COVENTRY City Football Club has signed up to help local youngsters learn the art of GAA games.
A new partnership between the city team and St Finbarrs GAA club will see the ‘Sky Blues’ relocate their school holiday camps and development squads to the site of the Irish sports and social centre.
The Holbrooks club boasts a state-of-the art 4G pitch, recently been installed at a cost of £250,000, which is an attractive option for the city’s football team.
That investment came within a wider £2million package spent on new facilities for the glistening Irish centre, as committee members looking after St Finbarrs GAA and social clubs hope to bring the 61-year-old site back to its former glory.
“We hope to be able to offer as many young people as possible the opportunity of sport, and to also introduce them to the fantastic sport of Gaelic games", St Finbarrs GAA chairman Danny Coleman told The Irish Post.
"The partnership with Coventry City FC and the level of investment we have put into place to develop our facilities will help us to meet these goals,” he added.
“Despite a lapse of a number of years, we already have three underage GAA teams up and running and we hope this will now go from strength to strength."
Following this week’s announcement, Coventry City FC will use St Finbarrs’ floodlit pitch and facilities to host its school holiday camps and development squads, as well as helping the club develop its underage Gaelic and soccer teams.
In 1981 St Finbarrs’ field hosted exhibition games between the Senior All Ireland Hurling Champions Offaly and Tipperary.
The club hopes that field - ‘the oldest GAA pitch in Coventry’ – will bear the St Finbarrs stars of the future over the coming years.
Men's training takes place at St Finbarrs on Wednesday evenings from 8pm-9pm, while the underage teams train on Saturdays from 12noon to 1pm,
The club welcomes new adult members and youngsters aged 8 to 12 years old.
For further information visit www.st-finbarrs.com
