Canoe Club gets building grant

Kilcullen Canoe Club has been allocated €40,000 under the Sports Capital Grant Programme, towards the cost of building a new gymnasium facility, writes Brian Byrne.

The Club will be building the gym over the existing boathouse, using the grant and funds they have been gathering over some time.

One of the oldest canoe clubs in the country, it has in excess of 130 members and competes at national and international level.

Currently there are ad hoc gymnasium facilities in the common room at first floor level, and providing fulltime dedicated space for out-of-water training will free this area up to be adapted for meeting and leisure use.

News of the grant came through at the weekend. It comes from a €30m fund announced last March, the first time the Sports Capital Programme had been available for four years. Under the terms of application, clubs were required to raise 15 percent of the cost of their projects, half of what was required under previous Governments when the Programme was in place.

(Pictured above are the incoming Committee, following last night's AGM.)