Ardfinnan GAA and the Heart of the Parish: Grounds, Volunteers and Community
A club is a pitch, but it is also the people who mark the lines, run the lotto and open the gate.
Drive out of Ardfinnan towards Clonmel and, a short way beyond the last houses, you pass the club’s grounds. They sit on the main Clonmel road, the R665, at Castlekeale. Both Wikipedia and the Tipperary GAA’s club profile give that location, and the grounds have been home to Ardfinnan GAA for well over thirty years.
From the Green to Castlekeale
Until the 1980s the club did not own its own ground. Before 1910, local teams played on the green in the middle of the village, and the Green, on the bank of the Suir beneath the castle, was long the club’s training ground. Tipperary GAA club focus
The decision to change that came in the early 1980s. The Tipperary GAA profile records that the club bought land from the Burke family in December 1983. (It gives the area as six acres; Wikipedia gives 6.5 acres, so the exact figure is worth checking with the club.) Development began in the mid-1980s, with Wikipedia dating the start of work to late 1984 and the Tipperary GAA profile to 1985. The grounds were officially opened in May 1988, and both sources agree on that date.
According to Wikipedia the facilities include a playing field, a covered stand, four changing rooms and a car park for up to 80 cars. The Tipperary GAA profile adds meeting rooms.
The Astro pitch
In 2018 an Astro pitch opened on an adjoining site. The Tipperary GAA profile gives its size as 35 metres by 48 metres, and records that the club had cleared all its outstanding loans by 2020. The same profile names the next ambition: a multi-purpose indoor gym and training facility, which had not begun when the article was written.
The club itself credits school coaching and the Astro pitch for helping juvenile numbers recover after they dipped.
How a small club pays for itself
Ireland’s clubs run on local fundraising, and Ardfinnan’s is documented in some detail:
- The lotto. Run with Ardfinnan Tidy Towns since 1994, it draws on Monday nights and was later moved online through Clubforce.
- A walk/run in 2020. The club held a GoFundMe walk/run with its ladies’ club that raised €28,000.
- Stars in their Eyes. A series of concert nights held at the Cahir House Hotel in 2017, 2018 and 2019, with the hope of reviving them after the pandemic years.
All of this comes from the Tipperary GAA profile. It is not glamorous, and it is how a club with a loan-free pitch gets there.
The volunteers
The profile is candid that clubs depend on a small number of people who do a great many jobs. It names the club’s officers, and it singles out one long-serving treasurer who opens and closes the grounds, runs the Monday lotto and is a regular quizmaster. We have chosen not to repeat private individuals’ names here; the profile itself, linked above, is the place to read about them.
It also lists recipients of the club’s Sean Ghael award; they run from 2005 to 2015 and include Michael “Babs” Keating in 2014, who is also a Life President of the club and appears in Wikipedia’s list of notable players.
Referees come from the club too: the profile lists four members who referee.
A parish, not just a village
Ardfinnan GAA draws from the village and the neighbouring parishes of Grange and Ballybacon, according to Wikipedia. That is the same territory served by the hurling club, Ballybacon–Grange, whose home is in Goatenbridge about three miles away. The two clubs coexist closely, and some hurlers play football for Ardfinnan. Ballybacon–Grange on Wikipedia For the sporting side, see Hurling and Football in Ardfinnan.
The club also stands alongside other village institutions. The lotto with Tidy Towns is one example; the tradition of football on the Green beside the Suir is another. If you are walking the village, our history of Ardfinnan and the story of the castle that overlooks the Green are good companions to a visit to the grounds.
Visiting
The grounds are on the Clonmel road at Castlekeale. Match days and training times change by season, so check the club’s social media or the Tipperary GAA fixtures before you go. Ardfinnan lies at the foot of the Knockmealdown Mountains, and the grounds are a good place to see what a parish can build for itself. The full story of how the club began is in Ardfinnan GAA: The Story of the Parish Club.