Laois soccer club on sidelines of Ukraine grants after exclusion

A Laois soccer club that lost its home pitch to make way for the accommodation for Ukrainian refugees has expressed deep frustration after being excluded from all three rounds of the Community Recognition Fund 2024.

Stradbally Town AFC, who had played at The Lawn on the grounds of Stradbally Hall for nearly 30 years, were forced to relocate in August 2023 after the site was repurposed to house people fleeing war. At the time, the club was only a few weeks into its season.

With no alternative pitch available in Stradbally, the club accepted an offer from their neighbours, Timahoe, to use the facilities there while they were being relocated to a new site. A move they say had serious consequences for their underage setup as fixture clashes on Saturdays meant that Stradbally Town were unable to continue fielding their U-17 and U-19 teams.

The club says they were advised to apply for the Community Recognition Fund, a government scheme designed to support towns and villages that have hosted Ukrainian refugees and other international protection applicants, and were told they had a strong case due to their unique situation.

The fund, as outlined by Laois County Council, aims to back the development of community infrastructure "in recognition of the contribution being made by communities across the country in welcoming and hosting significant numbers of arrivals from Ukraine and other countries."

Despite this, Stradbally Town AFC did not receive funding in the first round. The club's secretary, Stephen Buggy, said he was not overly concerned at that stage, knowing that further rounds were coming, but grew increasingly anxious when the club was also excluded from Round 2, which was published in February 2025.

"That's when I started contacting my local councillors, local TDs, right through to the people who were making the decisions at Laois County Council, right up to the CEO," he said.

The club says it made repeated contact with officials, including Laois County Council and the Department of Rural and Community Development, under both Minister Heather Humphreys and current Minister Dara Calleary, but has yet to receive any confirmation of support.

Meanwhile, €80,000 was allocated in Round 2 of the fund to St Colman’s National School in Stradbally for the development of an Astro Turf facility. While Stradbally Town AFC say they are grateful for this investment in the area, Buggy said it was not a like-for-like replacement.

"We will benefit from it, absolutely, but it's not a full-size soccer pitch, we’ll never be able to play matches on it. It’s for small, light training sessions only. With the comments from local councillors, the public could be led to believe it’s an Astro Turf we could play matches on, which it’s not," he said.

Buggy believes Stradbally as a whole has been left behind while other areas receive repeated allocations. He also called on local representatives to do more to advocate on the club's behalf and all other organisations and groups within the town and surrounding areas.

"Stradbally at the moment has received one funding, St Colman’s, and we want to benefit from it. Well done to them. However, if you look at the funding that went out to the Laois organisations and clubs, there have been two rounds of funding. Portlaoise and Rathdowney have received two rounds of funding. Stradbally Town is my main concern, but we have to have our local representatives and our local TDs representing us and lobbying for us better.

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"How are all these other towns always getting more funding and more allocations in numerous rounds, not just in one round? Two rounds have been published, and the third round has gone to the department. We’re not in it from the council, and I believe we’re not going to be in it. This is putting the pressure on, hopefully," Buggy said

He added that the club has spent the past two years working to bring a new site on Charter Road, generously donated by a local landowner, up to a playable standard. The entire process has placed a massive financial strain on the club, which had been hoping that funding from the Community Recognition Fund would help make the new facility viable.

"We were told there was no reason why we shouldn’t be in it. We were the most affected club and organisation in Laois, make no mistake about that, and we still haven’t been in any of the three rounds of funding," Buggy ended.

Responding to the club’s claims, local councillor Pascal McEvoy said the level of demand for funding across Laois made it impossible to accommodate every applicant when he spoke to the Leinster Express/ Laois Live.

"They didn’t get chosen, but there was almost €12.9 million worth of applications throughout the county and there was €1 million available. Stradbally on their own had over €4 million in applications. €80,000 was given to Stradbally and St Colman’s National School for an Astro Turf project," Cllr McEvoy said.

