GAA club sacrifices its pitch to 'save part' of local community in Cork

A GAA club selflessly opened its gates to relieve flooding in the area, sacrificing their pitch to be used as a floodplain in Cork. 

Sarsfields Hurling Club had just won the Cork Senior Hurling Championship at the weekend. 

The club posted on social media: "We will be forever proud of our senior team on Sunday and today Sars Hurling Club experienced heroism in the form of our pitch committee and volunteers.

"Although we wanted to ensure we could limit the damage to the club house we made the decision to open the 2 large gates (behind the bar area and at the end of the pitch).

"We won a county, lost a pitch but hopefully saved a part of the Glanmire community," the club added. 

A major clean-up operation is now under way after flooding swamped several towns and villages in Ireland during Storm Babet.

Members of the Irish Defence Forces were deployed as part of the response to the floods.

The army and civil defence units supported evacuation measures in the town of Midleton in Co Cork, where more than 100 properties were flooded.