Ground move set to cause major row in Galway GAA

Salthill-Knocknacarra last week revealed details of plans for new grounds

ONJECTIONS:Galway GAA is bracing itself for a major internal row as two city clubs have confirmed they will be counter Salthill-Knocknacarra's plans to develop new grounds in Rahoon. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Galway GAA is bracing itself for a major internal row as two city clubs have confirmed they will be counter Salthill-Knocknacarra's plans to develop new grounds in Rahoon.

With a membership of over 2,500 and overwhelming demands on their club grounds “The Prairie”, beside Pearse Stadium and other shared grounds, Salthill-Knocknacarra last week revealed details of plans for two full-size floodlit pitches, one grass and one astro, dressing rooms and a two-kilometre walkway among other facilities on land they purchased in 2016.

However, the planned playing facilities in Mincloon, 6km away from their current base on the Dr Mannix Road in Salthill, is in the parish of Rahoon and, according to hurling and camogie club Rahoon-Newcastle, just 500 metres away from its club. Both they and neighbouring football club St Michael’s will be appealing against planning permission and have both claimed Salthill-Knocknacarra's vision contravenes the GAA’s parish rule.

A statement from Rahoon-Newcastle read: “We will be strongly opposing this proposal which would see Salthill/Knocknacarra move 3km from their club in the Prairie to within just 500m of our club in Tonabrocky.

“This violates parish boundaries and the spirit of the GAA whose ethos is to promote Gaelic games and culture as a community-based, volunteer-led organisation which enriches lives and communities. We will fight for our club and for our community.” 

Expressing similar sentiments, St Michael’s stated they had been approached by Salthill-Knocknacarra not to object to the planning permission but rejected their plea.

“After deliberation with the extended membership of St Michael’s GAA club committee, we cannot support this plan,” their executive committee explained. “Though SKGAA claim to have GAA and general city sporting interests at heart, this is purely a plan to promote SKGAA with SKGAA interests at heart.

“Furthermore, it is naive to claim that it does anything other than violate the GAA ethos of respect for parish catchment areas. In a city, there is always a certain element of members playing with clubs while living outside the immediate catchment area – we are all familiar with that – but building this state-of-the-art facility within the catchment area of St Michael’s GAA and Rahoon-Newcastle GAA, flying the SKGAA flag, is nothing short of a threat to the future of our club.” 

Six city councillors have pledged their support for the development, which is led by Salthill-Knocknacarra's development committee chairman, former Galway senior football manager Alan Mulholland. The land, they highlight, was zoned as “recreational and amenity land with the specific objective of the development of Football Pitches and Floodlighting” as part of the city’s 2023-27 development plan.