A stadium to be proud of: Co. Board Chairman Mick Gorman

Mick Gorman, sees his time as Chairman of Kildare GAA County Board come to an end at this year's Annual County Convention having served his five year term.

The St Laurence's man can certainly look back with pride and satisfaction with affairs, off the field, as the dream of a redeveloped stadium has finally come to fruition.

Speaking to the Leinster Leader last week he said “it is very important what has been done and achieved at Conleth's” he insists; adding “very important, the stand, the pitch, the new front and back entrances and all the new facilities for the players.

It should all be a major help going forward he says “bringing the stadium up to the standard we now have it at, something to be very proud of indeed.

“Having the pitch the full length and the width also widened, it is all positive for the county and the fact that it came in on budget; came in on time is absolutely brilliant and there are many people we have to thank for that.”

The entire project came in just under the projected cost of €18m, in fact €17.78m and we owe a great deal of gratitude to Padraig McManus, Chairman of the Development Committee along with Tony Jones, Pat Molloy and Enda Murphy who all played a major part and put in Trojan work on the project, the chairman emphasises.

Mr Gorman also mentioned former executive officers, Cormac Kirwan and Ger Donnelly, adding that “full credit to the Elliott Group, who were magnificent throughout the entire project and a special mention to the Design Team under Donnachadh O'Brien, who all really manned up while Operations Manger, Louise Conlan, has also done an incredible amount of work on this project.”

The chairman added “it is right and proper to mention the support we got from the Government, from Croke Park; from Leinster Council and the Immigration Investment Programme (IIP), all crucial to the development.

Vitally important said Mr Gorman that “Kildare GAA will also come out of this project without any major milestone — financially-wise — around its neck, which really is so important.

Tomar Trust was set up some years ago by Cork man Tom Kavanagh, a successful business man, a philanthropist, education-
alist and environmentalist. Over the years the Trust has given many bursaries to different sporting and charity organisation and have supported Kildare for the last number of years through Ronan Murnaghan.

The Trust has now ended and Ronan will be taking up a full-time role running with the many different events, sporting and otherwise in the future at the redeveloped stadium.

A few jobs are still to completed such as new barriers at the Kilcullen end, it is hoped to have those completed by the time the Leagues starts in 2025.

Two new scoreboards have been ordered but have not arrived as of yet, which the chairman says is very disappointing but he says “we will have a big temporary score board in place for the county finals.

It is also hoped to play the opening round or the Leinster Club Football Championship at the new stadium when the Kildare champions will take on their Dublin counterparts; a game that is expected to be shown live on RTE 2.

So it's all systems go.

A new stadium.

A new beginning.

And so much to look forward to.