He also went on to say that the Astro Turf would be shared among multiple groups in the area.

"Stradbally Town, Timahoe Ladies, T&S United Soccer Club, the GAA, anyone who wants it will be allowed to use the Astro Turf going forward. It will be handed over to a committee run by all those organisations," he said.

Cllr McEvoy also responded directly to remarks made by the club regarding the lack of support from elected representatives, where he goes on to say that he gave them money to help with their move.

"To be fair, the fact that they gave the €80,000 to the school was a good thing, there are 350 pupils in that school. But just one thing I take exception to is where the club have said not one tap was done by anyone, and I was one of those who was mentioned in that. When they were moving, I gave them €5,000 out of my councillor’s discretionary fund to help them in their move," Cllr McEvoy added.

He was also not made aware of the exact details of the club’s application and only heard from them after they were unsuccessful.

"When they did put in for the money, I had no idea, they never told me that they were putting it in. I advised them, as I did with the other 9 or 10 groups in Stradbally, to apply for funding. I had no idea how much they had applied for and heard nothing from them, only when they didn’t get their money," he said.

Addressing the club’s claim that they had to move because of government decisions, Cllr McEvoy clarified: "It had nothing to do with Laois County Council. It had nothing to do with any councillor or TD. They said they had to move because the government brought in Ukrainians, but they had to move because Thomas Cosby decided to allow Ukrainians in on his land, which is his entitlement. It’s his land. It wasn’t a government decision to move Stradbally Town soccer club out of there, that’s genuinely not true."

Cllr McEvoy understands the club’s frustration but felt that it's important to point out the scale of rejected applications across the county.

"It’s unfortunate. It is what it is, but as I said, there was almost €4 million worth of projects turned down for funding in Stradbally, and they all feel they were entitled to it. I’m not trying to be anti-Stradbally Town AFC, but I think the narrative out there is that I and other public reps and TDs did nothing for them, which is absolutely not true. I find that very unfair," he said.

He concluded by defending the efforts made by himself and his colleague, "I made representations on their behalf and on behalf of the rest of the applicants, as did my colleague Vivienne Phelan. I know well she did, we did it together, and we spoke about it on several occasions as well. There was almost €13 million worth of applications in the county and €1 million allocated, so there are a lot more disappointed people in the county as well as them," Cllr McEvoy ended.

The aforementioned secretary of Stradbally Town AFC, Stephen Buggy, had this reply to Cllr McEvoy's comments above: "It’s a very unfair comment to make. Those organisations that he’s mentioned didn’t lose their home to accommodate Ukrainian refugees."

In a comment issued to the Leinster Express/ Laois Live by Carmel McNicholl, the Acting Director of Service for Community and Integration, Climate and Environment in Laois County Council, she had this to say, "Under the Community Recognition Fund 2024, Laois County Council received a Project Fund Allocation of €962,346. The project selection process for Laois included an evaluation process and detailed consideration of the 68 project submissions for funding support received county-wide, which had a total value of €12,871,664. As evidenced, the funding support sought greatly exceeded the amount available for distribution.

"However, eight groups around Laois have been successful under Round 1 and 2 in receiving funding allocations, as previously announced by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, at the following locations: Portlaoise, Rathdowney, Ballylinan, Mountmellick, Emo and Stradbally. A decision is pending from the Minister on the award of grants nationwide under the third and final application window.

"All 68 applications received by Laois County Council were assessed under what was a very competitive process, but with limited funding support available, many of the eligible groups and community organisations who applied were unsuccessful, and therefore disappointment for some is unfortunately inevitable," the comment read.

A total of 185 projects were approved around Ireland under phase 1 of the Community Recognition Fund 2024 in August 2024 with associated funding of €16.5 million. Through the 2023 allocation, funding of €50 million was approved for some 900 projects.

To further support communities, a further €50 million in funding under the Community Recognition Fund was announced in March 2024. This allocation is being targeted at larger projects than in 2023, with a minimum of €50,000 per project.