'This is an important next step in the project' says GAA, as demolition work set to begin this week at Casement Park stadium

Ahead of the work, the Press Association was granted access to record images of the derelict site, including the main stand which is to be knocked down.

The work is scheduled to take around 12 weeks.

Ulster GAA recently said the organisation is “looking forward to enabling works recommencing at Casement Park”.

A statement said: “This is an important next step in the project and will include site clearance and the demolition of existing structures within the site boundary, including the old stand.

“We have written to local residents and updated the local voluntary, business and community organisations on our plans.

“As the project progresses, we move closer to delivering our provincial stadium that will provide lasting sporting, social and economic benefits for West Belfast and all of Ulster.”

Plans to develop a new 34,000-capacity stadium at the site have been mired in uncertainty because of a funding shortfall.

Planning permission for the west Belfast stadium is due to expire this summer, and a few months ago Secretary of State Hilary Benn reminded that work has to start on site in order to keep it.

Some clearance has already taken place, with Stormont officials characterising the coming 12-week job as “restarting demolition”.

Last week, unionists insisted to the News Letter that even though work to clear the site of Casement Park was about to start, there still wasn’t enough money to actually build the stadium.

DUP sports spokesman, MLA Stephen Dunne said: “A huge funding gap still remains for Casement Park.

“It is now for the GAA to decide what extra contribution they will make, or how they will scale their project to match the funding available.”

TUV leader Jim Allister questioned the amount of public money being spent on Casement Park, adding a “modest TUV suggestion that a proportion of profits from non-GAA events should be recouped by the taxpayer” got a blank reception.

Although budgeted at £400m, the stadium project downsized after it became clear it wouldn’t be ready in time for 2028’s Euro football championships, which are to be held across the UK and Ireland.

Now priced at £270m, it’s still struggling to get under way. A combination of money from Stormont, Dublin, Westminster and the GAA has roughly £210m in the Casement pot – though that includes more than £100m pledged by Sinn Fein Finance Minister John O’Dowd in a draft budget that hasn’t yet been agreed.

The £100m sum is a significant increase on the £62.5m Stormont originally ringfenced for the project 15 years ago.

A Department for Communities spokesperson said Ulster GAA “are restarting their site clearance and demolition works at Casement Park under their own contract and expense”.

Plans to redevelop the stadium into a much larger facility ran into a long series of battles with west Belfast residents, who didn’t want the originally planned 40,000-seater in their area. In 2021, it won planning permission as a 34,500-capacity venue.