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Sydney Morning Herald
22-07-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
From Black Hawks to $2 pool noodles: Inside the new Anzac Hall
Private Matthew Clarke had been deployed to Afghanistan for less than three weeks when an IED exploded under the armoured personnel carrier – a Bushmaster nicknamed Debbie – he was driving along a dry creek bed. The explosion broke 14 bones in his legs, ankles and feet. Another soldier was also badly wounded. Clarke was the first from his deployment in 2012 to be shipped home, but not the last: others would be killed or have limbs amputated. In uniform and wearing his medals on his first Anzac Day back home, Clarke was astonished when a woman stopped to ask him what medals he was wearing. Clarke replied he was one of 26,000 defence force personnel deployed to Afghanistan – Australia's longest war – from 2001 to 2021. Yet, the woman was confused. 'We'd been there for nine or 10 years, but she only related medals to World War I or II,' he said. When it opens in 2026, it is expected that a million visitors to the new Anzac Hall in the Australian War Memorial will be able to hear Clarke and fellow soldiers tell their stories, and see the battered Bushmaster on display in the new Afghanistan gallery that has been expanded from 60 square metres in the old hall to 700 square metres. The crew's unopened boxes of blue Gatorade (now filled with blue resin) can be seen on its roof racks with, among other objects, a makeshift sink. 'I've never seen anything like that in a museum,' Clarke told the Herald. In the late afternoon light of what will be a new peacekeeping gallery, the nose of a C-130 Hercules protrudes from a wall, as if it has plunged and crashed, a ghostly sight. But it is the F/A-18A 'Classic' Hornet, A21-022, that is the star of the show, displayed under a large opening that allows visitors to view it from above. The Classic is an earlier model than the 'Super Hornet' that starred in the movie Top Gun: Maverick. Shipped intact through Canberra by night, it was dropped into place in one piece using a 150-square-metre lift pit, an innovation designed for the project. The Hornet may have survived 6000 flying hours over Iraq and Syria in patrol and combat missions, but it is now wrapped in plastic and its tips protected with red pool noodles ahead of its debut appearance in the memorial. During its installation, Australian War Memorial logistics manager Kassandra Hobbs bought the pool noodles as a cost-saving measure to protect the old workhorse and reduce the chance of injuries to workers from its sharp edges, capable of taking out an eye. She bought 75 red, green and blue Funsafe pool noodles from the local Bunnings at $2 each, plus a couple of rolls of tape. At $162.44 all up, this was the best value in terms of collection protection, and would be reused. 'This cost is not exorbitant, considering the cost of having to fix objects if they were damaged,' she says. To prepare the large objects for display, and tell about 100,000 stories in the new hall, took some Anzac ingenuity, as employed by Hobbs, said deputy project director Christopher Widenbar. They also invented a 'rocket on a stick' of a kind unlikely to be found at the next Easter Show. When the museum was trying to conserve a WWII German V2 Rocket, for display on the top floor of the new hall, the cylindrical shape made it difficult to handle. So a spindle was fitted, allowing it to be rotated, rotisserie-style. Widenbar said this reduced the risk of injury, winning a safety prize along the way. Anzac Hall is the most ambitious in scale and size of the changes under way at the memorial. Initially proposed by former prime minister Scott Morrison, Anzac Hall is the third stage of the $548.7 million expansion. Creating a space to display 43 large technology items such as the Hornet and Debbie the Bushmaster, and cover Australia's involvement in Afghanistan, the Middle East from 1990, as well as peacekeeping from 1947, has meant soldiering on despite criticism. Executive project director Wayne Hitches gave this masthead a hard hat tour of the new Anzac Hall's column-free spaces. There are two floors comprising 7000 square metres of exhibition space, and Hitches said the team turned to a bridge manufacturer in Newcastle to build reinforced precast concrete Super-T beams, eliminating the need for columns in the 100-metre-long hall. The beams, each 33 metres long to span the hall and weighing 64 tonnes, made their way into the lift pit via an 800-tonne crane. Designed by Cox Architecture, which won an architecture competition, and implemented by project architects DJAS, the plan for Anzac Hall eliminated columns so that there would be no constraints in moving large objects. Hitches said: 'It's a bit of an engineering marvel, but they're also in line with what you would see underneath a bridge or a freeway.' A new roof shaped like the rays of the rising sun badge worn by the army is in