€15.3 million in funding announced for Shannonside Recreational Campus

€15.3 million in PEACEPLUS funding has been announced for the Shannonside Recreational Campus (SRC).

Leitrim County Council, in partnership with the Shannonside Regional Recreational Campus Committee, has announced the funding for the Shannonside Peace Arena.

This will be a transformative shared space that will serve communities across Leitrim and the wider Upper Shannonside region.

The Peace Arena will feature multi-sport courts and a high performance gym.

Funding from the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund and the Community Sports Facility Fund has also been announced.

The Shannonside Recreational Campus represents one of the most significant investments in sports and recreation ever secured for the region.

The campus, on the Dublin Road in Carrick-on-Shannon, promises world class facilities. These will include a full size 4G all-weather pitch for GAA, soccer and rugby and a 400m 8 lane tartan running track.

Also planned are an outdoor grass pitch and a hurling wall, changing facilities and parking.

From its earliest beginnings, the project has grown into a regional movement supported by the Shannonside Regional Recreational Campus Committee (SRRC), hundreds of volunteers, sporting organisations, community groups, and local businesses. Over the years, the SRRC committee and Leitrim County Council has delivered a comprehensive suite of preparatory work.

This has included design development, planning applications, business planning, governance structures, stakeholder engagement, and communications platforms.

SEUPB Ceo Gina McIntyre stated that shared spaces like the Peace Arena “act as beacons of hope within communities… their impact goes far beyond bricks and mortar.”

The Special EU Programmes Body has the statutory remit for managing EU programmes within Northern Ireland and the border counties, helping to foster peace and prosperity across the region.

Local and national leaders echoed this sentiment during the official launch earlier this month, calling the project a transformative investment in community wellbeing, cohesion, and regional development.

Progress on the development is accelerating behind the scenes. Following a public tender process, McAdam Design Ltd, one of Ireland’s leading multidisciplinary built design consultancies, has been appointed as Design Team Lead for the design and construction management stages.

The project is now moving onto the construction procurement stage.