become available again in 2024 for the senior club football and hurling county finals with the Lilywhites reappearing there in early 2025. Contracts with The Elliott Group were signed in Naas’ Osprey Hotel on Thursday evening.

“It is a momentous day for County Kildare,” said Gorman. “We have been working on this Project for several years and have encountered many obstacles and delays compounded by Covid and rising inflation.

“We have persevered and have finally succeeded in achieving this significant milestone. This will be a major step forward for Kildare GAA and also for the town of Newbridge.’’

Meanwhile, the death has occurred of former Cork goalkeeper and St Finbarrs star Bertie O’Brien.

The 72-year-old dual player won eight senior county championship medals, six provincial club triumphs and four All-Ireland titles.

O’Brien claimed an All-Ireland minor football medal in 1969 and five years later won a county-provincial-All-Ireland treble with The Barrs’ hurlers. He and the club’s hurlers completed the three-in-a-row in 1982 when he also won a senior football medal.

WATERFORD (AFL v Laois): B. Kirwan; R. Browne, D Ó Cathasaigh, C. Ó Cuirrin; D. Ryan (c), L. Fennell, B. Looby; J. Curry, M. Curry; J. O’Sullivan, D. Corcoran, B. Lynch; M. Kiely, S. Whelan-Barrett, E. McGrath-Butler. Subs: A. Beresford, B. O’Brien, D. Queally, R. Stringer, J. Keane, C. Maguire, J. Devine, D. Fitzgerald, D. Reidy, D. Quirke, N. McSweeney.