Swinford Soccer Club in County Mayo was formed in the 50's and until recently, depended on the goodwill of schools and friendly farms to play their games.

In 1989, the late Mrs Margaret McEvaddy bequeathed land on the main Dublin Road to the club. In 1990, they drew up a plan to develop two pitches. With an initial grant of £8,000 from the National Lottery Beneficiary fund, a similar grant from the FAI and with local contributions, Swinford FC built dressing rooms, a car park and carried out some levelling and drainage work on two pitches.

During the 90's, the game of soccer in Swinford got bigger and bigger and the existing pitches could not handle all the games, so our committee embarked on a pitch refurbishment programme. Both pitches underwent further drainage and levelling work, poor soil was removed and tons of sand was used. This work was carried out with the assistance of grants totalling €100,000 from the National Lottery Beneficiary Fund through the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism and further grants of €20,000 from Clár.

Without this funding we could never have achieved what we have today Said Donal Benson, Honorary Treasurer, Swinford FC.