New GAA pitch unveiled in landmark day for Clonoe

CLONOE O’Rahilly’s chairman Darren Devlin has described the grand opening of a new pitch at O’Rahilly Park as a ‘momentous’ occasion for the club.

The sod was blessed on Saturday afternoon by Canon Fee and Fr McCallion in front of hundreds of spectators, coniciding with Clonoe’s Jim Devlin Cup group stage opener against Errigal Ciaran, their first competitive outing of the new season.

More than a decade in the making, the new pitch will go a long way to cater for burgeoning playing numbers at Clonoe, something which was happily acknowledged by club chairperson Darren Devlin.

“This project has been on the go for 10 or 12 years, from the buying of the ground and getting the pitch on it. It’s been a long process but we got there – and Saturday was a momentous day for the club surely.

“We have 30 odd teams training every week – we had one pitch and then we added a training pitch, so we’ve gone from having one pitch to three pitches, so it should be a great help right across the club.”

Clonoe will now swiftly move on to the next stage of their ambitious development plans, a new 600-seater stand with changing facilities, recovery rooms, toilets, shop and disabled access lift.

The new stand will be funded in-part by Clonoe legend Kevin McCabe, a self-made millionaire who starred for Tyrone during the 1980s, while the club also recently commenced ticket-selling for their biggest ever development draw.

“We’re getting a bit of help with it,” quipped Darren.

“We’re hoping to get started on the new stand by the end of this year, so it’s all sort of happening for us.”