Marist set to buy former St Mel’s Park

In November it will be 17 years since the last match was played in St Mel's Park – now it's set to have an educational future after the council gave the go-ahead for the acquisition of the historic playing ground by the Marist Brothers for €120,000.

The move was rubberstamped at the September meeting of Westmeath County Council when a Section 183 notice to dispose of the close to three acres of land, which has lain idle in the intervening years, was approved by members without discussion.

In a letter to councillors, chief executive Pat Gallagher said the purpose of the disposal of the former home of Athlone Town FC (ATFC) was to facilitate the transfer of the park to the adjacent Marist College secondary school.

The old St Mel's Park plot, where the League of Ireland's oldest club had many of its greatest days, was transferred to the local authority as part of a land exchange with ATFC, to enable the construction of the new stadium in Lissywollen back in 2007.

In January of 2022, the Department of Education gave the go-ahead for a new school building to developed at the Marist College, on a different part of its existing site. An upgrade of facilities had been sought by management at the Marist on Retreat Road for several years prior to the green light.

Recommending the disposal of the old St Mel's Park at Cannonsfield, Athlone, which is bounded by the Old Rail Trail, The Marist College and Sarsfield Square, council chief Pat Gallagher said “the lands are currently zoned open space” and are “unsuitable for housing development due to limited vehicular access”.

With department approval for a new school for the Marist College, the acquisition of the land would facilitate this project, he added, by allowing the college to locate sporting facilities or temporary buildings on the land during the construction phase, and to assimilate into the campus thereafter.

The land would be “transferred as is for the purpose of education and recreation” and have been the subject of a professional valuation.

This put the full market value at €120,000, according to the council documents circulated at the September meeting of Westmeath County Council.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent on Monday, principal of the Marist College, Athlone Mike Dermody hailed the transfer as a “positive and welcome step” and the idea is that the site will be used in the new school project given its location adjoining the current facility.

“We'd hope this would give momentum to the project,” he commented, saying that it gives them more options for how the project can proceed.

"It is proposed that this building would be constructed within the current school site, but separate from the existing school building which could be subsequently demolished," the Department of Education said earlier last year when they first gave the green light for a new purpose-built school.

Mr Dermody thanked Westmeath County Council for their cooperation in relation to the former St Mel's Park site.

While unable to give a timeline for the new school development yet, the Marist principal confirmed that the school recently received a letter saying the project brief has been finalised and will be delivered via the ADAPT programme, which is an acronym for Accelerated Delivery of Architectural Planning and Tendering.

This programme uses an external project manager to “coordinate and drive the design team to achieve the best possible timeframe to progress the project through the stages of architectural planning”.

A project manager has been appointed for the school development, which is part of a bundle of projects for delivery, and their role will be to appoint the design team and progress the project.

The letter said the procurement process (tender) generally takes twelve weeks, and the Marist principal is hoping to meet the project manager soon and get the process started.

He welcomed the acquisition as a “strategically important step” in the development of the new school, given the land is adjoining the existing Marist College, a view shared by Fine Gael Cllr John Dolan, himself a past pupil of the secondary school.

“I welcome that (the sale) and I wish them well. It's nice to see, and hopefully, things are moving forward for the Marist,” he remarked, adding that it is the last school along Retreat Road to be redeveloped.

“There is a fine standard of school in Athlone and it'd be nice to see a new development there,” Cllr Dolan added.

Indeed, the entire area could be transformed in the years ahead should the new school progress and ambitious plans for a new 'urban quarter' move forward in Loughanaskin on land which is close to the former St Mel's Park, a part of town with a lot of memories for Athlonians who remember the glory days of league victories and the visits of world-famous clubs, most most notably an AC Milan side, came to take on 'the Bit of Blue' in 1975 and two glorious League Championships in the early 1980s.

A mixture of urban housing units, offices, and recreational space is being proposed for Loughanaskin, the land in and around the former St Mel's Terrace at Grace Park Road, plans for which went on display last year.

The last senior game at St Mel's Park was a 2-2 draw between Athlone Town and Monaghan United which took place on November 10, 2006.

Back in 2017, Westmeath County Council first signalled the possible transfer of the former St Mel's Park to the Marist in return for land for a new roadway to the north, however, this plan never moved forward.