Enfield Celtic are setting high standards

There are different ways a football club can be deemed a success. Winning trophies on a regular basis is one, obvious, way. Improving the club’s facilities is another.

When it comes to upgrading what’s available to them at their home ground, Enfield Celtic can certainly be considered to be right up there at top of the table. Champions.

In 2025 the club opened a full-sized astro pitch on their four-acre site in the village/town. That fact alone ensures Enfield Celtic are in a small, elusive group. Few amateur football clubs around Meath, or anywhere else for that matter, can say they have their own, full-length astro.

It was a major investment (around €500,000) but the acquisition of the pitch has helped to elevate the club to a new level – in all sorts of ways.

“It’s stating the obvious but the astro surface allows us to play football all year round, winter, summer,” says club chairperson Anne Maher. “We are now self-sufficient within the club which we never were before because during the winter months we had to historically go and rent training grounds. The local GAA club, for example, had small astro pitches for kids to train on over the winter months and we used to use those.

“These days you have to have your own facilities if you want to try and progress and meet the demands of the local community, and the growing number of young people who want to play football.

“It’s an expensive business but if a club works hard and a club has its vision, why not? It’s like anything. If you want to do something you just go and do it. It’s a massive achievement for the club but our area is expanding with houses, there’s people who want to play ball and kids too. You want them to be doing something that is of benefit to them.”

In those words, Maher underlines one of Enfield Celtic’s abiding principles, their raison d’etre – to provide adequate facilities for the local community.

A major part of the fund-raising drive for the astro was a draw the club staged with the winner receiving the top prize of €10,000 with the local community rowing in behind the idea.

Not that the people in Enfield Celtic FC are happy to just stand back and admire their new acquisition. They know that standing still is going backwards. Instead, for them it’s about pushing on, always pushing on. Another example of that can be seen in the way the club have installed solar panels in their clubhouse in recent weeks.

“Running an amateur club is expensive in terms of energy but also in terms of the current environment, climate change,” adds Ann Maher by way of explanation. “We are only after having the panels installed so we haven’t seen the benefits of the reduction in our energy costs but we would hope to do so over time.”

The fact that Anne Maher, who is an accountant, is also club chairperson helps to give an air of exclusivity to the club. There are few women in the game at grassroots level, or indeed any level, who are also the top official in their clubs.

She has held that role now for some years. She first became a football fan when she worked in London and regularly went to games in Highbury to watch the Arsenal. She remains a committed Gunner and was delighted to see Declan Rice & Co win the Premier League a few months ago – finally.

Under the guidance of manager Gar Pepper, Enfield Celtic’s first team has also shown real signs of progress securing their place in Div 1 of the North East Football League at the end of last season. It’s not all that long ago they were languishing in Div 3. The Celts are also motoring nicely in the NEFL Challenge Cup.

Among the club’s most famous sons is Luke McNally, the big defender who turned out for Enfield Celtic before moving on to carve out a career in League of Ireland with St Patrick’s Athletic and Drogheda before moving to England where he has played for a variety of clubs including Oxford, Burnley and now Bristol City. Last season a ACL injury forced him out of action for a lengthy spell. This season he will be hoping for better fortune

“Success is no accident,” the great Pele once said. “It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”

The good people involved with Enfield Celtic FC would understand.