Expansion of Jack Grealish’s former Gaelic football team in Solihull ‘will start in a few months’

Work on the expansion of a Gaelic football club could begin within months after it was approved by Solihull planners. New pitches and a clubhouse are among the plans at John Mitchels Gaelic Football Club in Hockley Heath, Solihull, where British football star Jack Grealish once played.

The club’s Padraic Crehan said work is likely to start in the new year as officials are now in the final stages of preparations. “It’s exciting,” he said.

“Solihull is a hotbed for Gaelic football. Development is much needed, we have been trying to get training facilities – it will really help. And local schools are on board.”

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Plans include new multi-sport pitches on the Box Trees Farm site; erecting a two-storey clubhouse, including changing facilities and function areas; fencing and light poles to a plot adjacent to the proposed clubhouse and car park with improved landscaping features. The application was voted unanimously by Solihull councilors when it went before the planning committee earlier this year.

During that meeting, former Councilman Jim Ryan, who was serving on the committee at the time, said: “What’s interesting to me is that it’s a multi-sport application – it’s not just covering a minority sport, it’s covering a multitude. of sport. If they don’t get the facilities they need, schools wouldn’t be able to use it because one of the standards for Ofsted is that where children use sports activities there must be changing rooms and showers. This (app) covers that.”

Manchester City and England international Grealish played Gaelic football for the club between the ages of 10 and 14 before making a name for himself at Aston Villa. Solihull is also home to Páirc na hÉireann – the West Midlands’ premier Gaelic games sporting facility. That facility, near Bickenhill, has three large Gaelic Athletic Association grounds and regularly hosts All-Ireland hurling teams.

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