Buccaneers facilities upgraded with new season set to kick off
Buccaneers' rugby season kicks off with a home fixture tonight (Thursday) when they host Galwegians in the opening round of the Bank of Ireland Connacht Senior League. The action commences under the Dubarry Park floodlights at 7.30pm.
Head coach Darin Claasen, assisted by Garreth Halligan, remains at the helm for the Pirates who, it looks like, will field a youthful and much-changed squad.
Meanwhile, the Christy Reid Cup fixture between the two clubs’ seconds strings has been rescheduled for a 12 noon kick-off on Sunday, September 20. The upcoming Electric Picnic festival was apparently an influence on both change of dates for these matches!
In advance of the new 2026/2027 season, the dressing rooms and toilet facilities at Buccaneers RFC have been refurbished and given a long-awaited facelift.
Buccaneers clubhouse including dressing-rooms was built at a time when women’s rugby was in its infancy in Ireland. The explosion of interest in rugby for girls and women was not contemplated in those days. The recent sharp increase in female participation gave rise to a realisation that something needed to be done to modernise the dressing rooms and incorporate an upgrade of the toilet facilities.
When Lorna Stuart Trainor took over as the first female president of Buccaneers RFC, she vowed to tackle the issue with changing facilities for, not alone girls and women, but also to deal with the massive increase in usage of the facilities at Dubarry Park by a surge in the numbers participating in mini and youth rugby. Together with Eamonn Fagan and assistance from Eamon Collins, plans were drawn up. An application was prepared to avail of an IRFU Inclusive Facilities Grant which is available to clubs to build or modify their facilities to promote inclusion and diversity within the rugby playing population.
The new facilities have now been unveiled to great acclaim for the upcoming season. This is the second phase of a ten-year development plan which will incorporate installation of all-weather training facilities at the Buccaneers ground, building of further dressing rooms and gym as well as an all-purpose meeting and community facility at the club to cater for future expansion as Buccaneers seeks to further integrate into the local community.
Lorna and Eamonn were ably assisted by a small sub-committee within the club and new President Sean Flynn thanked his predecessor Eoin Reid, outgoing treasurer Michael Kiely as well as volunteers Amy O’Connor, Ronan Bushell, Rory Walshe and David Lowe who helped steer the project to a conclusion. Thanks also to Tom Silke and Pascal Dillon in The Bounty for their input and co-operation as well as builder Willie Moran of W. Moran Construction who did an excellent job.
The club is extremely grateful to the IRFU for a €50k grant. Thanks also to all the members who supported the ‘Your Club Your Country’ draw that raised €35k to inject into the total budget of over €150k. Having availed of nearly €100k of government funding to upgrade the flood lighting last year, the focus now is to get further grant aid in the next round of community sports facilities funding.
The club development group would welcome input from any member who would like to get involved in future development projects. If interested, they can contact club President Sean Flynn or the group chair Eoin Reid. Buccaneers RFC continues to play a vital part in the development of facilities for playing rugby and indeed other sports as Athlone moves towards city status providing a centre of excellence in the midlands and a community home at the heart of the town.
Also, thanks to everyone who gave of their time to help move all the training equipment into the newly arrived storage container. Meanwhile the club’s gym space will be up and running very shortly so lots happening behind the scenes ahead of the playing season.