place. Loading A giant wall made of sandstone from the quarry near Gosford faces the original facade of the heritage buildings, but the two are not allowed to touch. A Black Hawk helicopter will hang above the cafe. Criticism of the project included opposition to the unnecessary demolition of the existing Anzac Hall, built in 2001 and designed by Denton Corker Marshall. It won the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for public architecture. It was also criticised as too big, that it flaunted normal approval processes, did not do enough to consider the heritage status of the old building, and The Guardian journalist Paul Daley likened it to Disneyland. Australian Institute of Architects national president Adam Haddow says the politics are similar to those surrounding the sale of the Sirius public housing block in Sydney's The Rocks to turn it into luxury accommodation. 'You get to a point where the project is the project, and you need to judge it based on how well the architect has responded to the brief and the delivery of a building,' Haddow said. 'We can still disagree with the original premise. And we can always believe that the original national award-winning building Anzac Hall should never have been demolished, but the politics is the problem. Not the design. 'There's the importance of the building after the argument.' Haddow said both Sirius and the War Memorial had turned out better than expected. The completed underground southern entrance, with its oculus and parade ground, by Studio SC (formerly Scott Carver) won four architecture awards in the ACT. The project was shortlisted last week for three national awards. War Memorial director Matthew Anderson said Herald war correspondent and historian Charles Bean envisaged the AWM as more than a memorial. 'He didn't just want us to know what they did and where they did it – he wanted us to know how they felt when they were doing it,' he said. 'There is an unbroken line from those who leapt from the Ascot landing boat at Gallipoli on the afternoon of April 25, 1915, to those who now sign the Tarin Kowt wall to record proudly their service in the Middle East Area of Operations. 'That is our 'why'. Today's veterans are owed nothing less and, frankly, they have waited long enough.' Australian War Memorial senior curator Dr Kerry Neale said the large objects, such as the Hornet, would not exist without the servicemen and women. 'We needed a space that would keep the memorial true to its mission, true to what Bean wanted, which is to interpret and share the experience of Australians at war. We can't end that at Vietnam … because that's not when Australia's experience of war ends.' The displays were far from a Top Gun: Maverick approach, she said. 'We look at the devastation that air strikes cause, to the coalition, the enemy, it's all compounded, and we're saying that the Hornet as a piece of technology is quite impressive, but all the people who work on them, and all of the consequences and repercussions, are part and parcel of the Hornet story.' To show the human elements, the Hornet display includes a mannequin wearing the flight suit of a tall pilot like Group Captain Michael Grant, who had to fold himself into a small space for 10 hours or more. It includes his P bag – a pocket-sized emergency loo, which folds up like an adult diaper and uses the same crystals. Neale said: 'They had them in their flight suit pockets, and would need to use them to relieve themselves. There was no pulling off to the side of the road.' On the ground nearby, a mannequin represents a soldier dressed in shorts in 50-degree heat who works to repair and refuel the plane. A large image of Dave Burgess' anti-war slogan, No War, painted on the Opera House sails in 2003 is portrayed near the Hornet. Widenbar said the larger galleries allowed the memorial to tell a more comprehensive story. Take Afghanistan: for the first time, it would include the voice of the diaspora community, and Afghans who were helped or hurt by what Australians did. The new galleries will tackle war and peacekeeping through stories, and will touch on the allegations in the Brereton report including Ben Roberts-Smith, and Isis brides. 'Why the hell did Australia go to war there? How is it connected to terrorism and 9/11? So we can actually talk about what Australians did in the various stages,' he said. Loading That ranged from combat, reconstruction and then the evacuation, which Widener said was happening as curators were finalising the selection of objects. 'We were almost trying to capture the end of a story that was happening live.' At the end of the tour we cross the walkway across the atrium that connects the new Anzac Hall to the original heritage building. Everything is designed so that the dome can be seen from every point, including from Parliament House, Hitches said. 'If you opened all the doors of the prime minister's office, you'd see the war memorial.' He said it is to remember the cost of sending people off to war.
