With our new clubhouse upgrade just about to start let’s have a look back at the evolution of the building over the years.
For the first 44 years or so of the club’s history, we didn’t have a home of our own and spent a lot of time moving from place to place – a time that is described elsewhere on this site.
In 1978 when the clubhouse was opened it was of the brick construction we would recognise now.
It was over ten years later in 1989 when we merged the bar and function room/hall. This involved taking away the sliding door between the bar and hall along with taking down the wall at the bar side. We extended the bar to include the new kitchen area. We also closed off the bar store room and merged with the old kitchen area to form the enlarged bar store room.
1992 came along and we added a new dressing room to the north side of club, repositioning the ‘players’ entrance from the side to the front of the club and creating a storage area. This players entrance is the door to the right side of the club as you look from Churchview Road.
A new front entrance and porch was built in 1997. New uPVC windows were installed in the bar area and we enlarged the two windows in the lounge area also with new uPVC windows. Electric shutters were installed on the new windows and doors.
In 2004 we added the new gym and first team dressing room at the north side of clubhouse. This is the area onto which we will add a new storey, moving the gym upstairs and adding facilities below. Forward planning at this stage meant that this new development was capable of taking a second storey should it be required in the future.
We first applied for planning permission for the gym on first floor in 2006. We were not in a position to proceed for some time and we renewed the permission in 2018.
We were able in 2012 to partition the gym from first team dressing room and to outfit the gym with new equipment.
In 2013 the bar was again refurbished. When Alan our bar manager was asked what year was this done he was very certain it was 2013. When asked how he was so sure, he told us that our 3rd team (the self-styled “Thirsty Thirds”) won their league that year and came back to the newly upgraded bar to celebrate. Let’s just say that the following day Alan had to clean footprints from the counter top as a certain amount of dancing on the bar had taken place. No one on the team or any of the support staff had any recollection of who might have been responsible!
Now 2021 looms with the exciting development of the new facilities and marking the latest evolution of the facilities for the top community based rugby club in South County Dublin.