OVER THE PAST 12 months, photos of the decrepit Casement Park in Belfast have done the rounds on social media.

The once proud hub of Antrim and Ulster GAA has been closed since 2013 and is reduced to an overgrown, abandoned ruin. A relic of the past.

Source: Antrim GAA

A political stalemate and issues around planning have held up the proposed redevelopment of the venue.

Antrim hurling star Neil McManus, whose club Cushendall face St Thomas on Saturday in the All-Ireland club SHC semi-final, last played at Casement in 2012.

“It should not have been closed in the first place. The decision to close at the time obviously without having planning permission secured was not the smartest move that Antrim GAA have made.

“It’s cost us millions of pounds, cost us our home as well, we are where we were,” he says.

Casement is the key. It’s the key because I know when I was being brought up to Casement Park along with my brother and father to watch games, Antrim were a team performing at a higher level then.

“They would have been playing the big teams, Kilkenny, Galway, Cork, Limerick in Casement Park with 10 or 12,000 people there. The Ulster final, even Antrim against Down or Derry was big, big day in the Ulster hurling calendar.

What did that do? It made me a young fella want to get out there and play myself, we don’t have that at the minute. Even when it was open you had all the Cumann na mBunscol games being played there, it was to show them Casement Park.

“That area is a stronghold, it’s a traditional hurling stronghold, but it’s not delivering anywhere near its potential at the minute simply because Casement isn’t operational.

“I have a great grá for Casement because every Friday at 1pm I’d finish work and go down hit frees for an hour then go to Andytown Leisure Centre and you got to know people in that area of West Belfast.

Neil McManus of Ruairí Óg Cushendall ahead of the AIB GAA All-Ireland SHC semi-final this weekend. Source: Sam Barnes/SPORTSFILE

“What a brilliant area, diehard Gaels, massively proud of their Irish traditions and heritage, and they want to see Casement thriving and we need to deliver it because we have no home.

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“We are currently playing games in Cushendall, Ballycastle, St. John’s Corrigan Park, Belfast and teams come to play and they are probably as familiar with the pitch as many of the Antrim players.

You’ve got no advantage really which isn’t good enough. There’s a whole generation of county Antrim hurlers at the minute who have no grá for Casement because they never played there.”

McManus is greatly frustrated that a whole generation of Saffron hurlers have missed out playing at the West Belfast arena.

“They are not spending any time in that area, so there’s no love being built up for that area whereas they should be proud to play there and get that buzz off the people.

“It’s a very significant building historically, obviously the British Army took it over during the troubles a lot of my father’s generation were schooled there in the 1950s and 60s.

There’s a lot of history there that the young generation of Antrim hurling who at the minute know nothing about. The old Casement was decrepit, it was damp, cold – brilliant, like.

“I remember leaving it one day and one of the Offaly players absolutely hated the place and I thought ‘brilliant’ because it was home. Welcome to the jungle, we played in that because it was useful to us.”

The GAA’s recent Gaelfast initiative has promised to pump £1 million to increase Gaelic Games participation in Belfast by placing coaches in 20 schools across the city.

While McManus welcomes the extra funding, he feels it’s “not enough”.

“The truth of it is, good step but it’s probably 5% to 10%t of what is required, it’s not even 10% of what Dublin has done. They spend almost £100million on coaching and structures to make it a viable hurling city but it worked and you can’t do it without money.

“So, I think there’s an onus on the GAA to not pay lip service to Belfast to actually try and regenerate because all messages are easier spread now in the era of technology. You can get more people and I don’t think there’s any reason not to be doing it.”

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