CASEMENT PARK: THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT SHOULD MAKE UP FUNDING SHORTFALL SAYS ANTRIM GAA LEGEND NEIL MCMANUS

Neil McManus has called on the British Government to cough up the shortfall to rebuild Casement Park.

Although site clearance work is ongoing at the Belfast venue, which has been closed since 2013, in recent months, construction needs to start by the summer if the 34,500-capacity stadium is to be completed by 2027, UEFA’s deadline for it to host games in Euro 2028.

Costs around the project have spiralled in recent years with the original bottom line figure of £77.5m (€90.2m) jumping to a mammoth £308 (€358.3m), according to a Department for Communities estimate issued to Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris last December.

The Stormont Executive has pledged £62.5m (€72.7m) to the project and the GAA £15m (€17.5m) while the Irish Government has made a €50m (£42.8m) commitment, though it still leaves a significant funding gap, with Heaton-Harris saying on Wednesday that “any taxpayer contribution to the Casement Park project will need to be made on a value-for-money basis” and that “there is no blank cheque here”, while pointing out that a contractor has yet to be appointed.

But former Antrim hurler McManus insists that the British Government should make up the difference to honour the promise that was made to the three main sporting bodies in the North, irrespective of Euro 2028 deadlines.

He said: “I'd nearly take a step back from it and say the long and the short of it is that there were three stadia promised, three stadia commitments made from the British government.

“One was Kingspan (formerly Ravenhill), one was Windsor and the other was Casement. They have to fulfil the third one of those, regardless of the European Championships.

“I'm firmly of the belief that the British government should pay for it. They've promised three stadiums, they've delivered two of them which leaves the GAA isolated on its own.

“Historically we've been neglected by the government in the North, as a GAA community, and they should fix that.

“The GAA have been consistent in terms of what this will do for West Belfast, for Antrim Gaels, for Ulster and it's so important to the Association as a whole, not just Belfast or Ulster

“The GAA has been underwhelmed by the support that the [British] Government has given and there's an opportunity here for them to demonstrate that they do care about the Association and what it provides for so many of the people living in the north.

“Let's build Casement Park and show people that you care because you can talk but you have to demonstrate things,” added McManus, who will take part in the Bord Gais Energy Legends Tour series at Croke Park this summer.

McManus, who turns 36 in June, retired from Antrim duty last year but will continue to hurl for Cushendall for a few years yet. Whether he’ll get the chance to play at Casement before his club career ends remains to be seen.

“I'd absolutely love to. In 2005, I played my first county final, which was in Casement Park, 10,000 people there, ourselves and Loughgiel Shamrocks and it was phenomenal. It will stay with me forever.

“I'd love to do that again but I would be unsure if that will happen for me. I got to play in Casement and to enjoy maybe five years there, five or six, but there's a whole generation of Antrim Gaels who haven't been there and who will finish their careers (without doing so).

“Some of them are in their early 30s now and haven't played in Casement Park. That is a crying shame, so it is.

“Even the young people now from West Belfast, where hurling is really struggling, they haven't been to a game there and there's nothing that would light a fire under those young people like going to see a game where Antrim are playing under the floodlights some night with Dublin, say, coming up to the road.

“That would be fantastic and nothing could do more for the development of hurling in Belfast than that.”

Meanwhile, McManus says last Sunday’s washout against Kilkenny will be quickly forgotten if Antrim can pull out a result against Wexford.

The Saffrons suffered a humiliating 32-point defeat (5-30 to 0-13) in the Leinster Championship opener last Sunday, but have a shot at redemption as Keith Rossiter’s side come to Corrigan Park on Saturday.

McManus said: “I played in plenty of Antrim teams who have taken hidings off the top teams and we kind of always prided ourselves on, ‘We’ll keep going no matter what’ and obviously it didn’t happen and that’s the difference in getting beaten by 14 or 15 points and getting beaten by 30 points. Your reaction to how the day is going.

“I’d say whenever the lads reviewed it they probably have to hold their hands up to that but, as I say, this weekend, if they do something, get a result of some description here, all will be forgiven very, very quickly.”

Antrim were bolstered ahead of the Championship after a number of players, like Keelan Molloy, Nigel Elliott, Seaan Elliot and Ryan Elliott, returned to the panel last month, though there doesn’t appear to have been a bounce so far and McManus questions whether the sudden influx came too late in the season.

“There’s no turnaround time now so I don’t think you could expect those lads to be up to speed inside the space four weeks really. You can’t do it. And the truth is, inter-county hurling now, even though the season is condensed, it’s a 12-month endeavour.

“Nobody goes off and puts on two stone and comes back after Christmas and starts to work back into shape.

“You stay in shape and at training, obviously you do fitness blocks and things like that there and mini camps and we break it up into this period will be mainly hurling, this period will be mainly fitness work but you’re expected to come ready to do the work if that makes sense, there’s no sense any more that, ‘Come on in and we’ll get you fit’.

“That doesn’t happen and if you don’t live that life then you’re absolutely wasting your time.”

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2024-04-25T07:14:00Z dg43tfdfdgfd