Mayor Eamonn Maloney will officially open the Esker Celtic Football Clubhouse.

Mayor Eamonn Maloney will officially open the Esker Celtic Football Clubhouse on Sunday

20 May 2007at 4pm.

Esker Celtic Football Club has waited a long time for this day to come. The club was founded back in 1990 and it seem like we have been fundraising ever since. In mid 2003 a decision was made to invest some of our funding in a set of drawings for our new facility in Hermitage Park. The building design included 6 dressing rooms, 2 shower rooms toilet facilities, meeting rooms, referee rooms and two store rooms at the rear of the building. The total cost of the project was over 470,000. The source of the funding came through Depart of Sport 120,000 in 2004, 175,000 in 2005 and 35,000 in 2006. A grant of 40,000 was received from South Dublin County Council and club funding of 100,000. The clubs funding was raised over the years with various events and annual programmes. The business community in Lucan have been very good to Esker Celtic Football Club.

The club received lots of support from the local public representatives in the Lucan area and we cannot thank them enough for their support. Our members and participants number over 400. We currently look after 24 teams and a school of excellence which numbers over 60. This is our entry level to the club for the very young players5, 6, and 7 year olds.

The future of our club is with the younger teams, they will never know what it was like to change in a rusty old container unit. The future for our club is in our own hands and with this new facility it will give the club options in attracting coaching schools like the FAI and the Manchester united Soccer Schools who have already paid us a visit at Easter. The club is looking forward to going from strength to strength.

As chairperson it is a great honour to be involved at this very exciting time for our club. I want to thank all our members including coaches, managers, helpers, supporters, parents and committee members for their continued support, help and hard work over the last number of years.Thank you to our sponsors who have supported us along the way.

Paul Cleary

Chairperson

Esker Celtic Football Club.