Located in Rathkeale County Limerick, Mick Neville Park will become the centre for activity on numerous fronts for the Shannon sider's. Under the watchful eye of county Chairman Liam Lenihan and his fellow County Officers and Development Committee they have been working to dramatically enhance the Rathkeale facilities and are now only months away from having their own Centre of Excellence.

The Centre will offer five playing pitches, two of which will be floodlit and available for night training and competitive matches. The focus of the development will be the building of a full size Synthetic grass pitch with an anticipated July/August 2010 completion.

"We are keen to have this magnificent facility up and running as soon as possible, demands for quality surfaces within the county are at an all time high with County teams needing access to top quality surfaces for training and competition, it is our responsibility to ensure they have them. We are confident that the new look Mick Neville Park will give us just that. The Project commenced in April with work being carried out simultaneously on two sand based pitches and one full size synthetic "Astro Style Pitch." Having the synthetic pitch will give us several options and extended hours of use, this will be critical to our strategic county plan going forward. During the seeding, growth and maturing of our more traditional natural grass and sand based pitches we will have full use of the Thornton Sports Synthetic All Weather pitch. We can move onto it immediately after its completion and manage a structured system for all Year usage."

The contract for the Synthetic Pitch was won by Thornton Sports. "We are absolutely delighted to be awarded this most prestigious contract, and are very keen to get on site and get started. This is a great result for Thornton's, we have just completed and handed over a full size GAA pitch for Dublin City Council located in Clontarf on Alphie Byrne road. Officers within Limerick County Board told us how impressed they were with the GAA pitch built in 2008 for UCD in Belfield.  However, since we completed UCD's GAA pitch, Headquarters' in Croke Park issued a new set of code compliant standards for the building of Gaelic pitches. We went to work immediately in conjunction with our strategic partners and Grass Manufacturers Greenfields to develop a system which would fully satisfy the new code. The end result:- Clontarf is Irelands first Laboratory and field tested GAA code compliant Gaelic pitch," said Dick Ridge of Thornton Sports.

When asked what Limerick County Board could expect he answered "We have planned and designed a pitch which will fully meet GAA Code approval and be the very first of its kind in Munster, we expect Mick Neville Park to be a show case in the Munster Region and be one of the main attractions to anyone visiting."

Michael O' Riordan County Secretary amplified the need for such a facility "With twenty four county teams using this facility it will have to withstand high usage and equally perform at the very highest level. The ball roll, the bounce, player comfort and most importantly player safety are all of the greatest importance to us.

"With the unpredictability of the Irish weather and the ever increasing rain fall, it will be of substantial benefit to the County to have a facility that will be available all year round."

County Treasurer Owen Hayes added "This is a major investment, not alone financially but also in Limericks future, we have researched all the various possibilities, employed the very best in their particular fields of excellence and are continuously taking advice from Ireland's leading professionals."

Key advisers and designers in this project have been Michael McDonnell; Michael has been involved with the project since its infancy and continues to contribute regularly. Overseeing the installation of the lighting is electrical engineer Ollie Shiners whose electrical plans have been designed to complement Engineer Stephan Keary's overall plan.

Working closely with the specialist contractors will be Project Manager Michael O Shea. Michael an Agronomist with vast experience in pitch building is the obvious choice for this role and responsible for delivering the project to a conclusion. Every step and each phase will be supervised by Michael. "This is a marvellous project to be involved in, it will require planning on a short, medium and long term, taking full advantage of the materials to hand and making the very best of them, a considerable adjustment to the current levels is required and the soil selection will be a major factor.  "There will be two natural grass and two sand based pitches. The bulk of the ground work will be divided between two companies Allman Construction from Kerry who will deliver the Natural and Sand based pitches and Thornton Sports Ireland who will construct the Synthetic All Weather Pitch. Both companies have established their ability to produce first class workmanship over many years within their own fields of expertise and are considered to be among the leading lights in the Sports Construction Industry".

Foyne's Engineering will be responsible for the illumination of two of the full size pitches, John O Donnell of Foyne's Engineering said " Foyne's are thrilled to be involved and will make all of our extensive resources available to the Limerick County Board on this project" Having successfully carried out a substantial portion of the critical construction at the newly styled Thomond Park Foyne's make up the final piece of the jig saw.

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