Magheracloone Mitchells chairman, Francis Jones, has revealed the full extent of the problems the GAA club now faces in the wake of yesterday's earth fissure, where larges cracks opened up across the club grounds. Speaking to Morning Ireland, Jones detailed the damage, saying "There's a crack straight across one of the juvenile pitches. It's subsided, as well as part of our main pitch and viewing area, which has also subsided and, in turn, caused damage to our clubhouse."
The exact cause of what caused the subsidence is as yet undetermined, with Jones explaining that they are waiting on a geology report. What is undoubted however, is the predicament it has put the club in, with the grounds now rendered unusable: "The biggest thing for us is the shock of it and the devastation to our football club and our community centre. We're all out of bounds now and going to be out of bounds for the forseeable future."
Local News landsinking in Magheracloone gaa groups some pictures coming in to us here at BRTV we under stand nobody was on the grounds at the time more to follow pic.twitter.com/H1CN11TDIQ
— Border Region TV (@BorderRegionTV) September 24, 2018
A security firm have been put in place to make sure no one enters the zone that has been cordoned off since yesterday morning. Neighbouring clubs have offered to facilitate Magheracloone's teams for training and matches.
Thankfully local clubs have contacted us offering their facilities and we're very grateful for that. Lucky enough now, we're coming to the end of the season so things are winding down on that front but we're going to be out of our grounds for a number of years.
The grounds are situated near an area of disused mines owned by Gyproc. The company issued a statement yesterday saying they are investigating what caused the subsidence.
Media Statement regarding incident at Magheracloone GAA club pic.twitter.com/fA6eZ7Mb1q
— Gyproc Ireland (@Gyproc_Ireland) September 24, 2018
The Carrickmacross-Kingscourt road has been also been closed and will remain so until Wednesday.
