{"id":410430,"date":"2026-03-29T19:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/410430\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T19:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:48:09","slug":"launch-of-kerry-fc-pitch-postponed-at-ministers-request-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/410430\/","title":{"rendered":"Launch of Kerry FC pitch \u2018postponed at Minister\u2019s request\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The postponement of the launch of a new Kerry<\/a> Football Club pitch has been described as \u201cvery disappointing\u201d by a local councillor.<\/p>\n

The new AstroTurf pitch was due to be unveiled in Tralee on Friday, March 20th, but was postponed at short notice.<\/p>\n

The Irish Mail on Sunday reported the launch was pushed back because Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> could not attend.<\/p>\n

The club, which plays in the League of Ireland First Division, received about \u20ac380,000 from the Department of Sport to renovate the pitch and install flood lights.<\/p>\n

The department previously asked all sports clubs who received grants of more than \u20ac100,000 to give advance notice of at least one month of opening ceremonies so O\u2019Donovan or junior minister Charlie McConalogue<\/a> could attend.<\/p>\n

The Ministers reportedly received their invitations to the Kerry FC launch 10 days in advance and could not attend due to commitments abroad for St Patrick\u2019s Day. Children\u2019s Minister Norma Foley was due to attend the launch, according to the Mail on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Local Sinn F\u00e9in councillor Paul Daly was also among those due to attend the official opening. He and others received an email from Kerry FC on March 18th confirming the event was being postponed.<\/p>\n

The email, seen by The Irish Times, said: \u201cFollowing a request from the Minister for Sport Mr Patrick O\u2019Donovan we have agreed to postpone our planned Official Opening of the new pitch and lights at Kerry Football Club until another date as he is unable to attend this Friday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be in touch shortly with the new date for the function and the arrangements. Our apologies for any inconvenience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daly described the postponement as \u201cvery disappointing\u201d and \u201cembarrassing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking forward to it, and next thing I hear, I get an email saying apologies, that it had to be cancelled because the Minister was unable to attend,\u201d Daly said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing for Kerry FC, they were looking forward to it. It was a big investment for them, for a young club trying to get off the ground, and I suppose maybe a little bit embarrassing too, that it had to happen in such a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daly, a brother of Sinn F\u00e9in Kerry TD Pa Daly, asked why the Minister did not send \u201ca representative on his behalf\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that the works, or the grants, for the club were for the benefit of the club and for the local area and the people and the fans, not for him to be able to get another photo opportunity,\u201d Daly said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing for the fans, very disappointing for the club and for the town.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman said the Department of Sport became aware on March 10th that Kerry FC was planning on holding the official opening of its new pitch on March 20th. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department contacted Kerry FC on that date to remind the club of the request for adequate advance notice of such invitations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesman said, on March 16th, the department became aware the launch remained scheduled for March 20th \u201cnotwithstanding earlier communications\u201d. The department asked Kerry FC on March 16th and again on March 17th \u201cto defer the official opening until such time as Minister O\u2019Donovan would be available to attend\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minister looks forward to attending at Mounthawk Park soon for the official opening at a date to be agreed with Kerry FC.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesman said the attendance of Ministers at such events was \u201cquite common\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn this context, the Department has advised all recipients of [Community Sports Facilities Fund] grants of \u20ac100,000 or more to provide sufficient advance notice and invitation to the Department for such key infrastructure lifecycle events,” a statement said. <\/p>\n

\u201cGrantees have been asked to provide sufficient notice of at least one month to allow Ministers to consider the invitation and to facilitate Ministerial attendance, if possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement said that, by attending such events, Ministers see \u201cfirst hand the benefits of investment from the Department\u2019s programmes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Irish Times has contacted Kerry FC for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The postponement of the launch of a new Kerry Football Club pitch has been described as \u201cvery disappointing\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,157193,18,13,14,6,19,17,43520,11,12,6435,15,16,5,4574,7,8],"class_list":["post-410430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-charlie-mcconalogue","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kerry-fc","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-patrick-odonovan","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116314197708693621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}