Longford Rugby Club are delighted to announce that the club has been awarded a provisional grant of €491,231 for the extension of our current 4G artificial training area to a full size state of the art flood light community artificial pitch. The pitch when finished will be one of the only fully flood light 4G artificial pitches suitable for contact sports outside Dublin and will be available for use by the whole community. It will allow year round sport to be played in the heart of Longford Town in anything but the most extreme weather and will mark a huge investment in County Longford and surrounding counties.
The grant was made by the Longford Community Development Committee (LCDC) under the Rural Development Programme (Leader) 2014-2020 implemented by Longford Community Resources (LCRL).
It marks the next stage of development for Longford Rugby Club, which has always been at the forefront of innovation in Irish Club Rugby.
Developments in Longford Rugby Club over the years include the first all weather ‘Prunty’ pitches outside Northern Ireland, the first fully match standard flood light pitches outside Dalymount Park, a full extension/refurbishment of the club house including state of the art bar, function room and restaurant, gym, separate female changing facilities and most recently the Mel Diffley 4G training pitch which will be extended to form the new community pitch, the Hugh Connolly Youth Centre and fully tarmacking the car park.
The grant will cover a large part of the cost’s; however, the club will need to embark on a round of intensive fund raising to cover the remainder. Any members or friends of the club that can contribute in any way are most welcome. We will need every member, friend and all of Irish Rugby to get behind us at this exciting time.
This facility is going to be a brilliant addition for Longford, the Midlands and surrounding counties for rugby and a range of other sports. We would sincerely like to thank the LCDC and LCRL for their help to date and look forward to working with them to bring the project to fruition.
Longford Rugby Club is a progressive club that fields Men’s/Women’s teams at Senior Level and has more than 400 Mini/Youth Players training every week both male and female from U6 right through to U18. We are always looking for more players, coaches and volunteers at all levels of the club. If you would like to join Longford Rugby Club at this exciting time, please contact any club coach or volunteer. More information can be found on www.longfordrugby.com
For media enquiries contact Tommy Butler PRO 0863143968 tommylbutler@gmail.com
Pictured below is the flyer for the opening of the Mel Diffley Pitch, which will now be extended to a full size community pitch!
