Newtownbutler GAA Club Lighting Up Legacy Project

Aim

Help us light up our training pitch and walking track with new floodlights to improve training, safety, and community use all year round

Who are we?

In 1887 the first Gaelic football club to be formed in Fermanagh was in Newtownbutler. Established in 1887 our Club now serves as a vital rural community hub for our border community here in rural Newtownbutler, on the County Fermanagh/Monaghan border.

We provide sporting opportunities for nearly 400 members: 170 are playing Youth and 48 playing adults.

Our facilities are also used by, and we work in close collaboration with, Newtownbutler LGFA, meaning that together we cater for well over 500 players each week. We deliver a full pathway of football opportunities — from Go Games and Fundamentals at P1–P3 level, through primary school age groups, and on to competitive U12, U14, U16, Minor, and Senior teams.

Our facilities currently include one main grass playing pitch, a training pitch, a small clubhouse and changing facility, a car park, a community walking track used by hundreds each week, a small spectators’ area, and rear goal green areas.

The Club has a 5 year Club development plan in place and also a phased business plan focused on developing our facilities for future generations. 

The club plays a significant wider community role as a vital rural sporting asset outside of our traditional GAA activitiy, for example be offer activities such as figure dancing, solo singing, ballad group performances, recitations, stage presentations, instrumental music, set dancing, and table quizzes.

These cultural events help preserve and promote local traditions, giving people in Newtownbutler a sense of identity and belonging. The club is deeply committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of its members and the wider community. We host a range of wellbeing initiatives, focusing on critical challenges faced by people today living in rural isolated border areas such as ours. These include workshops addressing mental health topics such as gambling, drugs and alcohol misuse, stress management, relationships, and the impact of social media.

The club recognises the growing pressures that rural border residents face in our isolated community, particularly in rural areas where access to services is limited, and seeks to provide essential support locally. To enhance these efforts, we have established a ‘Healthy Club’ Sub Committee made up of 6 people (youths and adults), which takes a proactive approach to delivering initiatives aimed at improving overall community health. This includes offering Mental Health First Aid and other training for volunteers, ensuring that our club and the wider rural community have the skills and capacity to respond effectively to mental health and wellbeing needs.

In addition, the club works closely with the Newtownbutler Community Development Association and local parish on community development initiatives across the wider rural area. Together we host community events and activities that promote inclusion, wellbeing, and civic pride, ensuring that the club continues to play a central role in strengthening our rural community.

Our mission is not just to provide sporting and cultural activities, but to act as a central force for positive change, helping young people overcome the barriers of isolation, lack of services, and social challenges that are common in rural border areas like Newtownbutler.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Newtownbutler First Fermanagh GAA Club is crowdfunding to install new Musco floodlighting on our training pitch. This facility upgrade is essential to support the club’s 400+ members and our collaboration with Newtownbutler LGFA who use our facilities daily, ensuring safe, year-round training and games for men, women, and youth teams boys and girls. 

Our current lighting is non-existent, limiting evening and winter training hours, participation, and development programmes. The new system will deliver 300 lux lighting across our full-size training pitch 130x80m, meeting GAA training and match standards.

This project will transform the club’s ability to deliver sport for all ages, enabling evening sessions for underage teams, ladies’ football, and community sporting and health and wellbeing programmes such as our “Healthy Club” and walking track initiatives. It will also make our rural facilities safer and more accessible for hundreds of users weekly, particularly in winter months when darkness currently restricts activity.

The total project cost is £50,000, supported by 3 recent like for like quotes. As we are located in an area of significant deprivation, our club qualifies for 75% Sport NI match funding under the Olympic Legacy Fund, leaving a crowdfunding target of £12,500 to be raised locally.

Our area’s deprivation indicators demonstrate high social need:

• Overall Deprivation Rank: 112 of 890 (top 13%)
• Income Deprivation Domain: 31
• Access to Services: 39
• Income Affecting Older People: 12
• Income Affecting Children: 154

These figures evidence the financial and access challenges facing our rural border community, where local sport is often the main social and wellbeing outlet.

Alignment with the Olympic Legacy Fund

The Olympic Legacy Fund aims to enhance participation, improve sports infrastructure, and create a lasting community legacy inspired by Northern Ireland’s Olympic and Paralympic success. Newtownbutler First Fermanagh GAA’s floodlighting project fully supports these aims by addressing a clear facility gap within a deprived rural area and by enabling greater access to sport and physical activity for all.

Our training pitch currently has no lighting, which severely restricts evening and winter training opportunities. Once new Musco-standard floodlights (300 lux, full-pitch coverage) are installed, we will be able to utilise both pitches safely and efficiently throughout the year. This will immediately increase training capacity by approximately 50%, providing more opportunities for underage players, adult teams, and our growing partnership with Newtownbutler LGFA.

The project directly supports the fund’s objectives of improving access, participation, and equality. New floodlighting will allow us to deliver structured evening training for both male and female teams, enhance youth development pathways, and facilitate health and wellbeing initiatives such as our “Healthy Club” activities and community walking track use during darker months. It will also strengthen collaboration with local schools and community organisations by providing a safe, inclusive space for physical activity year-round.

