Longford county board chairman Derek Fahy has revealed that the county’s new centre-of-excellence will be open to all sports.
The Longford chairman explained, they hope to lodge planning permission in quarter-one 2026 for the site adjacent to Pearse Park.
We're hoping to put a state-of-the-art community facility in place for all codes” Fahy told Shannonside Sports John Duffy.
“I'm open to approaches from all codes at the moment. I'm certainly not just tying it down to the GAA”.
Indeed, Longford county board purchased 32 acres for development of the centre of excellence in 2023. Earlier this year the county board secured an additional 4.2 acres near the site.
“We're looking at some conceptual designs and more conceptual designs and changing and altering” Fahy explained.
“Hopefully over the next couple of weeks, we'll be in a position to possibly go for planning permission in the first quarter of 2026, which is a fantastic time to be involved with Longford GAA”.
Project cost to be confirmed
The cost of the project is not finalised, however, Fahy expected the county board needed to raise around €500,000 over a number of years.
“At the moment, we have to hire facilities” explained Fahy. “We have to travel outside the county for training”.
“I think we have acquired, a fair chunk of land now and we're certainly open to approaches from other sporting organizations”.
“We've also been in contact with Longford county council in in in a sense of you know expanding that and welcoming any approaches that we have”.
“I'm certainly not closing the door on any sporting organization but in Longford” added Fahy.
“When we start looking for grants and possibility of grants, the inclusion of other sports goes a long way of securing any sort of funding when it comes to that”.
Fahy moves into his second-year of a five-year term as county board chairman. The only election at the county convention saw Gerry Hagan (Killoe) beat Eamon Reilly (Forgney St. Munis) for Central Council delegate.
Hagan won out by just three votes, 42-39.
