AFTER months of planning, Fair Green Celtic FC, Ennis’ newest soccer club have been given the green light to compete in the Third Division next season, writes Ivan Smyth.
Chairman of the club Declan Ryan believes Fair Green Celtic FC can help to arrest the drop off in numbers playing soccer in Ennis.
“In the last couple of years, with COVID and everything, we’ve seen a big drop off in the numbers playing. Players of all ages have stepped away. We have been part of committees and have played growing up so we have lads involved in us who are well known in Clare soccer and will do the work needed to get the club up and running.”
Ryan will serve as Chairman and assistant manager while Richie O’Grady will manage the team and will also act as secretary. Paudie Vaughan and Eoin O’Loughlin will also work with the junior side’s management team with the latter also acting as the League Delegate. Alan McNamara (Vice Chairman) and Keith Dormer (PRO) will also help the running of the club.
Ryan states the reaction to the formation of Fair Green Celtic FC has been overwhelmingly positive with people keen to play for Ennis’ newest side.
“We have got a very positive response. We started the Facebook page a few days after we got the go ahead. For the first two or three days the phone was ringing off the hook. We have lads lined up to play so there is a real appetite for this. We have a couple of businesses on to us about sponsorship of the club so the interest is there.”
Ryan and O’Grady were part of Avenue United B’s management team when they reached the Clare Cup final and won the First Division in 2020. The pair initially came together midway through 2021 with a plan to start a new team.
“We were six or seven months talking before we spoke to the Clare league. We were doing our homework and making sure we had everything covered. With the teams we’ve managed, we always try to fill them with the right lads on the pitch and behind the scenes.”
Fair Green Celtic FC’s colours are black and yellow while their home games are provisionally planned to be played in the Lees Road astroturf.
The club want to promote a local charity on their home and away kits when they start competing next season.
“On the back of each kit we want to pick a local charity and give them some publicity. We haven’t picked what charity we will promote yet. We might do a draw or see what our members think because there are a lot of worthy causes out there. We want to give back to the community we came from.”
The chairman admits it will take time and hard work to get the club up to where he believes they can go. There are plans to field underage sides in the near future although the club are just focusing on establishing their junior side next season.
“The plan is to get the club up and running and to try climb up the divisions. We have to get the right people and then we can build. We have a five year plan where we want to get underage teams that can feed in to the junior side. We want to make the club sustainable so the aim is to field at different grades and build the club properly.”
Ennis rugby club continues to develop and produce talent that has recently reached the international stage. With Éire Óg’s footballers becoming county champions and their hurlers reaching last year’s county semi finals, Ryan hopes to see soccer compete with other sports and prosper in Ennis.
“We have teams in Avenue and Ennis Town that are competing in the Premier Division so the interest to play is there. The population is there too. Shannon has teams for all sports so in Ennis we can definitely get people out playing if we do things the right way. Those of us involved with this club are not all from the Fair Green so it’s open to anyone to join.”
“Those of us who grew up around Fair Green have memories of the place being wedged with people out playing. We don’t see young lads on the road or out and about playing the game as much so hopefully we can help change that.”