Our club sits within an area ranked 112 of 890 in overall deprivation (according to NISRA), and notably 12 for income affecting older people and 31 for income deprivation, highlighting the social and economic challenges faced locally here in Newtownbutler. Improved facilities will help overcome barriers to participation caused by lack of access, rural isolation, and poor service provision—key priorities identified by Sport NI and the Olympic Legacy Fund.

By investing in this project, funders will be helping to create a genuine Olympic legacy in rural Fermanagh—expanding participation, promoting equality, and ensuring that Newtownbutler First Fermanagh GAA remains a strong, inclusive, and accessible hub for sport, health, and community life long into the future.

How we’ll spend the money raised

The total cost of our project is £50,000. We are crowdfunding this full amount through this campaign, which Sport NI will contribute 75% (£37,500) through the Olympic Legacy Fund, leaving £12,500 to be raised from our members, supporters, and wider community.

This project will provide a new, modern floodlighting system for our currently unlit training pitch, transforming access and use across the year for Gaelic games, LGFA training, youth development, and community fitness, health and wellbeing activities via our community walking track. 

The project will allow our nearly 400 members, the 2 local primary schools in Newtownbutler, and 100s of community users to train, play, and take part in sport health and wellbeing programmes safely during darker months.

Funds raised will directly support the supply and installation of a Musco Sports Lighting System designed to achieve 300 lux (0.7 min/ave) lighting levels across the full 130m x 80m training pitch. Works will be delivered as follows:

• 1. Sports Lighting Mechanical Works Delivery, unloading, and distribution of lighting equipment; assembly and erection of 6 x 21m static columns; plant hire; waste disposal.
• 2. Sports Lighting Electrical Works Installation of main distribution pillar and TPN board; cabling and circuits to each column; individual column switching; testing, commissioning, certification to IS10101; as-built documentation. 
• 3. Civil Works Unloading and installation of pre-cast bases; excavation and concrete works; installation of pillar base; backfilling, trenching, reinstatement, and reseeding around pitch perimeter.

Community impact

Our Club is a key provider of sport and physical activity in rural Newtownbutler, serving nearly 300 members through structured Gaelic games programmes for boys, girls, men, and women from Under-8 to adult level. In partnership with Newtownbutler LGFA, we deliver regular training, coaching, and competitions that promote skill development, participation, and fitness to well over 500 players each week.

Our facilities include a community walking track which supports additional participation programmes for the wider community at our grounds.

Our Club has a strong record of community engagement. Through a previous successful crowdfunding campaign which the community got behind, we delivered a wide range of physical activity programmes. 

Through this new Olympic Legacy campaign and the installation of floodlights on our training pitch, we will further expand new initiatives by delivering a mix of structured sport, health, and wellbeing programmes on the floodlit training pitch, for example as follows:

• A new Walking Football and Sports Initiative for Older Men, promoting mobility, social connection, and regular low-impact activity.
• A new Couch to 5k for Isolated Rural Residents in Newtownbutler, linking our walking track and floodlit pitch to support beginners progressing safely to running.
• A new Saturday Morning Youth Running and Wellbeing Programme, connected with our Children in Need grant we got earlier in the year to engage young people in physical activity and mental wellbeing in our rural community.
• A new Community “Mothers and Others” Sports Programme for females, encouraging participation in non-competitive Gaelic activity.
• A new Walking Group for Young Mothers and a “Walk, Talk and Coffee” Wellbeing Group, combining exercise and social interaction.
• Additional 4 Nutrition sessions in year 1 with a qualified sports dietitian, linking our clubrooms and floodlit pitch to promote healthy eating and performance.
• A new Evening Skills Academy for Youth Players in our rural border community, providing structured coaching and development under safe lighting conditions.
• A new Inclusive recreational sessions for inactive adults and older people, encouraging wider community participation in sport- 3 x 6 week sessions per year.
• Importantly, the training pitch will be used exclusively by Newtownbutler LGFA, providing female players of all ages with access to a high-quality, floodlit facility- something not currently available in rural Newtownbutler for the girls club. This fundraising campaign will ensure girls and women have equal access to modern facilities, supporting the continued growth of female participation in sport.
• We will also deliver 4 annual coach education sessions in partnership with Fermanagh GAA County Board, using the upgraded training pitch as a base for practical coaching development, skills workshops, and mentoring for local coaches and volunteers.

Our Club works closely with the Newtownbutler Community Development Association and the local parish, collaborating on joint community events, seasonal activities, and wellbeing initiatives. These partnerships help ensure our facilities and programmes benefit the widest possible range of local residents, particularly older people, families, and those experiencing rural isolation. 

We will also host an inclusive sports programme 3 times per year for young people with learning disabilities, ensuring access to adapted, supportive sport in a safe environment.

Together, we promote participation, inclusion, and community pride through accessible sport and shared community use of our grounds.

Located in an area ranked 112 of 890 in deprivation, our Club provides essential access to organised sport and physical activity where few other options exist. The new floodlighting will increase facility use by an estimated 50%, supporting both competitive sport and community participation.

This project will help our Club create a modern, accessible, and welcoming facility that encourages more people to be active, supports wellbeing, and strengthens community sport in rural Fermanagh.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made