New hockey pitch for Belfast Royal Academy

This afternoon I opened a new synthetic hockey pitch for Belfast Royal Academy at their grounds at Roughfort Road, Mallusk.  The construction of the pitch was co-funded by DCAL through Sport NI who contributed £245,000 towards the project.

Nelson McCausland, Dominic Walsh (Sport NI chair) and two hockey players

The project provides the north Belfast school with the latest facilities accredited by the Federation of International Hockey and is one of many projects, across Northern Ireland, to improve our sports infrastructure.  Our priorities for sport are about places, participation and performance:

1. Places - the provision of better facilities, or places for sport

2. Participation - better facilities will encourage more participation

3. Performance - better facilities will assist our athletes to improve their performance and reach their utmost potential

As a former pupil of the school it was particularly good to open the new facility and I was joined at the opening by the chairman of Sport NI, Dominic Walsh, another former pupil, and headmaster Moore Dickson.