Ballymacash Sports Academy: From bonfire site to brilliant football that brings people together

The Bluebell football pitch in Lisburn has been home to Ballymacash Rangers Football Club for decades. It was originally just a grass pitch with a portacabin changing room.

“People unfairly looked down on the club members and the team because it’s based in a working class, loyalist housing estate, but we recognised the potential of the site,” said academy manager Neil Woolsey. “So we formed the Ballymacash Sports Academy to become a vehicle to redevelop it.”

In 2018, the Ballymacash Sports Academy launched a community share offer with the aim of raising capital to deliver a brand-new full size floodlit 3G pitch, the first and only in Lisburn.

The share offer raised £112,500 from 300 members and Neil and his colleagues set about achieving their goal. They realised they had a strip of land with no sporting use, so used it to create community allotments.

“We were told there’s a 100-year waiting list to get an allotment in Lisburn,” continued Neil. “So, we gave plots to various groups, including young local disabled people who have created a social enterprise supplying vegetables and herbs to local cafes.”

A second share offer in 2022 raised another £30,000 from 100 members. To launch the offer, the academy was supported by Co-operatives UK in partnership with The Co-operative Bank.

“They gave us the funding for co-op development expert Tiziana O’Hara to work on our share offer document and ensure it met the Community Shares Standard Mark,” Neil explained.

“Tiziana is fantastic. She did a great job. It was critical for us to get the Standard Mark. It’s a guarantee of a high-quality share offer. We couldn’t have launched the campaign without it. So, it was a great relief to get it.”

As part of the share offer, the academy sold ‘junior shares packages’ for children, which their parents maintain until they are 16. The junior members received a share certificate, a football and a soccer camp coaching session.

Since 2018, the academy has gone from strength to strength. There are now four full and part time employees. The new pitch and spectator stands have been installed – and the facility is used by lots of different people in the community.

“It’s allowed the team to gain promotion into the Irish Football League. We’re top of league and in contention to challenge for another promotion,” said Neil.

The academy’s next step is to do away with the portacabin and build a bricks and mortar building which should be ready for use by spring 2023.

“Lisburn is a city of 140,000 people and this was the first full sized 3G pitch in the town. It’s changed the whole the community. Before, it was a bonfire site. There was a stigma about it. People would call it a drinking den.

“Now, we have all sectors of the community coming to it. It’s been a real positive for the community and the building will be the icing on the cake.”