In 2011 Belfast City Council (BCC) announced a new pitches strategy to give a framework for the development of sports facilities within the city. This was a ten-year strategy that sought to address gaps in provision. 

The rate of respondents was as follows:  

  • Cricket: 53 per cent  
  • Camogie: 56 per cent
  • Soccer: 62 per cent
  • Rugby: 83 per cent
  • Gaelic Games: 88 per cent

As a result of the consultation that underpinned this strategy, the following was discovered:  

BCC provides: 

  • 107 grass soccer pitches
  • 16 Gaelic football/hurling pitches
  • 2 cricket wickets
  • 1 rugby pitch
  • 2 camogie
  • 7 synthetic/shale pitches.  

These are serviced by 24 built changing room facilities. 

Gaelic football and soccer are the most popular sports in the city, particularly for boys. 

The consultation that underpinned the strategy also found: A surplus of +43 soccer pitches against peak demand. A supply shortage of -64 pitches for Gaelic football/hurling, highlighting a reliance on private facilities to service demand. A deficiency in dedicated camogie pitches. 

To bring that to a North Belfast level. Within the lifetime of that strategy Ardoyne Kickhams has grown exponentially, Pearses has significantly increased its membership and Wolfe Tones has resurfaced with a strong playing membership base. There are now roughly around 55 Gaelic games teams in the North Belfast area. Each individual club can claim to be one of the largest sports providers in the entirety of North Belfast. 

In the North Belfast area, despite having thousands of members, the entire Gaelic games family is serviced by one single-use public Gaelic games facility. BCC are now guilty of imposing other sports on the pitch to the detriment of Gaelic games provision. 

To go further, if you live in the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council (ANBC) area, you will have access to a mighty number of zero single-use Gaelic games pitches. 

Recently, ANBC released a pitches strategy to provide a strategic framework for pitch provision into the future. Within that pitches strategy they recognised the gap in provision for Gaelic games but stopped short of committing to filling that gap. Instead the ‘pitches strategy’ focuses on further delivery for other sports, namely soccer. 

Almost immediately after the strategy was accepted in the Council Chamber, ANBC released a press statement which announced that it will build further soccer pitches in Ballyclare, Monkstown and Rathcoole. That will bring the total number of public soccer pitches in the area to 39.  

The above highlights an extreme lack of equality and parity of esteem, which is now underpinned by exclusionary and discriminatory policies led by local councils. This is a clear and distinct human rights issue. 

​Stephen McCourt
​Chairperson, Wolfe Tones GAC

Do you have something to say on this issue? If so, submit a letter for publication to Conor McParland at c.mcparland@belfastmedia.com or write to Editor Anthony Neeson at Andersonstown News/North Belfast News, Teach Basil, 2 Hannahstown Hill, Belfast BT17 0LT