Oranmore Maree GAA One Club was delighted to welcome President of the GAA Jarlath Burns and Patrick O’Donovan, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media as they officially turned the sod on the club’s Sports Centre of Excellence, Renville Sports Grounds.
Their support for and attendance at the event further highlighted its importance for sport on a national level in Ireland and in The West.
Renville Sports Grounds will serve the sporting needs of the area with a number of full size all-weather and grass pitches and other community facilities.
The development will deliver in Renville leading sporting facilities which will benefit members of the Oranmore Maree GAA One Club (Oranmore Maree GAA Club, Oranmore-Maree Camogie Club & Naomh Mhuire Ladies Football Club merged in 2019 into one integrated club) and the wider community for generations to come.
Renville Sports Grounds will include one 4G full size pitch; three full size grass pitches; three training / warm up areas; club pavilion with multiple changing rooms; ball wall; a community facilities area; secure low level 2km lit community walking / running track; public children’s playground area; preservation of a ringfort as a local heritage, a sensory garden and educational site and a community parking area with accessible public toilets and baby changing facilities which will help further service Renville Park and Graveyard. Phase I, which will be a €4m project, primarily entails the development of the pitches, with other facilities, such as the Club Pavilion, to be developed in subsequent phases. The overall budget for the project will be in the order of €7-8m.
These amenities are greatly needed in the Oranmore Maree area. There has been a huge population growth in recent years within the area, with the population approaching 10,000. This has led to the Oranmore Maree GAA One Club operating at beyond maximum capacity with nearly 100 GAA teams at present using the local community sporting facilities. With over 2,500 pupils attending schools in Oranmore & Maree every day and with a combined membership of 1,800 people in the club (over 1,000 boys and girls), the vision for Renville Sports Grounds arose out of an urgent need to develop new sporting facilities to cater for the rapidly expanding playing numbers from juvenile to adult level. The club membership has doubled in the last 6-7 years and is expected to continue to grow strongly with the ongoing and future development of many new housing developments in the area.
Oranmore Maree GAA One Club has invested over €1.1m in the project to date between land purchase, planning and fundraising costs. In 2019, the Renville Project submitted an application to the Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) for the development of Phase I of the project. Only national governing bodies could apply to the LSSIF and Renville Sports Grounds was one of only seven LSSIF applications submitted by Croke Park and the only one
West of the Shannon. In 2020 the project was awarded a LSSIF grant of €2.1m, which was subsequently increased to €2.52m in a subsequent round of funding.
At the Official Sod Turning Ceremony GAA President Jarlath Burns said “Oranmore Maree GAA One Club should be incredibly proud of this hugely exciting project which will be one of the biggest sporting facilities in the West of Ireland when completed. The GAA is a wonderful organisation built on volunteerism and support from the local community and this is just another great example of that.”
Minister for Arts, Culture, Communications, Media and Sport Patrick O’Donovan said “It is great to be here at Renville today for the official sod turning. It marks a new era and I am delighted to be part of this ground-breaking ceremony which everybody in the community should take pride in. As a Government, we are determined to invest in our sporting infrastructure, and the commencement of this project is a further demonstration of this commitment. I want to congratulate all those involved for their remarkable achievement. The development will provide a state-of-the-art sports venue for players, where supporters and the community can gather and enjoy our traditional games for many years to come”.
Chairperson of Oranmore-Maree GAA One Club Sean Greene says “we all experienced a landmark moment for Oranmore-Maree GAA Club with Jarlath Burns Turning the Sod on Renville Sports Grounds today. This marks the club officially moving forward with the development which will have an enormously positive impact on the club and GAA in the area for generations to come.”
The club set up Renville Management Committee in 2017 to develop this state of the art project, and Chairperson of this committee, Padraig O’Callaghan says, “we are extremely grateful to GAA President Jarlath Burns for joining us today to signify the beginning.of physical works on Renville Gaelic Ground The project has taken more than eight years of planning, fundraising and commitment from the Renville Management Committee & Oranmore Maree GAA One Club.”
Oranmore-Maree GAA One Club Development Officer, Derek Cullinane, says “For over 50 years, Oranmore-Maree GAA has been at the heart of our community, ensuring all people are given the opportunity to participate in gaelic games and in supporting the holistic health of our members and our wider community. It is imperative we continue to provide these opportunities for all community members as existing facilities do not cater for the current need. Full scale All-Weather playing and training facilities are badly needed immediately to alleviate the already vastly overstretched demand. Renville Sports Grounds will greatly enhance quality of life within the Oranmore Maree Community, not only through the planned playing facilities but also through the Community Areas included in plans for the development. With groundworks for these facilities now underway, the full size 4G astro pitch will be delivered towards the end of this year with the grass pitches ready to play on in 2026. These are really exciting times for the club.”
To supplement the LSSIF grant and funds already raised by Oranmore Maree GAA Club and the Management Committee, the club will need to raise in the order of an additional €1m for
Phase I of the project. Anyone who wishes to get involved with the Renville Project or to donate, can contact Derek Cullinane on 086 234 7793 or by email at [email protected].
