Belnaleck GFC have amassed over 100 cyclists who will travel to around 1,600 clubs around Ireland, picking up €100 per club along the way, in what has been dubbed ‘The Trek for Belnaleck’.

The brains behind the fundraising drive is Garrison-born Ciaran Treacy. Now living in Belnaleck, the 46-year-old is the club’s treasurer.

“We needed to raise roughly €160,000 to get our pitch built so we sat and thought how would we do it, would we sell tickets or what. And then we thought – well there’s 1,600 clubs roughly in the country – and we could ask each for €100 – so that was it,” Ciaran explained.

“We started contacting the clubs, contacting a sample – and it was very positive. We’ll be stopping at the clubs, taking photographs – we’ll hope to have a wall of fame and a record of every club and they were all very interested in that.”

Explaining the logistics, Ciaran said that there are 32 teams, with roughly 130 cyclists (there are still a few places left for cyclists). Each cyclist will be doing around 12 clubs per day, equal to around 90 kilometres on average. It will take place in June.

 Last week, the club held a heavily attended launch evening.

“We had over 100 people out for the launch night – most of them were well aware of it and they’re very excited. There’s been a very positive reaction on the whole, they just can’t wait to get cycling,” Ciaran said.

 Explaining the need for a new pitch, he said: “We have our land bought and this is to develop the pitch and we’re ready to go. If we get sufficient money from this we’ll be cutting the sod straight away.

“The first thing is to get a pitch. Basically our kids are having to go into Enniskillen a lot.  We had 120 kids on the pitch over the summer at certain events and we have a large growing community that is interested in playing in Belnaleck and they’re just not catered for.  With our minors and senior team and that as well, we’re really struggling to have a decent playing surface.”

Also involved in the organisation of the cycle are Francie Owens, Barry Devine and Lauri McCusker, while Belnaleck native Fr Brian D’Arcy is also lending his support.