No inventory of Ireland’s sporting heritage currently exists. Yet redevelopment and changes to land usage are destroying a rich nineteenth and twentieth century legacy. It is vitally important, therefore, to record the disappearing and disappeared sites where sports have been played.

Sport has been, and remains, one of the constants in the lives of Irish people. It provides the central locations of belonging and common ritual. As a key signifier of Irish identity sport also represents a multiplicity of traditions on the island of Ireland. It sustains a sense of community, locality and nationhood. So integrated is sport into daily life that its significance in Ireland’s heritage is often overlooked. The story of the carving out of sporting sites is also the history of Ireland’s economic and social development over 150 years. It tells the tale of how Irish society was organised, of transportation networks and of Ireland’s changing landscape.

Sport is promoted by Fáilte Ireland and other agencies as central to tourism and wealth creation and this project will provide a vital pool of information for the promotion of a key part of the island’s heritage.

Project Aims:
• To record Ireland’s built sporting heritage existing and historical.
• To acknowledge architectural innovation in design from previous eras.
• To celebrate sporting sites as important social spaces in the history of the island.
• To identify the sports of all traditions and social classes.
• To record all types of sporting associations: work place clubs, private clubs, school sports, professional and amateur teams, and parish, town, country and national clubs.
• To embrace those places where sporting legends were made and to record the spaces where they have been commemorated.
• To promote an understanding that sport has and will continue to play a central role in the history of Ireland and its people.
• To develop an understanding of sports places as centres of social interaction, entrepreneurship, architectural innovation and community.

The Project will Produce:
• A database and inventory of all sporting sites in Ireland, 1850-2010.
• A searchable website for public use.
• A receptacle for photographs, architect plans, maps and other images of the changing usage of sporting sites.
• Books on Ireland’s sporting heritage.
• Radio and print-media output.
• Outreach activity: engaging members of the public and encouraging them to submit information to the project.
• Educational activity: working with schools and museums to enhance an understanding of the historical significance of sport.

Public Contributions:
• The public are being encouraged to provide information to the project - in the form of photographs, maps, building plans, histories and stories - through the website, www.irishsportingheritage.com.