Huge Turnout for Arena Launch night

There was a large crowd in attendance on Saturday night at the GAA hall in Sixmilebridge for the launch of the clubs ambitious new development, the Sixmilebridge GAA Arena.

The Arena which will be used for skills development and winter training will be situated beside their Cappa lodge facility where they already have car parking, 4 dressing rooms, a gym and a full size hurling field. The arena will be a steel clad building 60m long x 30m wide and will have concrete walls internally as well as 3G Astro turf flooring and a viewing gallery.

The Arena recently received full planning permission from Clare County Council and the club are hoping to have the necessary funding in place to have the project completed in 3 years. To help with fundraising the club are now accepting standing orders at just €5 per week for 3 club lotto tickets which represents great value whilst also being able to fundraise for the project.

On the night, Syl O' Conor MC'ed and speakers included the great Paidi Butler, former national hurling director, who gave a fantastic speech on the positive impact the GAA can have in a local community by helping to combat a lot of the problems that teenagers face in their daily lives.

Paidi referenced the growing popularity in GAA all over the world and said that we now need to be the Michael Cusacks of our time and take those steps necessary to provide for participation in our national game. He said that Arenas such as that proposed are now necessities and not luxuries to be dreamed of especially in the climate in which we live in.

Deirdre Murphy, former Clare camogie player and currently UL games development officer also spoke on the night about how important it is to have the necessary facilities available for all your teams so as to keep players interested and involved.

Michael O' Halloran, former Clare great and all Ireland winner spoke of the need to try and get as much participation as possible in our national game from the local community, referencing Fr. Harry Bohan who he said regularly states that he baptises about 80 babies in Sixmilebridge every year, Mike continued that we still have a bit to do to get to 100% participation but that we arranging quite well. The Arena will help to increase and maintain participation in an indoor environment which is very friendly for children especially.

Chloe Morey, one of the clubs all star camogie players spoke about the need for proper facilities to develop skills. She mentioned that in order for a skill to become ingrained it has to be practiced everyday and the Arena would be a facility to help with that especially with the internal concrete walls.

Paddy Meehan, Chairman of Sixmilebridge GAA thanked the Arena Development committee for their hard work to date and encouraged the community to back this development to get it completed in the timeframe projected.

Arena Development Committee chairman Terence Chaplin spoke of the need for such a facility to maintain the huge amount of work that coaches are doing in the club in relation to skills development. He said that 6 month gaps each year in skills development are too much and much of the following season is taken up with rebuilding the skills from the year before lost because of the off season. The Arena would provide an environment for year round hurling and would give an extra 4 years development for players between u6 and u14.

Special guest Marty Morrissey spoke about his long links to Sixmilebridge GAA, informing the large crowd that Sean Stack was Marty's first interview on video back in the early 80s something that Marty pointed out he'll never forget! Marty also spoke of the benefit of such a facility to the local community and said he would help in any way he could promote the Arena.

Present also on the night were GAA presedential candidate Robert Frost, Pat Fitzgerald, Secretary of Clare County Board, Joe Cooney, Chairman of Clare County Board, Fr. Harry Bohan, PP Sixmilebridge, Councillor John Crowe, Councillor Pj Ryan, Councillor Alan O' Callaghan.

The club will be having an open night this week for people to sign up to the standing order and they will also be calling to every house in the parish over the coming weeks.

See some photos of the night here....