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A LOCAL FOOTBALL club in Roscommon has seen its world burnt to the ground, and all they have left to work with are two footballs.
The fire occurred on 26 June and burnt the team’s clubhouse, including three dressing rooms and the equipment lock-up, beyond recognition.
“We’ve been told it will cost between €20,000 and €30,000 to build it up again. We’re even worried about the cost of the fire brigade,” chairman Pat McDonnell told the Roscommon Herald.
The club has been around since 1976, and built the ruined clubhouse with their own hands in 1997.
Speaking to RTE’s Tubridy on 2fm Pat’s son Seán, the club secretary, said that Loughglynn are now down to “two footballs and a set of jerseys”.
The club now has until next month to get their facilities back up and running before the start of the new season.
“We’re just a tiny little club in a tiny little village in the north-west of Roscommon.
We keep ourselves to ourselves. But for us the clubhouse is the hub of the community.
Everything is gone, I think we’re down to a set of jerseys and two footballs.
Everyone is just gutted and gobsmacked, and can’t understand how something like this could have happened.
Gardaí are treating the circumstances surrounding the fire as suspicious and are appealing to the public to come forward if they have any information.
As for Loughglynn, the challenge for them now is to get back up and running, and they’re going the crowdfunding route.
“We want to come back bigger and better, and for that we’re estimating we’ll need €30,000″ said Seán.
We have until August, but since we launched the appeal people have been absolutely fantastic, like Eire Óg the local GAA club have offered us the takings of their week’s Lotto, we’ve had clubs from as far away as Achill Island offering to help.
Loughglynn United / TwitterThanks to @EireOgRos for generously donating this weeks lotto monies to our rebuilding fund, very much appreciated, thank you.
— Loughglynn United (@Loughglynn_Utd) July 5, 2015
So far the club has raised more than €2,000 in a little over a week and a half.
“If everyone chipped in a fiver it grows into a pot very quickly,” said Seán
We’re so grateful to the community at large – people have been absolutely brilliant.
If you’d like to contribute to Loughglynn’s funding appeal you can do so at gofundme.com/loughglynnutd.
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Was it not insured?
@Brendan McLoughlin. I agree. Who was the person in the club responsible for insuring the Clubhouse – The Treasurer normally looks after invoices. Is this another cute hoar story to get the locals, THE GAA, to pay, or will an applucation be made to the National Lottery for grants. Finally, is the Local FGs TDs seat under pressure. Who does these people think they are, with their sob stories ?
That should have read FAI, not the GAA. But sure they’ll probably have the begging hat out there as well.
Jesus I’m losing it here altogether – they shouln’t go to the GAA r the FAI – Its the IRFU they need to go to. Sure isn’t that what the soccer crowd did, to get a national stadium. They built the Clubhoyse “with their own hands” – R all the Club.members suddenly amputees ???
i think you deserve to be an amputee after those stupid comments
Thats a very violent reaction / reply. Ur missing the point – if they built the Clubhouse before, why can’t they do it again. As suggested in another post, could this b a scam. The building should have been insured – Full Stop.
$30,000 for a corrugated iron shed. The Tiger really is back
Really irresponsible of the club to not have all their stuff insured. A policy for something like that would have cost very little
Where did you read/hear that it wasn’t insured?
Well if it was insured they wouldn’t need to raise money through other channels. Bit of a silly question really…
Least they still have their balls !
Insurance is a must for all clubs but unfortunately it is also the biggest outlay. Small clubs like this probably cant afford insurance. Probably couldn’t get insurance on the building anyway if not alarmed. Hopefully Delaney will donate some of his €350 000 salary towards a new club.
So the cost of an alarm prohibits a club getting insurance ?
Bet it was the Gays getting them back for the No vote.
No there was no backdoor into the dressing room, so its sound.
Plenty of backdoors at MU.
Ahem, insurance?
That’s more football’s than the FAI had in Saipan!
With the Cork and Kerry draw yesterday the monies from the replay or a little percentage of it would go a long way.
Charity starts at home
Hope the GAA HQ will dig deep
when John delaney is pocketing so much and fifa throwing money around like it prints it, I doubt the gaa hq will worry about putting their hands in their pockets to help a soccer club.
They never have before. Damn those who play the foreign sports!!! :)
And you would want the IRFU to do the same or is it just the GAA you want to pay for it l
Fire service charges should be waivered if not insured. Happens in Kildare. Should happen country wide. Co councils run the fire brigade so they have their own rules.
Fure Brigade Fees should not be waived. Who would pay them then?
30,000 Madness. You could build a new one out of reclaimed and recycled materials for 10% of that.
I’m guessing the insurance doesn’t cover against arson any of ye think of that? They obviously have public liability. Also I’d say the plan might be to build proper dressing rooms now if the appropriate funds can be raised!
Insurance job #reported
Club (singular noun) is down to its last two footballs.
@ Tom: Subject-verb agreement on The Journal?!!!! You are indeed an optimist.
What are you smoking James?! Raving you are
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