Thomas Davis (GAA Club)
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| Thomas Davis | |||||||||||||||||
| Tomás Dáibhís | |||||||||||||||||
| Founded: | 1888 | ||||||||||||||||
| County: | Dublin | ||||||||||||||||
| Nickname: | Davis's | ||||||||||||||||
| Club colours: | Green with gold sash | ||||||||||||||||
| Grounds: | Kiltipper Road, Tallaght | ||||||||||||||||
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Senior Club Championships
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Thomas Davis is a Gaelic Athletic Association club with extensive grounds and a clubhouse located on the Kiltipper Road in Tallaght, County Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1888, Thomas Davis has a long association with Tallaght from the time when it was a small rural village in the countryside. The club motto is Nascann Dúshlán Daoine (A Challenge Unites People).
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[edit] Sporting Achievements
Thomas Davis have won the Dublin Senior Football Championship on three occasions in 1989, 1990, 1991, going on to win the Leinster Senior Club Football Championship twice, on both occasions after epic matches against Wicklow champions, Baltinglass. The club also won the Dublin Under 21 Football Championship in 1992, beating Fingallians, 1-7 to 0-8.
Thomas Davis won the Dublin Senior Hurling Championship once, in 1913.
More recently, Thomas Davis faced Round Towers in the 2006 final of the Dublin AFL Division 1 and won by a scoreline of 0-10 to 0-07.[1] Shane Smith played a prominent role, scoring a prolific 0-08 points in the game which denied Round Towers their first ever league title.
In 2007, Davis won the John Humphrey Memorial Cup by beating Lucan Sarsfields in the final.[2]
[edit] Club Facilities
For many years Thomas Davis played on a field adjacent to the Church of Ireland chapel, known as 'The Graveyard' in Old Tallaght Village (beside the Belgard Road where Smyths Toys is currently located) before relocating in the early 1980s to a green field site on the Kiltipper Road. The club continued to use the Graveyard, together with public pitches in Sean Walsh Park, Dodder Park and Aylesbury throughout the 1990s. The Sean Walsh Park fields were subsequently redeveloped into a man-made lake and landscaped areas, with plans for a stadium to be there also (see below). Early development of club facilities were primarily financed through private sources, including the sale of life memberships, a series of large scale private members draws and general club fund raising activities. In more recent years, the club has also benefited from grants from the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism. Government grants totalled in excess of €500,000 from 2001-2003.[3] A further grant of €200,000 was announced in April 2007.
[edit] Use of proposed stadium in Tallaght for Gaelic games
Thomas Davis have been involved in a long running series of objections relating to the Tallaght Community Stadium. Thomas Davis initially objected to the original planning permission almost ten years ago. Most recently they are seeking to overturn a council decision that assigns a sports stadium under development in Tallaght for soccer only, rather than as a multi use facility. The minister for sport and SDCC have indicated that Junior GAA games will be accommodated in the current design as junior GAA games would not require an increased pitch size.[4] South Dublin County Council initially decided that the stadium would be multi-use containing a soccer sized pitch. This was reversed in January 2006 when SDCC sought to include a Senior GAA pitch also. The council reverted back to the original plans after they were informed by the Minister for Sport that he would not fund the stadium unless it was designated as soccer only (RTÉ, 2007). The intention of the council is that the League of Ireland soccer team, Shamrock Rovers would play in the new facility. The Rovers chairman recently stated "But we're also amazed that a local GAA club - that already has superb, publicly-funded facilities in place - can begrudge us the opportunity to complete the club's move to the new stadium."[5].
In a High Court application to have the design of the Tallaght Stadium changed Thomas Davis say they are "at a severe disadvantage in attracting the youth of Tallaght to our club, our sport and the GAA culture".[6] In a reserved judgment, made on the 30th March 2007, Justice Iarflaidh O'Neill found in favour of Thomas Davis in seeking leave for a judicial review of the decision making process that led to the decision to designate the facility as single rather than multi-use, stating that Thomas Davis had established that it did indeed have a 'substantial interest' in the case and had raised the necessary 'substantial' grounds required for leave to be given for a judicial review of planning decisions.[7]
Thomas Davis spokesperson David Kennedy has claimed in the media several times that he wants to stadium to open as soon as possible, yet Thomas Davis failed in an application on December 7th 2006 to have the process delayed until the completion of an unrelated case in the Supreme Court.[8] Minister for Sport John O'Donoghue, in an interview given in April 2007 reiterated that he would not fund the stadium should it be decided that it should be multi-sport, because as a matter of principle, he had given his word to Shamrock Rovers that it would be their home ground, stating that 'a promise made is a debt unpaid.'[9].
On the 14th December, 2007 Mr Justice Roderick Murphy ruled against Thomas Davis in the Judicial Review. After a delay of over 2 years building work at the stadium is expected to resume in early 2008. An application by Thomas Davis for leave to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court was refused at a hearing on 25 January, 2008. At this hearing Thomas Davis were also instructed to pay the full costs of South Dublin County Council and Shamrock Rovers F.C. The total legal bill has been reported to be approximately €500,000; members of Thomas Davis have indicated that this bill will be paid by the GAA. Work can resume on the site and the Hoops (i.e. Shamrock Rovers) can look forward to moving into the stadium between the end of the 2008 and the start of the 2009 season.
[edit] Notable Players
- Paul Curran, former all-Ireland winning player with Dublin
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Smith leads Davids to League title. Hill 16.
- ^ Thomas Davis triumph in Humphrey Cup. Retrieved on 2008-02-09.
- ^ . The Sports Capital Programme - Grants and Funding. Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism. Retrieved on 2007-03-25.
- ^ Cliona Foley. "Tallaght Stadium", Irish Independent, 2007-01-04.
- ^ SRFC Press Release. Shamrock Rovers.
- ^ Paul Hyland. "Landmark Day on cards for Hoops (quoting the affidavit to the High Court)", Evening Herald, 2006-11-23, pp. 106-107. Retrieved on 2006-11-23.
- ^ "GAA club win leave to fight single use", Irish Times, 2007-03-31.
- ^ "Rovers wait on new year hearing", Irish Independent, 2006-12-08.
- ^ This Week - Tallaght Stadium delayed by local GAA Club. RTÉ (2007-04-08).
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