By Louise Glass

 

THERE’S been a fair bit of construction work going on around Lisnaskea Emmetts GAA club over recent months.

 

 With more than a dozen teams across all three codes – Gaelic football, hurling and Ladies football and a growing underage structure, it’s not surprising that a second pitch is needed.

It’s probably going to be another 12 months before it’s ready for play but when that time does come, the club’s main pitch will get a much deserved rest.

It’s costing in the region of £360,000 to build a second pitch, something that more and more GAA clubs are doing these days, as playing numbers continue to expand.

In a tightly knit community, everyone knows they will all benefit from this second state-of-the-art pitch. That’s why, through Club Eiméid, £80,000 was raised last year alone.

“Like Club Fermanagh, we started up Club Eiméid last year,” said chairman Colly McCarthy.

“We got people to sign up to paying £5 per week to Club Eiméid. 

“We planned to originally get 300 people to sign up, but we got more than that with people also making bigger donations towards Club Eiméid for the new development.”

It’s back up and running this year again and if the club can raise another £60 – £80,000 on top of the £220,000 Sports Council grant awarded to Lisnaskea Emmetts specifically for the second pitch development, all the hard work will have paid off.

“It’s so far so good this year again,” said Colly.

“Even with things the way they are, people’s generosity knows no bounds.

“Everyone at the club has thrown themselves into fundraising for the new pitch. We’ve survived for years using one pitch but it just can’t take the demand anymore.

We’d been looking for a while to get a second pitch, but we were only able to finally buy ground that would allow us to do that in the past couple of years.

“Everyone is really excited by it and that’s why the support amongst everyone in the club and throughout the community has been so great,” added Colly.

Indeed, with upwards of 600 members on the books, it’s little wonder such a huge amount of money has been raised in one year alone. 

Around the club, everyone is hoping that the opening of the new pitch next year will also coincide with the return of the senior men’s team to the top league flight.

For the first time in 33 years, Lisnaskea Emmetts’ senior football team were relegated to Division Two football for the 2009 season.

“We’re the first team to go down with a record number of points – 17″ said Colly.

“Of course, it’s not what you want, but we are determined to go straight back up again this year. 

“We’ve a 100 per cent record so far in the league and we’d be devastated if we didn’t get back up again. We want to be in and play at the top in Fermanagh.

“There’s a huge buzz around the club this year with the new pitch and the amount of money we have raised has lifted everyone’s spirits, so it’d be only right that the senior team should work hard enough and get the right results to get back up into Division One again.”

While it’s all business on the development front, there’s also an awful lot of important work going on within the club’s underage structure and for the first time ever, an Under 8 team has recently been formed.

With the help of Ulster Council coach, Eoin Murray, who is also a Lisnaskea Emmetts’ man, the club has been involved in a pilot programme, Gaelic Start, which targets school children in Primary One to Primary Four within the club’s catchment area.

The pilot, which also encourages parents to take part, is non-specific to GAA with the children taking part in skills and physical development

“The children want then to go out and play football and with the added interest of parents, we have been able to start up an Under 8 team. It’s been a huge success already, not just for the club but for the community,” said Colly.

Off the field and there’s an important part of the club’s identity and culture that brings it more success.

Lisnaskea Emmett’s participation in the Scór has resulted in five All-Ireland finals, four All-Ireland Novelty Acts, one All-Ireland Scór na nÓg Set Dancing title and 18 Ulster titles since 1984.

There have been a few club members respsonsible for all that success including Frank McManus and Gerry Higgins and more recently Colleen Killen.

The future then is looking bright for Fermanagh’s Lisnaskea Emmetts.