Nenagh Celtic looking for a new home

By Shane Brophy

Nenagh Celtic FC have put out an SOS to the locality to help them find a new home for next season and beyond.

The club, who field two adult teams in the North Tipperary & District League, as well as a number of underage teams at under 8 & 10 level, have been based at Nenagh College for many years, however, a change of terms in the license arrangement between the club and the secondary school, which the club weren’t in a position to agree to, has led to them being without a home for the new season, which begins as early as this evening (Wednesday) when the 2021 NT&DL season gets underway.

The defending premier division champions are away to Lough Derg, however, they will be expected to play their first home game next Sunday but may have to play all their games away from home for the foreseeable future unless they can find some land to play on for the short-term.

In a letter issued in the last week to other sports clubs in the area to make them aware of their situation, as well as to businesses and local politicians, they are asking for help to find a suitable location for the club to train and to play their matches in the short-term.

“We the Nenagh Celtic Football Club are writing to you as the club finds itself in a very troubling situation,” said club secretary Stevie Ryan in the letter.

“The Club’s time in the Nenagh college has unfortunately come to an abrupt and unforeseen end, and at the time of writing this we are homeless and have no facilities to train or play games on. As I’m sure you can understand this predicament is deeply worrying for our club.

“Nenagh Celtic Football Club wish to ask the people of Nenagh for help in keeping our club alive.

“We are not looking for a handout, just a hand up. After many years of relentless hard work, the Club are fortunate enough to be in a position to purchase a suitable piece of land. We are on the lookout for a piece of land that we can call home, a place where we can continue to nurture and develop the young players of Nenagh.”

To continue its commitment to providing a soccer outlet to the people of the town, Nenagh Celtic need a place they can call home, either permanently or failing that, they would consider a long-term lease or given its current situation, even a short-term one just so they can continue to train teams and give them a little more time to continue with their search for a permanent home.

“Over the year’s we have had hundreds of kids come through our club,” Ryan added of the clubs standing in the community.

“We as a club have a proud history of producing some of the best players to ever come out of Nenagh, one of whom is currently playing a starring role with Treaty United FC in the League of Ireland first division. We also have two of our ex-players plying their trade with Limerick FC and Cork City FC underage teams, both of whom have very bright futures ahead of them.”