‘A dream come true’ for Avenue United

“A dream come true” is how Avenue United FC chairman Gearóid Mannion described this week’s confirmation that the club has become the owners of the former Roslevan GAA grounds.
After many months of background work, Avenue United have now purchased the grounds, which were formerly the home of St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield GAA Club and which also hosted many years of Clare Community Games finals. So the next chapter in the Avenue story begins at a location already steeped in sporting history.
“It’s been a long-held dream of many club members to have a ground of our own. It wasn’t affordable for so many years but, thankfully, we now have completed the purchase of this facility in a fabulous location. It is easily accessible from the motorway for travelling teams and for Clare clubs as well,” Mannion told The Clare Champion this week.
“The club now has a fantastic opportunity to offer home-ground facilities to, not only its own members, but also to visiting teams and supporters from Clare and beyond,” the chairman added. He also acknowledged the club members who worked for years to make it possible, in particular those who support the ongoing fundraising activities such as the annual golf classic, 200Club Draw and Aviva Vantage Club initiative.
“We looked at a lot of fields over the years in various locations. This venue puts them all in the shade,” the Ennis-based chairman said.
The area of ground involved is 5.25 acres and the long-term plan is to have two pitches. At the moment, however, the club is not looking that far ahead. The immediate plan is to clean up the pitch.
“We will be looking at plans now that we have secured the site. We will have to have a significant amount of fundraising. We have had a development fund in place and I am delighted to pay tribute to the members who have been part of our 200 members club and this is what helped generate the finance we needed to complete this purchase,” the chairman said.
Avenue United was founded on April 12, 1983 in Mickey Kerin’s Bar, just down the road from Marian Avenue and Steels Terrace, the area that gave birth to the club. For the first year or two, only lads from these roads were allowed to play on the team. The Fairgreen across the road was the obvious homeground
The Fairgreen remained Avenue United’s home for many years and was the venue for many successes. In the late-’90s Avenue played a few seasons in Gerry Daffy’s field in Ruan and later, with the opening of Lees Road, they moved to the state-of-the-art facilities there.
“All the while, many club members yearned for a pitch they could call their own. Many locations were looked at, some of them totally unsuitable in hindsight. Celtic Tiger land prices made the dream unaffordable. With the collapse of the property market, things started to look up and the search for land gained momentum again,” according to the chairman.
Mannion went on to acknowledge the significant work carried out by Isobel O’Dea of MacCarthy, McMahon & O’Dea Solicitors, Damien Barrow of Curtin O’Friel Accountants and Kieran and Paddy at Sherry Fitzgerald McMahon Auctioneers. “AIB Bank in Ennis have also been a tremendous help to us throughout. A number of our own members have made financial pledges, for which we are very grateful and without which we would not have been able to get the deal across the line. We would like to acknowledge the massive support we have received from the committee of the Clare Schoolboys League.”
Looking ahead, Mannion said, “We have spoken with some of the retailers at the Roslevan Shopping Centre and we plan to work closely with them in the future to ensure that the re-opening of the grounds will bring benefit to them also.
“We have a long-term plan for the complete redevelopment of the grounds but the reality is that we can’t afford that right now. We have a lot of fundraising ahead of us and we are appealing to the public to help us in our efforts. We will have to explore what grants may be available and we would be happy to hear from anyone who can help us in this area,” he explained.
A grounds sub-committee has been appointed and this group has already commissioned a re-development plan from an agronomist.
“The playing surface is overgrown and now requires rehabilitation in the short-term until we can afford to re-lay a completely new playing surface. The dressing rooms have been derelict for a number of years and sustained serious water-damage during the winter freeze of 2009-10 so significant renovations are required. The success of our fundraising drive in the coming months will determine how much re-development work we do, so we have divided the works into a number of phases,” he said.
“Obviously the redevelopment is primarily for our own club but there are wider community benefits also as we will be able to accommodate a greater number of kids, in particular. The town of Ennis is better served having Roslevan used as a sports venue, rather than having it lying idle indefinitely. Our (6-10-year-olds) Avenue Academy will remain at Lees Road for the foreseeable future. Our schoolboys and our adult teams will use a combination of Lees Road and Roslevan, once the surface is playable.”
Concluding, Mannion said, “Avenue United are absolutely thrilled to have been in a position to acquire the grounds,” before repeating his appeal for financial assistance for the development.