Yesterday saw the achievement of a huge milestone for the club with the completion of the tartan layer on our 400m track, with only the track lining remaining to be done now.

When we bought the land back in 2014, it was always the dream that one day we’d have our own 400m track on it. In a 25-year plan set out at the time, we envisaged adding incrementally to the facility and having a 400m track by 2030 as well as a substantial indoor building and other facilities.

Progress has exceeded our wildest dreams since then. We have spent close to €1.2 million on the development in less than 9 years and raised almost €900,000 in that time period from fundraising, sponsorship, membership and grants – with just over €300,000 debt outstanding. We hope to do the official opening in September coupled with a fundraiser to put a hole in some of this debt.

 In the meantime our fantastic athletes and coaches get to use the track to their heart’s content.

Laura Cunningham (pictured below) had the honour of being the first athlete from the club to train on the new track – very fitting as one of the longest serving members of the club having been with the club for over 16 years now from the age of 6. Laura was followed by another even longer serving member Aisling Keady who has been with the club over 17 years.

And some of our U19 group were also amongst the first to use the new track with Siofra Davis, Erin Kelly, Leonore Church, Caoimhe Kilkenny and Andrew Power training on it last night. Our younger members also got in on the action too when the U12 group arrived down for training tonight, with the first full 400m on the track being ran by Isabel Maher, Cerys Johnston and Ruby Maher.

The club are very grateful to Sean Campbell and his family who are the main contractors with their company Sportsground Specialists, for working from dawn to dusk over the last 2 weeks to get the tartan down on the track. And to the many volunteers in the last 2 weeks who supervised the track through the evening and nighttime to ensure no one walked on it. Sean is pictured below with his dedicated team.