Did the local Longford greyhound track closure impact the county town economy?

A war of words has erupted between a Longford Oireachtas member and a a life-long animal rights campaigner over opinion on the closure of Longford greyhound track and the economic impact on the county town.

Fine Gael Senator Paraic Brady said during a Seanad debate on Thursday on the funding of horse and greyhound racing in Budget 2026 that the closure of Longford greyhound track in 2020 has had a serious negative economic impact.

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However, Nuala Donlon, a spokesperson for Greyhound Action Ireland, has strongly disagreed with him and she challenged him to support his comments.

Senator Brady has insisted that there was footfall of 150-to-300 people, including owners, trainers and spectators who would come into Longford town on a Friday night regularly for race meetings and he said they are sorely missed.

"There were four bookie shops on the track and [before the recession] there was a restaurant upstairs overlooking the greyhound track.

"We had trainers such as Robbie Mulleady, from Edgeworthstown and a lot of very good trainers in county Longford.

"My late father Gerry kept a greyhound and a lot of people were involved as owners or trainers and attended race meetings.

"It was a social event."

Senator Brady stated people also 'forget the best racing track was in Longford' as the unique curved track was 'perfectly designed as a racing track', but now local owners and trainers are forced into travelling to Mullingar.

"There was lots of people involved, it was a way of life."

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Senator Brady said the racing every Friday provided an economic boost and today some people opposed to the industry are critical of the practice but 'forget about the amount of jobs it creates'.

"In the first half of 2025 there were 692 greyhound racing fixtures around Ireland and more than 7,200 races ran during the first six months of 2025.

"The total prizemoney was over €4.3 million and the number of active owners was 3,737, while there was around 300 trainers and the number of non-active owners was 526.

"The total tote [betting into a pool of money, where all bets on a horse are pooled] outside the race track was €5.6 million and in terms of the betting in the racetrack it was €3.6 million, while the total attendance during the first six months was over 157,000 people (an average of 226 at each fixture)."

Senator Brady insisted these figures show the power of greyhound racing, but 'unfortunately' the racing track in Longford 'cannot reopen now at the former site as there is a skate park' there.

"What people forget is it was also a great way to fundraise for numerous fundraising events as well," he added.

However, animal rights campaigner Ms Donlon strongly disagreed with the comments Senator Brady made during the debate and stated 'Longford track was one of four tracks identified as being economically unviable in the 2019 Indecon Report'.

The document reviewed the sustainability of Irish greyhound tracks and she stated 'Longford track was singled out in the Indecon report as having the lowest attendance level of any greyhound track in the country'.

“The closure of a track which was so poorly attended that if had become uneconomically unviable is hardly likely to have had much of an impact one way or the other on the local economy.

“If Senator Brady is going to claim otherwise and use this claim to bolster his argument that the state should continue to hand over €20 million to the greyhound industry year after year, then he should be required to produce evidence to support this claim."

Greyhound Action Ireland said since 2019, attendance at greyhound tracks has continued to decline and they claimed greyhound stadia were 70%-to-91% empty in 2023, while In 2024, attendance was down by a further 25,000.

The site of Longford greyhound track was subsequently developed as a state of the art skatepark, and has become a popular community resource.

Stadium management blamed falling attendances and rising insurance costs for the 2020 closure.