Cork chiefs hopeful Páirc Uí Rinn will be available in coming weeks

The Ballintemple venue was deemed unavailable for recent games as the pitch is underdoing some remedial work.

Thu, 07 Aug, 2025 - 15:43

John Fogarty

The Cork County Board are hoping Páirc Uí Rinn will be available to host hurling championship games the weekend after next, following the decision to move this weekend’s divisional/college hurling semi-finals.

The Ballintemple venue was deemed unavailable by the county’s competitions control committee for the Imokilly-Avondhu and UCC-Muskerry games as the pitch is underdoing some remedial work.

While several first round Premier Senior and Senior A hurling championship games took place there over the Bank Holiday weekend, the Nemo Rangers-Ballincollig PSFC Group 3 opening round clash at the end of last month was switched to Ballygarvan, having been originally scheduled for Páirc Uí Rinn.

The playing surface was heavily sanded in early July. The venue has no irrigation system and in the current dry spell a lot of the sediment has not yet been absorbed by the soil. The field has also required some repair work following the installation of a new catching net behind the City End goalposts and the removal of trees.

Apart from club activity, Páirc Uí Rinn is one of the most heavily-used fields by inter-county teams such as the senior footballers and hurlers who alternate between there, MTU and SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

As things stand, it is due to stage Blackrock-St Finbarrs on Friday week, Midleton-Newcestown and Erins Own-Sarsfields the day after as well as two lower grade matches on Sunday week.

As is the norm, Páirc Uí Chaoimh’s playing surface is currently in the process of being relaid in time to host games at the business end of the championships in October. The semi-finals in both codes are scheduled for the weekends of October 4/5 and October 11/12.

The work on the pitches was mentioned in the bulletin following Tuesday’s county committee meeting. It read: “Given the lack of rainfall over the past few weeks, Groundsman, Colm Daly was thanked for his ongoing work in both SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Páirc Uí Rinn to have them ready to host many club fixtures recently and in the coming weeks.”

Meanwhile, the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) and GAA have yet to sign off on a new protocol despite negotiations having begun last October.

The previous funding agreement between the parties has been extended into this year as had happened before in 2020 when talks, described by the GPA as “intense and prolonged”, were partly delayed by the pandemic and took a year and a half to conclude.

There have again been a number of stumbling blocks in the recent discussions, although a deal is expected to be signed off by Central Council and the GPA’s national executive in the coming months.

The GPA had raised image rights as a subject with the GAA. Last year, Clare’s 2024 hurler of the year Shane O’Donnell took exception to his image being used in the promotion of the since rebranded GAAGO.

The previous GAA-GPA deal maintained the 2017-19 agreement that the GPA would receive 15% share of the GAA’s net commercial income. However for the most recently elapsed deal the minimum of €2.5 million was removed, while the GPA’s administrative costs were cut from 25% to 20% of the GAA’s funding.

Last year, the GPA received €3.17m in core funding from the GAA, an increase from the €2.9m figure in 2023.

Elsewhere, the GAA’s national head of hurling William Maher is to travel to The Netherlands in October. The Ballingarry man, who was appointed to the position earlier this year, will give a presentation in Eindhoven to coincide with the Pan-European hurling and camogie finals taking place in the city.

Maher is to outline the current hurling landscape, strategic priorities for 2025 to ’30, and key initiatives aimed at supporting the growth of hurling. He will be joined by Chris Collins, head of operations of Gaelic Games Europe, and Shauna Coen, and Gaelic Games camogie officer for Europe.