Well done to all three Fingal groups in the 2022 Pride of Place Competition which took place on September 13th & 14th. Our very own Balbriggan Men’s Shed have been selected. Also Oldtown Community Council and Mountview Community & Youth Centre in Dublin 15. Each group represented Fingal County Council in three different categories for the judging team to adjudicate. This year, Balbriggan Men’s Shed competed in a new category which highlights the best in Community Wellbeing and what better group to represent us than these men,.Well done to all concerned with the Men’s Shed.

HSE Foróige Youth Health Initiative aims to enable young people who need and deserve access to good quality youth work to get it, through educational and developmental programmes. We are looking for volunteers to help run Foroige Clubs across Balbriggan.Volunteers will receive full support and training from Foroige. Help make a difference to the young people’s lives living in your community. Contact Lorraine on 0860123078.

For our next talk on October 26th in the Bracken Court Hotel Balbriggan and District Historical Society are delighted welcome Cllr Grainne Maguire who will speak about the fascinating history of Balbriggan Dramatic Society and we will also have short presentations from the local history students from Lorreto Secondary school who were winners in a competition the Society is proud to sponsor.In August Colm Timmins gave a very interesting and informative talk on Genealogy and Balbriggan How to trace your own family and advised on the records to check.Some sites of interest are registers.nli.ie buriedinfingal.ie .genealogy.irelandcemetaryrecords.com or the Thoms Directories. We also joined with other Historical Societies to celebrate Heritage Week with the Heritage Network event in Malahide where Anne Collins spoke about the fantastic source that is the 1930s Schools Collection which can be searched on duchas.ie. In September we commemorated the centenary of An Garda Síochána with an event in the Bracken Court hotel which included a talk by Jim Herlihy. For further information see balbrigganhistory.com.

We are delighted to announce Roberto Bonello as the new Director of Underage Coaching for Glebe North FC. Roberto will be responsible for all aspects of coaching education for both underage Players and Coaches alike. Roberto has a wealth of coaching knowledge and experience that will only benefit our club going forward. Congratulations and best wishes Roberto.

We are delighted to announce Ian Murphy as Men’s team Captain for the new season.

Ian takes over from Conor Caldwell, who was at the helm for an incredible five seasons! This was Conor’s second stint as Captain, having previously captained the team in season 2009-2010. We want to thank Conor for his outstanding service to Balbriggan RFC. Conor isn’t going too far and will still be involved with the team as a player. Ian has an impressive record as a player. He has played with Balbriggan RFC since he was a youth. Ian has been ever-present on the men’s team and has more than 100 Caps playing senior rugby for Balbriggan RFC. Ian mainly plays at out-half and centre, but has also played in other positions including wing, full-back and wing-forward. We wish Ian well as he leads the team into the new season.

Our Women’s Team had a brilliant win last night , there was a little bit of history as Skipper Lara Maritz became the first Balbriggan Women’s player to score a century with a spectacular 108 Not Out , Lara was backed up ably by her sister Tess who was 23 not out at the end , it was an excellent team performance with our young bowlers getting valuable experience and everyone backing each other in the field. The team spirit in coach Chuka Uba’s squad is fantastic and evident in the team pics.

Did you know that all services from Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind are free of charge. However, it costs €5m a year to run the charity and €53,000 to breed, train and care for one Guide Dog during its working lifetime.85% of the funding comes from fundraising, corporate partners and gifts in Wills.It takes 2 years to train a dog and a working dog will generally retire around the age of 10. Currently there are, 184 working Guide Dog Partnerships, 213 working Assistance Dog Partnerships.We are happy to provide some puppy in training updates. Voldee has been in Stamullen with Adele Halpin for two months and is settling well. Adele says Voldee attended his first dance show recently and the music and dancers didn’t faze him. He’s showing great signs of confidence. Adel, who is in Cork, is progressing very well in her training as an Assistance Dog and will hopefully be graduating at the end of August of early September.Andy Green of our Balbriggan/North County Dublin branch’s Guide Dog Ollie recently graduated and Andy said that, “He is a joy to have and as Guide Dogs go he is a pleasure to work and has like my previous dogs enhanced my life in the best possible way. It’s great to be out and about with a working dog again and to feel confident in getting around the place again. So if you see us be sure to stop and say hello to the chaos that is Ollie and I.”

Our Balbriggan/North County Dublin Branch will be in Bremore Castle Food and Craft Village on Sunday the 4 th September from 10am – 4pm. Make sure to pop over and say hello. We currently have a large collection dog in storage that is looking for a new home with plenty of footfall to get it filled up. Please contact our Balbriggan/North County Dublin branch if you have any ideas. If you would like to volunteer, you can also contact us on Facebook, by email at GuideDogsBalbriggan@gmail.com or by mobile on 085 766 3107.

The Write Time Festival is taking place this September in Balbriggan Library. Would you like to know more about writing short stories? If so we have a 4 week online course called Crafting Short Stories starting on Tuesday the 6th of September.

Please book on Eventbrite: Crafting Short Stories with Fiona O’Rourke

Online 4-week Course, 12 participants

Booking via Eventbrite:www.eventbrite.ie/e/391076017897

Week 1: Tuesday 6th September, 7 - 8.30 pm (Online via zoom)

Week 2: Tuesday 13th September, 7 - 8.30 pm (Online via zoom)

Week 3: Tuesday 20th September, 7 - 8.30 pm (Online via zoom)

Week 4: Tuesday 27th September, 7 - 8.30 pm (Online via zoom)

Want to explore the short story form? Get reading, get talking, get writing! This practical 4-week course explores one published short story per session. The story will be circulated beforehand for in-class discussion on elements of the craft. Each session will include guided writing exercises inspired by the featured story to help writers generate new prose in the short form.

Please note that participants must be able to attend all 4 sessions.Also, by signing up, participants agree to their email address being shared with the course facilitator, Fiona O’Rourke, as she will circulate the reading material in advance.

Fiona O’Rourke, M.Phil. Creative Writing (Trinity College Dublin) Fiona is an author and facilitator whose short stories have been broadcast for radio and published and translated in journals and anthologies. She was a winner in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair and runs a writing collective, eXpress Writing Community. She facilitates writing courses and mentorships with the Irish Writers Centre, libraries, and festivals.

Join Balbriggan and District Historical Society on September 28th in the Bracken Court Hotel at 8pm for a talk by Jim Herlihy on the Irish police force An Garda Siochána who are celebrating 100 years this year.We were delighted to return to in person talks this year and meet up again with old friends of the Society. The Balbriggan & District Historical Society Committee are pictured at our March talk Irish National Foresters - St Molaga Branch, No.315 (Balbriggan) 1897-1942 “ by Jim Walsh We enjoyed an excellent presentation in April from Declan Brady on Frank Lawless, 1870-1922: Fingal’s Revolutionary Politician Our May talk was on the Building of Balbriggan Harbour by Rory McKenna and Rory shared his knowledge again along with Jim Walsh Brian Howley and Bernie Kelly at our Historical Walk as part of the Balbriggan Summerfest and again during Heritage Week as part of the Balbriggan Beach Activity Festival. Our August talk was on Genealogy and tracing your family history with Colm Timmons. Find out more about our Society at balbrigganhistory.com

We recently hosted a fantastic week at Glebe North FAI summer camp with 110 kids enjoying football while learning new skills. Big thanks to all coaches involved, Megan, Denis, Sean, Eoin, Lee, Michael, Alan and Emma. Glebe north will host another camp in August, 15th to 19th. Only 30 places remaining, book online at bookings.summersoccerschools.ie/s/