Ger Donnelly recalls the Cedral St Conleth's Park redevelopment, from Day 1

Cast your mind back to 2015.

Dublin defeated Kerry to win the Sam Maguire in front of 82,243.

Kilkenny defeated Galway to capture The Liam McCarthy Cup in front of 57 more fans than attended the football decider.
Sarsfields defeated Athy to capture the Kildare senior football championsip.

And Ger Donnelly became the new Chairman of Kildare GAA.

Donnelly became the second Castlemitchell man to sit in that particular hot-seat, the other being Jack Wall back in 1989.
Soon after taking up office Ger Donnelly sowed the seeds for the re-development of St Conleth's Park.

There had, of course, been moves some years previously to head out the Naas Road to a green field site but a financial crash around that time, happly, put paid to that.

Speaking to Ger Donnelly a couple of weeks before the official opening of the redeveloped stadium, he recalled meeting Padraig McManus in The Osprey Hotel in Naas in 2017.

Naas native McManus was the former top man in ESB while he also over saw the redevelopment of the Curragh Racecourse, just a mile up the road from St Conleth's.

Mr McManus did not need any encouragement to get involved, an avid GAA man with huge experience he immediately took charge of the project along with a newly formed committee.

One thing that Ger Donnelly insisted on from Day 1 was everyone involved, from Kildare Co. Board, the clubs of the county, the local business community and most importantly of all, the nearby residents be kept involved, fully involved and this certainly helped when it came to getting planning etc through as smoothly as possible.

“We had to go through the loops” said the former chairmn, “get our management team together; go to Kildare GAA, to the clubs, keeping everyone in the know; keep everyone in the loop prior to applying for planning permission in 2018.”

The design team was put together, under Donnchadh O'Brien, and then, said Ger, we had to get the design down and paper and submit the plans.

“In August 2018 we got planning permission, which was a tremdnsous achievement, right bang smack in the centre of a town; a new stand to replace the old existing stand; floodlights; widening the pitch, lengtening the pitch and bringing comfort into the stadium for all our fans that attend our games; not the mention the up-to-date facilities for the most important people for all, the players, it was for everyone, inside and outside the county; our media partners; everyone that had an interest in GAA and in particular in Kildare GAA.”

Finance of course was vital in a project that was going to cost many of millions as Ger explains.

“In fairness we (county board) had some money put aside in a development fund, we presented our plans to Leinster (Council) we met the chairperson of Leinster at the time, John Horan; at national level we brought down Pauric Duffy; we met all the various committees in Croke Park, the infra-structure committee; the finance committee so the financial plan was put in place and then you put in your planning and simply just wait.”

Everything was going well, we got the planning permission but we had to wait, the project was always going to be an 18 month build no matter when you started but with all the other pieces that had to fall in line, in fact from start to finish we were facing into a two-and-half-year project, but a lot of it would be done before we would have to close down the ground.

The planning went through smoothly enough, I think the timing could not have been better as it was right in the middle of when we were playing Mayo and the controversy and the Newbridge Or Nowhere.

“We insisted at that time we wanted to host that game and by being told we did not have a ground suitable, that gave us fierce ammunition and that got everyone on board and thankfully there were no objections to the new stadium but as I said at the outset to get planning permission for a stadium in the middle of the town, floodlights, etc it was a major achievement; we get everyone behind; keep it in the town; keep the business people on board, so that was brilliant.

“We had several opportunities for people to view the plans” said Ger, adding “we put on a presentation in the Town Hall in Newbridge; having shown the plans at a county board meeting several times, so all was running well and we simply had to wait for the funding model.

“We were obviously in for the large structural fund from the government and while we know the money was coming we just couldn't get a date of what it was actually coming; that did delay the process.

“Eventually we got the money promised, January 2020, ready to go; decided when were would commence ensuring that we would lose just one full season ... then covid hit.”

No one knew or realised what covid would do not just to us, not just to the GAA but more seriously throughout the country; we, the GAA, were only secondary to what was happing, said Ger.

The country was closed down and when eventually it began to re-open, slowly, there were delays, supply problems; the energy crisis with the Ukraine war which of course put prices through the roof; which meant more money was needed for the project.

Despite covid, despite all the various problems, the cost increases, etc, etc, the project finally got up and running in March 2023 and now bang on schedule is about to reopen.

Ger Donnelly takes up the story.

“Thankfully we are now at a stage after a lot of work, tremendous work by an amount of people, volunteers, so many people wanted to help to do this for Kildare GAA, thankfully now we are about to re-open and to be honest I was over there (St Conleth's) a few days ago and it is just brilliant; I am so proud of it; the satisfaction is unbelievable.

“When I think back on the amount of time and effort that went into this project it is all now justified because the end product is just unreal, unbelievable the way it has turned out the way it has.

“I am looking forward to the opening so much; looking forward to going over to see club teams, to seeing county teams playing in it; the comfort that it will give the players, the fans, even the media” he laughs, “you won't be fighting over a chair anymore in the press room; it is unreal.”

And you will be very pleased Tommy, there is wi-fi, he adds.

“Remember at the end of the day we have to pay for it; I did not want to walk-away after my time was up as county chairman with a new stadium but a massive big debt. That has not happened, thankfully.

The current officers at county board level have all played their role; as have previous chairpersons and all the various officers down the years, they all had the same dream but it just didn't happy for various and varied reasons; covid scuppered us but thankfully the country got back open and to see St Conleth's open on county football final day and county hurling final the following week, sure I'd love to be playing and togging out myself.”

Now there's a thought!