Monaghan Sports Partnership (MSP) is an organisation which promotes participation in sport and physical activity across many populations group in County Monaghan –established and primarily funded by Sport Ireland and operating within the structures of Monaghan County Council. MSP works in collaboration with local and national organisations to deliver numerous initiatives at a local level, aimed at increasing the physical activity levels of all demographics of people and to promote the huge benefits of physical activity on people’s physical and mental wellbeing.
While Monaghan Sports Partnership facilitates activities for all cohorts, their key target groups include:
- Children & young people
- Adults & children with a disability
- Women & girls
- Older adults
- Migrant community
- People in areas of social/economic deprivation
Children need to be physically active for at least 60 minutes per day and with this is mind, we work with Schools, Pre-Schools, After-School, Community groups, Sports Clubs and statutory bodies by introducing or supporting various programmes to support the activity levels of children and young people. Some initiatives include: Playground markings, Fundamental Movement Skills, Learn to Cycle, Volleyball, Tug of War and adapted activities for children with additional needs. We have produced a family fun games and activities booklet for families to use at home.
Sport Club Supports
MSP supports local sports clubs through our small grants programme to assist clubs with the purchase of sports equipment and support the development of coach / education opportunities. Alongside the direct support to clubs, MSP delivers nationally recognised coach education workshops, developed by Sport Ireland Ethics, Sports Ireland Coaching and Active Disability Ireland to support sports club volunteers, in areas such as safeguarding, coaching children, coaching teenage girls, autism in sport, physical literacy
MSP will continue to promote participation and club development in the County in 2025 in line with the objectives of the Sport Ireland Statement of Strategy, the National Sports Policy and the National Physical Activity Plan.
Priority actions in 2025 include:
- Delivery of core programming supported by Sport Ireland – a comprehensive local community programme of activity with emphasis on key target groups outlined above
- Delivery of 2024-2025 Dormant Accounts funded projects for specific purposes
- Support the development of local sports plan, county outdoor recreation plan, local play and recreation plan
- Enhanced communication design and implementation to increase awareness and promotion of MSP activities
MSP Specific Projects
In addition to the general programming, MSP delivers several major projects that are funded through Dormant Accounts and some of these projects will continue from 2024 into 2025, with new projects being added in 2025, aimed at promoting participation in sport and physical activity, particularly among key target groups. Typical projects include:
- Community Sports Hub – activating targeted support within specific community areas (location specific in two areas)
- Urban Outdoor Adventure – a project designed to increase participation in the outdoors (especially children and young people) through a series of initiatives to encourage adventure type activity (location specific)
- HER moves – a national initiative designed to increase the participation rates of more teenage girls through new opportunities in conjunction with Sports Primary Schools / Community
- Equality, Diversity & Inclusion – a focus on using sport as a vehicle for community integration and the inclusion of young people from new communities etc in existing sports in the areas, along with the development of new sports activity (location specific)
- Youth Leadership – training and education of young people to gain community sport and physical activity leadership skills e.g. as coaches, leaders, referees, committee members etc. This initiative targets secondary school aged learners who wish to develop their leadership skills and MSP also delivers a Primary School version through the PlayMaker workshop
Pop Up Pool Carrickmacross
The Pop Up Pool is an initiative of Swim Ireland and is supported by Monaghan County Council and Monaghan Sports Partnership. The Pop Up Pool is designed to offer opportunities to people of all ages and abilities to experience water based exercise or ‘learn to swim’ opportunities in a location where swimming pool access is not readily available or does not exist. The pool will be available until end March 2025 and a schedule of classes / timetable is available at
https://swimireland.ie/get-swimming/pop-up-pool/carrickmacross/
This timetable is likely to change term on term and will be influenced by the needs of the Community who wish to access it
While the Sports Partnership is supporting the activities within the pool, Swim Ireland will have the final say in relation to the schedule of classes as they are dependent on the following – time slot (outside of School use and Swim Lessons), availability of a Swim Teachers (where required), and availability of Lifeguard supervision.
For general enquiries to the Sports Partnership office, please contact –
Monaghan Sports Partnership, c/o Mtek 2, Knockaconny, Armagh Rd, Monaghan, Co. Monaghan.
Phone: 042-9755126
General Email: info@monaghansports.ie
Facebook: www.facebook.com/monaghansports