A new astroturf pitch is nearly ready in Coolock, but something's missing

On Thursday about lunchtime, two women were pushing prams across a bridge over a little stream in Stardust Memorial Park in Coolock.

Weeping willows, heavy with the weight of late summer, bent over the edges of the little lake upstream from the bridge, where a couple of ducks were paddling.

Nearby was a new astroturf pitch, with a couple dozen seagulls shambling around among the fake green grass of its surface.

However, the pitch was surrounded by a fence, and the gate into it was chained shut. The astro isn't ready for play yet – they're missing a key element.

"On the Stardust pitch, when is it going to be ready and open for local teams?" Social Democrats Councillor Jesslyn Henry asked at Monday's meeting of the council's North Central Area Committee.

"So, unfortunately there was no goals ordered," said Derek Farrell, a council manager. "Emmm, so, that, for a football pitch ..."

Councillors started laughing.

"Oops," someone said.

Farrell continued: "The guys that were doing the tender obviously forgot about it and thought, 'Well they're gonna put goals in anyway it's a football pitch.'"

"Obviously, then the people who were giving the prices are kind of saying well they obviously don't want goals," he said.

In any case, the goals should be installed within the next week or so, he said.

This is just the latest delay in the effort to install the new astroturf. Councillors have been asking for updates on the project for months, and when local teams can start playing there.

When independent Councillor John Lyons asked in July 2025, senior parks superintendent Fergus O'Carroll said in a written response that a "tender package for the proposed works has been published and submissions returned".

"Once these have been evaluated, a contractor appointed and contracts signed a more accurate timeline for delivery will be circulated," O'Carroll said.

By September 2025, a year ago, O'Carroll was telling Lyons that a contractor had been appointed. In February 2026, he was telling Henry that work was underway and should be done by Q2 of this year.

Nearly done, he told Sinn Féin Councillor Edel Moran in March of this year. "The extreme rainfall in recent months did cause considerable delays to the works as it is not possible to lay the all-weather carpet in such conditions," he said.

"Unfortunately, the ESB have advised they are not in a position to provide the necessary mini pillar to power the lights until later in the summer," he said. "The facility will be available without lights from the middle of Q2 and the full facility with lights will be available for the dark months of next winter."

Now, in late September, well after the end of Q2 in June, and the pitch is there, the new grass growing up around it where the dirt was disturbed for construction.

But the goals are yet to come, so no one's playing there even during the daytime, except the seagulls.

And the ESB still hasn't put in the power for the floodlights either, Farrell said at the meeting on Monday.

"The one thing that's going to delay night-time training at the moment is that we're still waiting for the ESB to come back," he said.

"The ESB had promised they were gonna have a mini hub or a mini pillar in September," he said. "To my knowledge, the ESB haven't come back yet, but parks have been in touch with them again to find out what's happening."