In Skerries, flooding leaves much-needed GAA pitch unusable for much of the year

Even in Friday afternoon’s heat, the eastern end of the GAA pitch in Skerries Town Park was still marshy.

As school kids practised Gaelic football along one edge, a pair of birds bathed in a small pond in front of the goal posts.

The pond sat in the middle of a shallow crater of dried mud, surrounded by yellowy green grass.

The GAA pitch, which sits behind the town’s community centre, is usually used by the local club, Skerries Harps.

But it’s been closed since last September, said the club’s public relations officer, Joanne Kenny on Friday. “It’s not a new issue. We’ve raised this to the council the last number of years that there’s been flooding.”

A lot of the club’s younger teams used the Towns Park pitch, but it’s too dangerous now, says Ronan Rasdale, coach of the under-8s. “And to watch a pitch like that lying idle is a travesty.”

The pitch is going to be badly needed by the end of May once school is out for the summer, Kenny says.

Fine Gael Councillor Tom O’Leary says that Fingal County Council should have done some short-term works to get it up and running again by then.

But they also have a long-term plan to reduce flooding which could leave the pitch out of commission for two years, he says. “So the soccer and Gaelic club will need temporary accommodation while they do the big job.”

A growing issue

Flooding has been an issue on the GAA pitch in Town Park for at least seven years, Kenny says. “But it’s certainly been far more significant in the last 12 to 18 months.”

It stems from a drainage problem which has been made worse by heavy rainfall in recent months, says O’Leary, the councillor.

“Maybe it’s climate change getting worse. The pitches are in trouble, and this is particularly difficult because it’s close to the water table, so it’s very hard to dry out,” he says.

A council spokesperson said on Tuesday evening that the high-water table means that normal sports turf drainage cannot function, because there is no drainage outfall to take the water away. “The problem cannot be resolved by mechanically pumping or otherwise removing the water from the pitch.”

Just off the Dublin Road, the park pitch is located in a flood zone, according to council maps.

It is one of four GAA pitches in the town, with the Harps’ main grounds across the Dublin Road, the Old Ballast Pit up by the train station and a further pitch out in Kelly’s Bay for kids’ teams.

But, the Town Park is a vital field for the club, which has 1,400 members, half of whom are juvenile players, Kenny says. “That pitch is adult sized, and aside from training slots, our adult teams play on it.”

Its loss has a major impact on the Harps, because across all of its teams, the club plays about 860 fixtures per year, she says. “So it’s immense.”

When the club can’t use it, they need to scatter games and training sessions across the county, says O’Leary. “They have to go to Donabate to play games. It’s serious. They’re losing half their capacity to operate.”

The flooding especially impacts the younger teams, says Rasdale, the under-8s boys team coach. “When you’re in charge of a group of 35 kids, if you have to cancel a game, they’re distraught because they’ve built themselves up.”

It has become a hazardous pitch, says Ide O’Shaughnessy, who coaches the under-11s girls team. “It’s become such a risk crossing the field.”

When temperatures aren’t as high as they were over this past weekend, it’s a large pond, she says. “And then in this heat, you have stale, stagnant floodwater sitting there for weeks, so we can’t understand why the council hasn’t been listening to our pleas for emergency renovations.”

For now, and later

O’Leary, the local Fine Gael councillor, held a public meeting on 2 May about the pitch. “More than one hundred people at that meeting, standing room only.”

But while the council has been slow to respond initially, O’Leary says it has a long-term plan to fix the Town Park pitches. “That will involve new pipe drainage and a major amount of soil being imported onto that pitch to bring it up at least a metre.”

The council recently concluded the procurement process for a multi-party contractor framework, with four contractors shortlisted for sports pitch construction projects across the county, a council spokesperson said.

The redevelopment of Skerries Town Park pitches is among the projects, they said.

But this will mean that the pitch is closed for two years, O’Leary says, which means they’ll have to look for an alternative in the meantime.

Other grounds are going to prove tricky to source, says Kenny. “Green space is a real commodity, and we need an alternative within walking, cycling distance in the town.”

O’Leary is calling on the council to buy 50 acres of land near Skerries train station, for all-weather pitches, a new biodiversity park and walking trail, he says.

“But that’s a five-year plan, and we have to build a new bridge to get over to it for walking and cycling,” he says.

In the shorter-term, the hope is that the good weather will remove some of the water, he says. “At the end of May, they are hoping to open the pitch, after nine months. Nine months.”

The council spokesperson said if the land dries out in the coming weeks, it will carry out improvements such as surface slitting and sand topdressing – a drainage system which involves slitting trenches and filling these with sand. “The Council will then return the pitch to routine use and maintenance.”

On Tuesday, Kenny seemed sceptical of whether evaporation would play all that much of a role. Flooding had worsened since the previous Friday, her photos showed.

If it can’t be fixed by the end of May, somewhere that is equally accessible for children to reach is needed, Kenny says. “That’s really it. We need to get them out while the weather is good and over the summer holidays.”