'If you build it, they will come' wasn’t really a suitable mantra for Lámh Dhearg - they already had the demand for a second pitch long before this year.
It is fitting though that, 30 years after purchasing the land adjacent to their main pitch, they’ve developed a second full-size playing field at their Hannahstown home.
This weekend, they’ll mark the pitch opening this weekend with a festival of activities before Sunday’s official opening, which will be attended by Ulster GAA president Ciaran McLaughlin and Belfast Lord Mayor Tina Black.
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The site at Hannahstown now boasts two full-size pitches, a 3G training pitch, a children’s play park and a Highway to Health walking trail.
The club were given a loan of £100,000 from Croke Park, but the remainder of the costs, expected to be in excess of £400,000, was financed by club members.
The fact that they raised the money needed for the development of their second pitch without any government grants is a remarkable feat and one which will be celebrated this weekend according to club stalwart Sean McElhatton.
“The club compiled a list of priorities as part of our new development plan in 2016. The single highest facility need was for a second pitch,” said McElhatton.
“That was only to be expected given the growth of senior players across football, hurling and camogie.
“We set about thinking of ways to fund it. We had our last pitch opening in 1984 and it was a big day in the club’s history.
“The opening of our new pitch on Sunday will probably be the highlight of the last 30 or 40 years of development.
“When I joined the club in 1970 from Dungannon Clarke’s, Lámh Dhearg had maybe two teams. We’ve now almost 40 teams across men and women’s football, hurling and camogie.
“The disappointing aspect from our own perspective is that no government or sporting agency provided any funding to help us. We managed to obtain a loan of £100,000 from Croke Park.
“We simply had to set about raising the rest of this money ourselves. That was a huge ask.
“The support from the local community has been fantastic. Families have put their hands in their pockets and have donated their hard-earned money to the pitch development.”
Raising money for a project on this scale was always going to be a huge task for any club. Lámh Dhearg planned to host a host of major fundraisers in 2020, including their annual golf classic and a gala dinner for 500 guests at the Titanic Centre.
Like many other plans that year, they went out the window as the world dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Hannahstown club had to resort to a simpler, yet effective method of fundraising.
“Some of our former players and elder clubmen Pat McCaigue, Frank Fitzsimons, Joe Finnegan just headed out and started knocking people’s doors - they gathered up somewhere in the region of £80,000 from donations alone.” explained McElhatton.
“I’m a member of Club Tyrone and we based our funding model on their ‘pitch patrons’ idea.
“We started off with five or six pitch patrons and we’ve now 245 and they donate what they can every month. That’s been our main source of funding.
“The next task is to get floodlights installed and we are hoping to get an electronic scoreboard very soon.
"We’re putting it all together so that we have a fit-for-purpose, state-of-the art facility for the next 40-50 years.
“We hope our pitch patrons stay with us to finish the whole project.”
McElhatton, who won an Ulster Senior Football Championship title with his native Tyrone in 1973, joined the aptly-named Lámh Dhearg club three years earlier and is currently part of the pitch development committee.
The club mulled over several ideas on how to best mark the grand opening of their second pitch.
In the end, they opted for an entire weekend of festivities showcasing what Lámh Dhearg has to offer the community of Hannahstown and beyond.
“We wanted to have a weekend that would just be an entire community festival for everybody in our club,” added McElhatton.
“I keep reminding the present players that they’re standing on the shoulders of the men and women who played under difficult times before them.
"The dawn walk, which takes place on Saturday morning (5.45am) symbolises a new era in the history of the club.
“We’ve a brilliant team of coaches who turn up each night to coach the young kids in all weather conditions - this new facility is as much for them as it is for anyone else.
“The whole community in Hannahstown have really rowed in behind this project - it is great to see that it has come to fruition.”
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