30 April 2012
County Chairman Jim Murray has welcomed the latest stage of work on the Dunsilly Centre of Participation site, following the news that road works have begun on the entrance to the 25 acre site.
Building the road into the site is a specific requirement of the planning application and the County Board has for some months now been seeking financial support from within the county and through Croke Park. That persistence has paid off and work is now underway to build a road which will permit full access to Dunsilly.
Jim Murray is delighted that the work is underway.
“It is now almost a year since we invited clubs and local representatives onto the Dunsilly site to see the progress which has been made. Since that time we have had the Sports Minister on site and we have kept up our discussions with Government and with Croke Park officials. We needed to break the logjam around the road, and that involved spending a considerable amount of money which would actually open up the potential of the fuller site. We are all grateful for the contimued support which the GAA centrally for this important Antrim project.
“The pitch connected to local club Naomh Comhgalls is almost ready for use already but without the road access was impossible. That work is now underway and will actually be completed quite quickly. My hope is that before this summer is out we can have young people from across the county on the Dunsilly site playing football and hurling. I have spoken with the St Comgalls committee about the type of celebrations which might mark the opening the first pitch and they share the hopes of the County that a celebratory event can take place this year.
“This is real progress at Dunsilly. The pace of the rest of the development and the scope of the work we can complete is entirely dependent on raising the necessary funds. That is why an initiative such as ‘One Antrim’ is so important and I hope clubs, players and supporters will get on board.”