The Age
22-07-2025
- General
- The Age
From Black Hawks to $2 pool noodles: Inside the new Anzac Hall
Private Matthew Clarke had been deployed to Afghanistan for less than three weeks when an IED exploded under the armoured personnel carrier – a Bushmaster nicknamed Debbie – he was driving along a dry creek bed. The explosion broke 14 bones in his legs, ankles and feet. Another soldier was also badly wounded. Clarke was the first from his deployment in 2012 to be shipped home, but not the last: others would be killed or have limbs amputated. In uniform and wearing his medals on his first Anzac Day back home, Clarke was astonished when a woman stopped to ask him what medals he was wearing. Clarke replied he was one of 26,000 defence force personnel deployed to Afghanistan – Australia's longest war – from 2001 to 2021. Yet, the woman was confused. 'We'd been there for nine or 10 years, but she only related medals to World War I or II,' he said. When it opens in 2026, it is expected that a million visitors to the new Anzac Hall in the Australian War Memorial will be able to hear Clarke and fellow soldiers tell their stories, and see the battered Bushmaster on display in the new Afghanistan gallery that has been expanded from 60 square metres in the old hall to 700 square metres. The crew's unopened boxes of blue Gatorade (now filled with blue resin) can be seen on its roof racks with, among other objects, a makeshift sink. 'I've never seen anything like that in a museum,' Clarke told the Herald. In the late afternoon light of what will be a new peacekeeping gallery, the nose of a C-130 Hercules protrudes from a wall, as if it has plunged and crashed, a ghostly sight. But it is the F/A-18A 'Classic' Hornet, A21-022, that is the star of the show, displayed under a large opening that allows visitors to view it from above. The Classic is an earlier model than the 'Super Hornet' that starred in the movie Top Gun: Maverick. Shipped intact through Canberra by night, it was dropped into place in one piece using a 150-square-metre lift pit, an innovation designed for the project. The Hornet may have survived 6000 flying hours over Iraq and Syria in patrol and combat missions, but it is now wrapped in plastic and its tips protected with red pool noodles ahead of its debut appearance in the memorial. During its installation, Australian War Memorial logistics manager Kassandra Hobbs bought the pool noodles as a cost-saving measure to protect the old workhorse and reduce the chance of injuries to workers from its sharp edges, capable of taking out an eye. She bought 75 red, green and blue Funsafe pool noodles from the local Bunnings at $2 each, plus a couple of rolls of tape. At $162.44 all up, this was the best value in terms of collection protection, and would be reused. 'This cost is not exorbitant, considering the cost of having to fix objects if they were damaged,' she says. To prepare the large objects for display, and tell about 100,000 stories in the new hall, took some Anzac ingenuity, as employed by Hobbs, said deputy project director Christopher Widenbar. They also invented a 'rocket on a stick' of a kind unlikely to be found at the next Easter Show. When the museum was trying to conserve a WWII German V2 Rocket, for display on the top floor of the new hall, the cylindrical shape made it difficult to handle. So a spindle was fitted, allowing it to be rotated, rotisserie-style. Widenbar said this reduced the risk of injury, winning a safety prize along the way. Anzac Hall is the most ambitious in scale and size of the changes under way at the memorial. Initially proposed by former prime minister Scott Morrison, Anzac Hall is the third stage of the $548.7 million expansion. Creating a space to display 43 large technology items such as the Hornet and Debbie the Bushmaster, and cover Australia's involvement in Afghanistan, the Middle East from 1990, as well as peacekeeping from 1947, has meant soldiering on despite criticism. Executive project director Wayne Hitches gave this masthead a hard hat tour of the new Anzac Hall's column-free spaces. There are two floors comprising 7000 square metres of exhibition space, and Hitches said the team turned to a bridge manufacturer in Newcastle to build reinforced precast concrete Super-T beams, eliminating the need for columns in the 100-metre-long hall. The beams, each 33 metres long to span the hall and weighing 64 tonnes, made their way into the lift pit via an 800-tonne crane. Designed by Cox Architecture, which won an architecture competition, and implemented by project architects DJAS, the plan for Anzac Hall eliminated columns so that there would be no constraints in moving large objects. Hitches said: 'It's a bit of an engineering marvel, but they're also in line with what you would see underneath a bridge or a freeway.' A new roof shaped like the rays of the rising sun badge worn by the army is in place. Loading A giant wall made of sandstone from the quarry near Gosford faces the original facade