For the past century, Creggs GAA has been at the heart of sporting life in the area. Now, the local club has ambitious plans to further develop facilities and amenities, and ensure that the growing number of young people involved in Gaelic games in the locality have top class coaching and facilities available to them.
Central to the club’s ambitious development plans is a major draw that is currently underway, culminating on Easter Sunday when the main prizes, including a top prize of €5,000, will be drawn.
The club’s facilities have been developing steadily over several years. Most recently, throughout 2019 and 2020, there was a huge local voluntary effort put towards upgrading the club’s dressing rooms.
Club PRO Gerry Keegan notes that the recent upgrading work provided the impetus that club members needed to put in place a longer-term plan, ensuring that local sporting enthusiasts had 21st century GAA facilities available in their local area.
“The recent upgrading work led to some conversations at committee meetings about putting a plan in place to develop the facilities further over the next five years. A number of ideas for developments were put forward.
“The pitch has deteriorated in recent years, with compaction leading to problems with waterlogging, so improving the playing surface is obviously a priority. In conjunction with this, we will develop a training area that can accommodate some of the heavier winter training and warm-ups, etc., which will allow us to keep the pitch in the best possible condition for matches. We also wanted to improve facilities for club supporters, and the addition of a scoreboard and stand are also included in the five-year plan”.
A finance group was put together to come up with ideas to raise the funds required to make the plans a reality. This group has put a huge amount of work into researching fundraising ideas and have devised a very impressive plan. Part one of the plan is the €15K monster prize draw, which will culminate on Sunday. The top prize of €5000 in cash will instantly grab people’s attention, but looking down through the fifteen prizes, it’s clear that it is an excellent prize pot overall.
The club is grateful to all the local businesses that continue to support the club financially. Ward & Burke have been the club’s main sponsor for many years.
“We are acutely aware of the very difficult year many businesses have had, and feel we must mention our two local pubs (Roarke’s and Dolan’s) who, despite having to close their doors for the past year, have sponsored prizes in the draw.
“The draw is well on the way to being a great success, and we want to thank all who have supported the club by entering. The support from within our own community is always so strong, but we have also received great support from our neighbouring clubs and communities, with many entries coming from Glinsk, Fuerty, Tremane, Athleague, Oran, Glenamaddy, Ballygar and GAA people across Roscommon and Galway.
“The club has also had significant donations from the Keegan and Kenny families in the USA. These donations to the club in memory of the recently deceased Jimmy Kenny and Christy Keegan have once again proved that Creggs may be a small village, but it has very deep roots.
“We should note that this is not the first time the club has endeavoured to raise large sums of money to develop facilities. Times were very tough in 1986 and ‘87, but nonetheless, the community got behind the club to fund the purchase of the pitch, with huge fundraising efforts ranging from large social nights in Creggs, Dowd’s in Glinsk and – famously – The Galtymore of Cricklewood in London. Parishioners were asked to give interest-free loans from £20 to £100 to the club. Many families refused to take back the money they proffered when it was offered to them some time later”.
The draw takes place on Easter Sunday, so please get your ticket before the deadline of midnight on Easter Saturday to be in with a chance of winning one of fifteen great prizes and support a small rural GAA club in the process.
