GAA considering construction of a number of air domes

The GAA is to pursue the possibility of public funding to support the construction of a number of air domes around the country. The weekend’s annual congress was held in the Connacht GAA Centre dome, a €3 million-plus investment that has proved invaluable for staging indoor matches as well an event like congress.

Association president Larry McCarthy made several admiring comments about the venue on Saturday, including suggesting additional such structures to help to provide the additional facilities to accommodate women’s sports in the event of integration.

He was asked was he checking potential sites.

“No, I’m not. They’ll be regional. I said it to Jack Chambers in terms of the large scale infrastructure grants and he said, ‘Yeah, we should consider it in that context’.

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“The next round of large infrastructure grants are going to come out, I guess, in October or at least the application process and I said we should consider those in that process.

“He’s a politician and he said yes and that’s as far as it’s gone. Maybe there will be a dividend from Croke Park this year and we might be able to allocate some of that to those domes but in my own little mind I have identified regional areas that would benefit from it.

“I think the idea of four regional - at a minimum - domes is an excellent idea and we’ll push forward on it as best we can.”

On another interaction with Government, McCarthy said that he hadn’t raised with the minister the prospect of criminalising social media abuse of amateur sports people, a question he raised in his annual address to congress on Saturday.

“I haven’t raised it with Jack Chambers but I mentioned it to the chair of that committee, who is Shane Cassells that I was going to say this at congress and he said, ‘fine and I’d like to talk to you about it’. That’s where it’s at. What prompted me was listening to two councillors from Galway who got dog’s abuse because they did away with the greenway, which goes from Galway city centre out to Salthill and they were complaining about the abuse they get.

“That was the reason for my comment, is Irish society at a point where we need to do something about this legislatively? The danger is that freedom of speech is on the other side.”