The announcement this week of €7.2m funding for a new gym in St Oliver’s Community College has ruffled quite a few feathers among committee members of local sports clubs, one of whom has written to Drogheda Life with the proviso that their anonymity be maintained. We publish their letter in full:
The allocation of €7.2m of sports capital funding to facilitate the delivery for a new gym for St Oliver’s Community College has to be welcomed, as any investment should be, however the funding of such a project should be looked at in a bit more detail from a number of viewpoints.
Firstly it seems that this project was slipped in under the radar, having only being mooted as late as late 2023, with the architect’s drawings for the project only being completed in June of this year.
All the while Drogheda United have progressed their stadium plans to an advanced stage although it is far from being a ‘shovel ready’ project. “We still have to close the land deal with the council and go to planning first” said Club Chair Joanna Byrne.
Joanna was upbeat at the pre FAI Cup final media event on Wednesday about their funding aplpication being rejected saying that the club had perhaps applied a bit too soon and that they had much to work on in the meantime, but there was no hiding her disappointment.
In addition, even though there has been a lot of turmoil in relation to the provision of a county ground for Louth GAA, their plans are also believed to be at an advanced stage.
Both projects would have benefitted greatly from a substantial funding award from central government. Both projects have received a lot of media attention over the years and no eyebrow would have been raised had these projects received funds. The ‘basketball’ arena only came into public view in early summer this year.
The criteria from the Department of Sport states that projects ‘which develop multi-sport, multi-use options around participation, recognising the importance of the life course perspective as well as the needs for enhanced collaboration will be prioritised’.
If this project was genuinely focussed on the above objective and was built as Phase 1 of a multi-sport campus, with a Stadium, Athletics Facility and Aquatic Centre to follow in future years, it may have been more palatable for the greater sporting community in the catchment.
As it stands, and in its current guise it would appear to be a basketball specific project with the focus on one basketball club in the area, excluding, it would appear the Drogheda Warriors.
There are several disappointing aspects to this story, not least the fact that the Drogheda Implementation Board backed this standalone project, even though they were fully aware of the needs of the greater sporting community in the locality, having facilitated a general meeting in DIFE in October 2023 where the need for a multi-sport campus was the main finding of the event.
In addition the lack of vision from elected reps in publicly supporting what effectively is a private facility should be called into question, as should the lack of vision of the LMETB who seem to have forgotten the need of the greater sporting community in their quest to have another sports hall provided for a school that has only recently had a new sports hall provided.
Only time will tell if this new facility, sited in St Oliver’s will in fact be open to all.