of the heritage buildings, but the two are not allowed to touch. A Black Hawk helicopter will hang above the cafe. Criticism of the project included opposition to the unnecessary demolition of the existing Anzac Hall, built in 2001 and designed by Denton Corker Marshall. It won the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for public architecture. It was also criticised as too big, that it flaunted normal approval processes, did not do enough to consider the heritage status of the old building, and The Guardian journalist Paul Daley likened it to Disneyland. Australian Institute of Architects national president Adam Haddow says the politics are similar to those surrounding the sale of the Sirius public housing block in Sydney's The Rocks to turn it into luxury accommodation. 'You get to a point where the project is the project, and you need to judge it based on how well the architect has responded to the brief and the delivery of a building,' Haddow said. 'We can still disagree with the original premise. And we can always believe that the original national award-winning building Anzac Hall should never have been demolished, but the politics is the problem. Not the design. 'There's the importance of the building after the argument.' Haddow said both Sirius and the War Memorial had turned out better than expected. The completed underground southern entrance, with its oculus and parade ground, by Studio SC (formerly Scott Carver) won four architecture awards in the ACT. The project was shortlisted last week for three national awards. War Memorial director Matthew Anderson said Herald war correspondent and historian Charles Bean envisaged the AWM as more than a memorial. 'He didn't just want us to know what they did and where they did it – he wanted us to know how they felt when they were doing it,' he said. 'There is an unbroken line from those who leapt from the Ascot landing boat at Gallipoli on the afternoon of April 25, 1915, to those who now sign the Tarin Kowt wall to record proudly their service in the Middle East Area of Operations. 'That is our 'why'. Today's veterans are owed nothing less and, frankly, they have waited long enough.' Australian War Memorial senior curator Dr Kerry Neale said the large objects, such as the Hornet, would not exist without the servicemen and women. 'We needed a space that would keep the memorial true to its mission, true to what Bean wanted, which is to interpret and share the experience of Australians at war. We can't end that at Vietnam … because that's not when Australia's experience of war ends.' The displays were far from a Top Gun: Maverick approach, she said. 'We look at the devastation that air strikes cause, to the coalition, the enemy, it's all compounded, and we're saying that the Hornet as a piece of technology is quite impressive, but all the people who work on them, and all of the consequences and repercussions, are part and parcel of the Hornet story.' To show the human elements, the Hornet display includes a mannequin wearing the flight suit of a tall pilot like Group Captain Michael Grant, who had to fold himself into a small space for 10 hours or more. It includes his P bag – a pocket-sized emergency loo, which folds up like an adult diaper and uses the same crystals. Neale said: 'They had them in their flight suit pockets, and would need to use them to relieve themselves. There was no pulling off to the side of the road.' On the ground nearby, a mannequin represents a soldier dressed in shorts in 50-degree heat who works to repair and refuel the plane. A large image of Dave Burgess' anti-war slogan, No War, painted on the Opera House sails in 2003 is portrayed near the Hornet. Widenbar said the larger galleries allowed the memorial to tell a more comprehensive story. Take Afghanistan: for the first time, it would include the voice of the diaspora community, and Afghans who were helped or hurt by what Australians did. The new galleries will tackle war and peacekeeping through stories, and will touch on the allegations in the Brereton report including Ben Roberts-Smith, and Isis brides. 'Why the hell did Australia go to war there? How is it connected to terrorism and 9/11? So we can actually talk about what Australians did in the various stages,' he said. Loading That ranged from combat, reconstruction and then the evacuation, which Widener said was happening as curators were finalising the selection of objects. 'We were almost trying to capture the end of a story that was happening live.' At the end of the tour we cross the walkway across the atrium that connects the new Anzac Hall to the original heritage building. Everything is designed so that the dome can be seen from every point, including from Parliament House, Hitches said. 'If you opened all the doors of the prime minister's office, you'd see the war memorial.' He said it is to remember the cost of sending people off to war.
CBC
17-07-2025
- Health
- CBC
Nova Scotia summers are getting hotter. Is Halifax prepared?
