The University of Galway Connacht GAA Air Dome is back up and on course to reopen in the coming weeks, more than a year after the landmark indoor facility was destroyed by Storm Éowyn.
The multimillion euro venue at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence in Bekan, County Mayo, was badly damaged in January 2025 when record-breaking winds tore apart the inflated roof of what had become one of the most important covered sports facilities in Ireland.
Now, 495 days after it came down, the dome has been reinflated, with Connacht GAA confirming that the rebuild has cost more than €4 million.
The facility was officially opened in 2021 by then GAA President Larry McCarthy and quickly became a game-changer for the province, offering an indoor venue capable of hosting matches, training, development squads, school activities, and community events regardless of weather conditions.
When completed originally, it was described as the second-largest sports dome in the world and could accommodate more than 2,000 spectators for games. Its first match was the 2022 FBD League meeting of Leitrim and Sligo, won by the Yeats County.
Connacht GAA Secretary John Prenty told RTÉ Radio 1’s News At One that the replacement dome had been designed with resilience in mind.
“The new dome, the replacement structure, is a resilient fabric and has been specifically designed to allow it to be rapidly deflated,” he said.
“That means that if we get a severe weather forecast, we can deflate the dome.”
A key change in the rebuild has been the relocation of floodlights from the roof to pitch-mounted positions. That will allow the structure to be deflated quickly when severe weather warnings are issued, reducing the risk of similar damage in future.
“That has been accommodated by having floodlights that are pitch-mounted rather than roof-mounted,” Prenty added. “That enhances our ability to respond to adverse weather conditions quickly.”
Work is now continuing on installing those pitch lights, with Connacht GAA hoping the facility will be fully operational again within four to five weeks.
The return of the Bekan dome also comes as the covered sports model looks set to expand elsewhere on the island.
Ulster University has advanced plans for a 15,000-square-metre indoor sports and leisure air dome on Northland Road in Derry/Londonderry, close to its Magee campus. The proposed facility, supported through the PEACEPLUS Programme, is planned for the former Foyle College site and would provide full-size playing space suitable for Gaelic games, soccer, rugby, other sports, community activity and events.
The Derry project is being described as the first facility of its scale in Northern Ireland and would add a major new shared sporting space in the North West.
Storm Éowyn showed the vulnerability of even major sports infrastructure to extreme weather. The rebuild at Bekan is designed not only to restore what was lost but also to ensure the next chapter is more secure.
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Image Credit: Connacht GAA and Brendan Moran, Sportsfile
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