Ambitious plans to develop a new centre of hockey excellence in the southeast have been revealed by a local club in partnership with Hockey Ireland.
The facility will be in Enniscorthy and will allow clubs in the region to give enough training and match time to all their men's, women's and children's teams instead of having to share a space as they are at the moment.
A 25-year lease has been agreed between Enniscorthy Hockey Club and the County Showgrounds, currently home to the local greyhound stadium, which will give the hockey amenity security of tenure and allow backers to press ahead with their plans.
With a cost of up to €1m, the centre of excellence will include playing facilities as well as changing rooms while using the existing recreational space at the dog track.
And, if enough funding is raised, it will allow the project to be of sufficient quality to attract international fixtures to Enniscorthy.
Enniscorthy is one of three clubs in the area currently using a community astroturf facility in the town, which is also the base for southeast hockey training, and the success of the region's teams mean they have outgrown that shared space.
"We're growing and hopefully this will mean that we will be able to get there," club chairperson Irene Doyle said.
"It's important to be able to develop, which we can't do unless we get tenureship. So to get tenure on a pitch is huge and we're so grateful that Enniscorthy dog track and the Showgrounds came up with this suggestion to us.
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"It's going to be such a change for our club, in the direction that we can go in. We'll be able to bring in people who at the moment think they can't play hockey, for example mums and chums, dads and lads, we'll be able to bring in para-hockey that we can't at the moment.
"Then, of course, for the development of our club we'll be able to bring on our players and go at a higher level and give them the opportunity of playing for Ireland, playing for inter-pros, there's such an opportunity for them," she added.
Pitch development project lead Suzanne O'Leary described the planned move to the greyhound stadium as "a gamechanger" for all involved in hockey in the region.
"About five years ago our coaches started to tell us that we were limited by the number of hours. They couldn't bring through our players competitively and there's three hockey clubs all playing on the one limited facility, we couldn't get more hours so we went about looking at what our options were.
"The Showgrounds is a multi-sport facility as it is, and when the Showgrounds and the greyhound committee asked us would we be interested in coming here, it meant we could have tenure which absolutely opens up enormous opportunities for the club. It's very exciting."
The cost of the project will be paid for through a combination of local fundraising and civic funding as well as, they hope, a sports capital grant.
In pursuit of the latter, they have the backing of Hockey Ireland who will use the Enniscorthy pitch as part of their regional development strategy.
"[We are] fully supporting Enniscorthy's applications for grant funding and also making available our development resources to them, once that pitch is in place, to develop the sport further," David Curran of Leinster Hockey said.
He added that international hockey in Enniscorthy is a realistic proposition for the coming years.
"I don't see any reason why not. If the facilities are good enough, and that's essentially what Hockey Ireland look for - they look for the space and the facilities in order to have international fixtures, and also to provide coverage," he said.
The local aspect of the fundraising is due to get under way next month.