Social Sharing Amid a provincewide heat warning, a Halifax emergency room doctor is speaking out about the severity of heat-related illnesses. Daytime temperatures are expected to reach a maximum of 28 C to 32 C in Nova Scotia on Thursday, but cooler temperatures are expected along the coast. "Take action to protect yourself and others – extreme heat can affect everyone's health," the Environment Canada warning notes. "Determine if you or others around you are at greater risk of heat illness." According to studies by the Canadian Climate Institute, Canada will see four times more days with temperatures exceeding 30 C by 2050. Dr. Matthew Clarke, an emergency room doctor at the Halifax Infirmary, said seniors, children and immunocompromised individuals are particularly vulnerable to heat-related illnesses. He said socioeconomic factors can also put people at risk, like being homeless. "When it comes to warmth, we don't always think of it as being a risk factor in the same way [as the cold], but it certainly is," said Clarke. On Tuesday, the Halifax Regional Municipality posted advice on its Facebook page for residents trying to stay cool. It suggested staying indoors, remaining hydrated and turning on fans or air conditioning. For those without access to a cool space, the city recommended going to a public library. Clarke said while it's important for individuals to drink water and stay inside, he thinks a larger, systemic approach is needed when considering the warming climate. Two years ago, a city staff report laid out some of the preliminary steps needed to prepare for and respond to heat waves. A 2021 heat dome in B.C. led to more than 600 deaths. Most of the B.C. deaths happened indoors in homes without cooling systems. According to the Nova Scotia government, as of 2021, only 41 per cent of Halifax homes had air conditioning. Staff report recommendations The city's 2023 staff report recommended setting up cooling stations as a response to extreme heat events. These air-conditioned spaces could be placed in municipally owned buildings or shopping malls. As well, the report said the municipality should take steps to create greater awareness of the cooling centres and check in with vulnerable residents during instances of extreme heat. Some of the other recommendations were for the municipality to: Offer free transit to cool spaces. Provide mobile cooling centres to seniors' homes and other at-risk locations. Set up pop-up outdoor shading and cooling like tents, fans or misting stations. Create a webpage that points residents to a cool space near them, similar to Toronto's "Cool Spaces Near You" page. Despite the recommendations, the city said in a statement that "many measures remain in preliminary or planning stages." Studies show that emergency departments visits and death rates increase in Canada following a heat wave. Emergency room visits When compiling data on things like death rates and emergency room visits, Nova Scotia Public Health said it does not track weather conditions. Last year, the department said there were 43 heat-related emergency visits in the province. These visits include health issues like heat stroke, heat exhaustion and dehydration. Public Health said this figure only includes events where heat was the obvious cause. It does not include emergencies where heat may have been a factor. Clarke said heat often exacerbates other health issues. "People who feel more non-specific symptoms of feeling more weak, more tired, headache, nausea, things like that, heat is certainly a significant contributing factor, but it's a little bit more difficult to pin down that it must have been related," he said.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Like an IKEA Warehouse for the Art Crowd — Why the V&A's New, 'Self-Serve' East End Outpost Is Our Latest Obsession
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. It's not quite Night at the Museum, but the V&A's new opening of its storage facility — the V&A East Storehouse — is about as 'behind-the-scenes' as it gets. Located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, East London, the storehouse stows over 250,000 artifacts and spans four stories over an area bigger than 30 basketball courts. It was created by New York-based architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro with the support of Austin-Smith:Lord with one goal: turning the storied institution's archive inside out. And boy, they have succeeded. Here, visitors can see the V&A's vast collection up close, without the usual glass barrier, making the freshly unveiled location, which opened to the public for the first time last weekend, one of the most exciting city additions for assiduous visitors of design exhibitions in London. To my surprise, the set-up feels genuinely transgressive; I almost gulp when I find myself eye to eye with a multi-hundred-year-old, gold-leafed saint. I ask Technical Manager Matthew Clarke — who supported the installation of the objects, including the seven-ton, 15th-century gilded wooden ceiling from Toledo's now-destroyed Altamira Palace, the Kaufmann Office, Frank Lloyd Wright's only complete interior outside of the US, and a stunningly preserved marble colonnade from 1600s India — whether he is concerned about people touching the very expensive, fragile works. "It is a worry because the V&A East Storehouse is something that's so 'not museum,'" he admits. "But it's giving people agency and trust, and I think that it will bring more ownership of the collection." Among the pieces collected here, his favorite one is a section of what was once Poplar's Robin Hood Gardens, a Brutalist residential complex designed by Alison and Peter Smithson