Planning permission granted for floodlights for Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada

In the week that work has started on the upgrade of the playing surface at Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada, Gaelic games in the county could be about to move into a new era with confirmation that planning permission has been granted to Leitrim GAA for the installation of TV capable floodlighting at the County grounds.

Leitrim GAA County Board's Safety & Facilities officer Gerry McGovern has called on the GAA and the Government to fully fund the development work which includes the provision of one thousand lux lighting, capable of covering televised games at night, the development of a whole new entrance and a TV gantry to accommodate television cameras in an easy accessible and safe manner.

Under the new plan, there will also be new entrance and exit gates, new ticket scanning devices, a new toilet block to incorporate ladies, gents and disabled toilets while the development will also include, new sensory room, new meeting room, to accommodate all County Committee meetings, match day steward meetings, canteen and storage rooms.

Mr McGovern, a former Leitrim County Board Chairman and Connacht GAA President, has called on the GAA and Government to assist GAA at both Club and County with the upgrade of playing facilities: "If we are to cater for the total integration target of 2027, the GAA and Government will need to provide funding to provide facilities to cater for both GAA and LGFA and camogie. If we are to cater adequately for teams in these codes, we will need to upgrade our playing and dressing rooms facilities.

This development will depend on the project being totally grant aided with the necessary funding being available, and Gerry is keen to point out that every effort will be made to achieve the necessary grant aid from whatever source possible: "GAA Clubs cannot be expected to do his development so I’m calling on the GAA and indeed the government to provide the necessary grant aid because without the grant aid being made available our facilities will not be adequate to cater for the proposed integration. If the necessary upgrades are not carried out, I believe we will not be in a position to meet the integration target."

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Phase two aims to enhance the approach to Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada and when completed, Mr McGovern believes that Leitrim GAA will have a stadium on a par with the best in the Country. He also stated that the Leitrim GAA Safety and Facilities Committee in conjunction with the Leitrim GAA Pairc Sean Park Committee have been working on this development for some time now and they are delighted that work is now in progress.

"Our first priority was the provision of new seating in the McGovern Aughavas Stand which was installed in January 2024, and then our attention turned to the resurfacing of the pitch surface. In recent times the surface of the pitch wasn’t capable of dealing with the constant rainfall and on a number of occasions important games had to be cancelled or changed to other venues.

"With the assistance of grant aid from Croke Park under the 2023 County Grounds Infrastructure fund we were successful in gaining three hundred thousand towards the project. As this figure wasn’t sufficient to complete the resurfacing project and the perimeter fencing, the clubs and all the GAA units in the county agreed to provide the necessary shortfall and so the project was ready to go ahead.

"Weather conditions were favourable for an earlier start but on Monday April 15, the appointed contractor, Prunty Pitches Ltd moved in to start the resurfacing project.”