John Lockes Callan GAA

In late 1977 our club decided that it was time that the parish had a
playing field of its own, like most other parishes throughout the
county. Spearheaded by Rev.Fr.J.Kennedy and Rev.L.Dunne, C.C, the club
sought to find a suitable field and in December 1977, 11.7 acres were
purchased at Boltan, Callan, adjacent to the Fair Green at a cost of
£44,000. The club then started the onerous task of rasing funds and on
January 17 1978, the plans for fund raising and development of the
grounds were launched in springhill hotel, Kilkenny. All the G.A.A
clubs and business people of the county of kilkenny were present and Mr
Con Murphy, then the president of the G.A.A was guest speaker. The
launcing got a lot of publicity on radio, TV and the National papers,
which made the fund raising somewhat easier as people knew about the
clubs committments. Our plan at the time was to have the development
work completed by 1984 , the centenary year.