Athenry News & Views Winter 2025

Winter 2025

St Mary’s GAA Club Athenry

Plans for Floodlit Astro Turf and ball Wall Area in 2026

By: Joe Kelly

St. Mary’s GAA Club, Athenry is one of the largest and longest established sporting organisations in the community. We have two bases in Carnaun and Raheen - with one pitch located at Raheen Community Centre and our main Club Grounds which are located at Carnaun. Here we have 3 full size pitches, a clubhouse and a walkway for our club members and the local community to use. With over 750 members, we cater for Hurlers and Footballers from Juvenile to Adult in both codes. In addition to this we provide facilities for Athenry Camogie Club, our local 2nd level schools and also the local national schools. We are delighted to occasionally welcome the local Skylark Centre operated by The Brothers of Charity. This means that our facilities are a hive of activity all year round. In the last number of years we have seen a huge growth in playing numbers. In order to cater for this growth we have expanded our facilities hugely by increasing our facilities in Carnaun from 1 adult pitch to 3 pitches. 2025 was a successful year on the field of play for our sporting teams. It saw the long-awaited return of our Senior Hurlers to the premier grade - Senior A. They acquitted themselves very well and will look forward to 2026 with great enthusiasm. Our other adult Hurling teams all reached the knockout stages and our Intermediate team will play in the Reeves Cup in 2026 following the various championship restructures. Our Junior Footballers performed admirably and with a little more luck in certain games, we could have reached the knockout stages. In underage competitions, our Minor hurlers were unfortunate to lose out to a strong Oranmore Maree team in the county final. Many of these players will look forward to playing adult hurling in 2026. Regarding underage, the standout successes were definitely the u14 hurlers and u15 footballers in their respective county finals, with both teams being victorious. Uniquely, our u12 hurlers also shared the cup following a thrilling Cup final with Portumna which ended in a draw. Various other teams in both codes reached finals and well done to all players and management concerned with all teams.

We are continually striving to improve and develop our facilities and this will continue in early 2026 with the commencement of our large Floodlight Astro Turf and Ball Wall area. This facility will be a tremendous addition to our club grounds and will be hugely beneficial when it comes to winter training. Fundraising and a large Sports Capital Grant have made the construction of this facility possible. We were fortunate to receive a large grant from Galway County Council and this has enabled significant Car Park and Ground works to take place. This will help to make the grounds more accessible and safer for people of all ages. 2025 also saw a grant of planning permission for floodlights on our Sand based pitch and we hope to see these works take place in the coming 12-18 months. Again, this will further increase the capacity of our facilities for use on a year round basis. All of the significant improvements would not be possible with funding from the various state bodies and the support from our local community. Businesses in the local area are also very generous. Allied to this, our Sponsor Basil Holian has been a huge addition to our club in recent years. We would like to thank all of these people who contribute so generously to our club on an annual basis in addition to our club officers, team managers, players, volunteers and club members.

One of the new pitches at Carnaun that includes a Walkway for Club Members and local Community