Kennedy Park is a local park in Cork,

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, named after US president

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

who visited the area in June 1963. The 7.5 acre park is situated between Victoria Road and Monahan Road.

Sports

The park is associated with a number of sporting clubs. During the club's infancy, the park was the homestead of

Nemo Rangers GAA Nemo Rangers Hurling and Football Club is a Gaelic Athletic Association club in Ballinlough, Cork, Ballinlough, Cork (city), Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The club is affiliated to the Seandún GAA, Seandún Board and fields teams in Gaeli ...

club. More recently it has been used as the training base for the Cork Admirals American Football team. The park is also used for training by several amateur soccer sides, as well as

tag rugby file:Tag.Rugby.Belt.jpg, Tag-rugby belt Tag rugby, Flag rugby or Rippa rugby is a non-contact team game in which each player wears a belt that has two velcro tags attached to it, or shorts with velcro patches. The mode of play is based on rugby l ...

teams.

Development

In the mid-2000s, at the height of the

Celtic Tiger The "Celtic Tiger" () is a term referring to the economy of the Republic of Ireland, economy of Ireland from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, a period of rapid real economic growth fuelled by foreign direct investment. The boom was dampened by ...

, the future of the park was cast in doubt after plans were unveiled to reduce the size of the park to allow for a new road to be constructed in conjunction with the Cork Docklands Development. This resulted in a petition by local residents and by the sporting clubs that used the park. The Cork Docklands developments, however, were ultimately halted due to economic constraints and the planned changes were not implemented. In 2012, as marked by a contemporary plaque, a number of improvements and developments to the park were unveiled - including a new walkway and planting. Funding was reportedly confirmed for additional improvements during 2018.

References

{{Cork City Parks in Cork (city)