Taoiseach Opens Nenagh’s New Pitch as Hockey’s North Tipperary Revival Gets a Home
Some openings are just ribbon-cutting. This one meant a bit more.
The new all-weather hockey pitch at Nenagh College in County Tipperary was officially opened on Monday, with Taoiseach Micheal Martin doing the honours and Hockey Ireland CEO Richard Fahey among those in attendance. For Nenagh Hockey Club and the wider North Tipperary community, it is the biggest day in the club’s modern history.
The numbers tell the story of how it happened. Around 475,000 euro came through the government’s Community Sport Facilities Fund, with the club and its supporters raising a substantial sum on top. The project was a joint effort between Nenagh Hockey Club, Nenagh College, Tipperary Education and Training Board and Hockey Ireland, built over several years of fundraising, planning and relationship-building by the club’s volunteers.
And what a few years it has been for Nenagh. The club only reformed in 2019. Just over a year ago it fielded its first men’s team in the Munster Senior League for 100 years, a milestone that said everything about how far hockey in North Tipperary had come back. Players from Nenagh, Roscrea, Cashel and New Inn came together to represent the club at senior level, while the women’s and underage sections kept growing alongside them.
What it means
A club can survive without its own pitch, but it cannot really grow. Nenagh have been doing the hard part, building teams and bringing players through, without the facility to match. Now they have one, and it is theirs to build on. The pitch sits at Nenagh College, so the school’s students get a modern all-weather facility too, and the multi-sport setup means the wider community benefits as well.
Martin used the opening to praise the volunteers, coaches and administrators behind grassroots sport, and the partnership that made the project happen. He has a point. This is what the facilities fund is supposed to do: government money plus local graft, ending in something a whole town can use.
What comes next
For Nenagh, the pitch is a foundation, not a finish line. The club wants more players, a stronger pathway from school to club hockey, and more chances for boys and girls across North Tipperary to pick up a stick. They have spent years proving the demand is there. Now they have somewhere to meet it.
