Castlebar Mitchels Ladies Football club seek their own homeMitchels Ladies Football club have made a pitch to the local council to provide a site for their own playing facilities

Edwin McGreal

Castlebar Mitchels Ladies Football club have made a pitch to Mayo County Council to provide a site for their own playing facilities.
The ladies wing of the Mitchels club currently rely on Davitt College’s pitch in the county town for their training sessions and home games.
But in an attempt to cater for their ever expanding club, they are requesting the use of council property adjacent to the Lios na Circe housing estate on the Belcarra road out of the town.
Last Thursday at the monthly meeting of Castlebar Municipal District, a delegation from the club gave a presentation, articulating why they feel they need such a facility.
Club Secretary Fintan Keane told the meeting that the club have 264 female players. In 2016 to date they’ve held 250 training sessions and 90 matches at Davitt College. They have nine teams and 27 volunteer coaches.
Mr Keane said the club has enjoyed ‘an exceptional recent growth in membership’ and that they are ‘extremely grateful’ to Davitt College for the use of their pitch but that they have overgrown that facility.
They sought a 99 year lease of ten of the 12 acres of the Lios na Circe field from the council and say they intend to develop two pitches, dressing rooms and parking facilities there.
Mr Keane said the club will take on the responsibility of acquiring funding for all of this, including raising the site which would otherwise be a flood risk, he said.
Mr Keane added the club would facilitate other clubs using the facility, citing Castlebar Mitchels Camogie Club as an example.

Proposal
Cllr Blackie Gavin (FF) welcomed the proposal.
“The land is lying there and nothing will be done with it for 10 or 20 years. We should grab this now,” he said.
Cllr Therese Ruane (SF) said she knew from personal experience of playing and coaching Ladies Football how difficult it can be to get access to pitches.
Cllr Frank Durcan said he had been involved with the acquisition of several sports facilities and spoke of the importance in keeping young people involved in sport.  
Cllr Al McDonnell spoke of the influence Carnacon Ladies club has had on the game but how they have to rely on the goodwill of Ballintubber GAA Club for facilities. He then argued that Carnacon should have access to this facility.
“If this proposal worked to the detriment of my own team, I’d have a problem with it. I’d like to see this facility not only available for other teams in Castlebar but, from time to time, for other teams in the Municipal District and on that basis I’d support it,” he said.
Cllr Frank Durcan quipped that the land was in Castlebar and that Cllr McDonnell could ‘make a field available to Carnacon’ if he wanted.
Mayo County Council Enginner Ann Sweeney said that when they were developing houses nearby, the ground conditions ‘were not ideal’ and proposed a site visit to examine the suitability of the land. This was agreed.