in 1972, which, by the time its demolition started in 2017, housed over a thousand residents within its intricate, maze-like plan. "It was the first thing that came into the storehouse in 2021," Clarke recalls. "We installed that whilst the space was still a construction site." Now an integral part of the center's architecture and thought-provoking public program (visitors get to learn more about it and the stories of those who call it their home as they wander around the site), it is yet another proof of the V&A East Storehouse's efforts to democratize art, and take people along on that journey. The new Order an Object scheme goes one step further. Anyone may reserve up to five items from the collection and examine them in the storehouse's glass-walled workroom at the appointed time. The public appetite is huge; over 1500 objects and 300 appointments were booked in the first ten days since it started operating. Meanwhile, the queues outside of the sleek V&A East Storehouse building stretched nearly half of its silhouette over the opening weekend in a palpable, contagious manifestation of enthusiasm that bodes well for the future of the cultural hub. Image 1 of 6 Image 2 of 6 Image 3 of 6 Image 4 of 6 Image 5 of 6 Image 6 of 6 I am anything but surprised, and I am not alone, either. "Where else would you encounter suits of armor, Sage cloths, biscuit tins, building fragments, puppets, fizzles, chandeliers, and motorcycles in one place next to each other?" Diller Scofidio + Renfro's co-founder, Elizabeth Diller, jokingly asks. Tapped with the demanding task of doing justice to the eclecticism and vastness of the V&A's collection, the studio "decided to lean into the delirium about the strange taxonomies, the mediums, the wide variety of sizes, the myriad of materials, the broad range of geographies and historical periods" reunited among its ranks. Part brutalist industrial facility, part sci-fi-esque cabinet of curiosities, the result is, to say the least, transportative. In one moment, you feel moved by the plethora of masterpieces stacked up on the shelves all around you. The next, you'd bet it's you that's moving, as the glassy, checkered floors proceed to reveal what lies beneath your feet, as well as above you (vertigo sufferers, I warned you), starting from its cinematic first floor. A stern brow, wrinkled Roman soldier. Mesmerizing textiles stretching back to the dawn of time. A pair of latex hot pants manufactured in Derbyshire in 1992, and soon, an entire section centered around David Bowie's belongings, artistry, and life, are only a handful of the curiously fascinating pieces waiting to be observed at the V&A East Storehouse. The coolest thing about it yet? That its appeal doesn't stop there, because if you're hungry, the fun has only just begun. Feeding the crowds of foodie museum goers is London Fields' beloved independent café and pastry heaven, e5 Bakehouse, which opened within the V&A East Storehouse last week to coincide with its launch. The vibe here is, like for the rest of the location, joyful, colorful, and fun, without ever renouncing the irreverent, pioneering approach to art and design that has made the V&A a revered destination worldwide — let alone the freshest British produce and fragrant cakes, bread, and croissants. The brainchild of architecture studio Thing, the spot has instantly earned itself an entry in our next roundup of interiors-conscious cafés in London. It isn't hard to see why. Opening up to the public with a series of squashed square chairs in spring green, rust red, orange, and lime, with just as many Eames-style rocking ones placed in front of its panoramic window lookouts, e5 Storehouse unfolds into a sun-lit lounge section, followed by an airy, blooming-with-flowers dining area that, dotted in warm Douglas fir furniture and teeming with people, still retains its calm. Needless to say, coffee is fantastic, too, with all beans roasted in-house, ensuring your hot drink is not too sweet or frothy. The A Lel Chuang blend, named after the Rwandan village where it is ethically farmed, tastes deliciously tangy, with notes of cherry, mandarin, and caramel manifesting at every sip. The cherry on top, the bound-to-go-viral hangout even has a pastry exclusive to the V&A: a tart with a filling that changes seasonally. At the moment, it's a crunchy Nut Tart: a biscuity sourdough base stuffed with salted-caramel pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans. With the V&A East Museum due to open in spring 2026 minutes away from the Storehouse, we know where all gastronomy and arts enthusiasts will be mingling at. The V&A East Storehouse is now open in Stratford, London. Plan your visit.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Clarke joins Ballymena after Livingston spell
Former Linfield defender Matthew Clarke has returned to the Irish Premiership with Ballymena United. The 31-year-old joins the Sky Blues after a year with Scottish Championship side Livingston. During his time with Livi, he helped the club return to the top-flight and won the Challenge Cup. Advertisement Clarke won five Gibson Cups, two Irish Cups, three League Cups and two County Antrim Shields during his 11 years with Linfield. He becomes Ballymena's second signing after striker Ryan McNickle, and boss Jim Ervin says the arrival of Clarke "is a big coup". "When a player of his calibre comes up, you'd be stupid not to be interested and after a few conversations, thankfully he thought here was the place for him," he told the club's website. "The experience he brings with him is huge from our point of view. Matthew can play a variety of positions, so it's huge for us with what we're looking to do."
