McStay says destruction of Connacht GAA Air Dome ‘a terrible loss for Connacht’

MAYO senior team manager Kevin McStay has described the destruction of the Connacht GAA Air Dome in Bekan as ‘a huge loss for Connacht’.

The €3.5 million facility, which was the largest of its kind in the world, was destroyed by powerful winds from storm Éowyn in the early hours of Friday morning. 

Speaking following Mayo’s National Football League defeat to Dublin, McStay revealed that the Mayo seniors were the last team to train in the Air Dome before it was obliterated by the storm. 

“We were the last men out of the Dome nearly on Thursday night. It’s a terrible loss for Connacht GAA. It really is,” said McStay. 

“I’ve spoken to John Prenty about it, it’s something we were incredibly proud of…I’m talking in the past tense, but I know the people that got that built will be the same people that will rebuild it, because they are doers and they are people that get on with the job. It’s a terrible time for them as well.”

The destruction of the Dome resulted in the cancellation of the National Frisbee Championship, which was due to be played there this weekend. 

Sigerson, Fitzgibbon and Ashbourne Cup fixtures which were planned for the Air Dome in the coming weeks have also been affected. 

Connacht GAA CEO John Prenty said that Connacht GAA intended to rebuild the facility which was officially opened on July 20, 2020. 

Prenty said Connacht GAA officials left the facility at 2.30am on Friday morning. By 4.15am, the wind had destroyed it. 

“I suppose the good thing on that is that we were gone when it (collapsed) because we’d have been found today dead, simple as that. We’d have had no way of getting out, we’d have been killed stone dead,” Prenty told RTÉ.

“Thankfully we’re alive to tell the tale. We’ll get another dome,” he added. 

“I never saw a storm like this. Even at home last night it was frightening.

“It’s a big blow but we’ll rise again.

“When we opened this place in July 2020 nobody believed even five hours before it went up that it would happen. But it did happen, and it will happen again.”

Midlands North West MEP Ciarán Mullooly (Independent Ireland) has contacted EU Commissioner Raffaele Fitto, Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms, to see if emergency aid can be provided to fund the rebuilding of the Connacht GAA Air Dome. 

Huge damage …around the midlands and west : I have contacted the EU Commissioner @RaffaeleFitto today to see if emergency aid can be provided to help rebuild at @ConnachtGAA @LongfordTownFC pic.twitter.com/KiKqpuAD3S

— Ciaran Mullooly MEP (@ciaranmullooly) January 24, 2025