The following Zoom activities were delivered over the past two months and continue to be delivered by Nora and Paul who have kept the Remember Us participants entertained throughout the lockdown.Amongst the activities which took place over the past 43 days were:
a Disco, the wonderful Paul & Nora show ( make a video ) x 8 times, A Quiz x 5 times, Yoga x 2 times, Bingo x 8 times, 2 x Dance sessions, a Virtual trip to the Zoo, Crafts: DIY Key Wind Chimes, Play Your Cards Right/Mini disco, Lantern making, 2 x Exercise sessions,Crafts: Stress Ball making,Night at the movies, a Virtual tour of Ripley’s Aquarium,Body Percussion, a Cookery session, a Treasure Hunt,an Art n Crafts session,a Magic Show, and a Treasure Hunt. Nora Roban said , “I open the zooms at about 6.45 so members can come in and have a chat with us and activity starts at 7.30. when it finishes we have another chat. Weekly Webt exts to all members & their families /volunteers to see how they are getting on and to say we are at end of phone if they want to call for a chat etc.,Daily posts on Facebook/Instagram since we broke up of photos sent to me via e-mail from our members. Each day if there is a member’s birthday, we post it on Facebook.- Emails/phone manned everyday /weekend.” She added.“ Regarding the Paul n Nora show many of our members and their families say it’s the highlight of the week for them as we dress up and act a little silly!! We also announce the theme for the following weeks Facebook photos. Zoom activities for our younger members before they went back to school some were one to one sessions and others were small group sessions.Tuesday afternoons - Chat exercise or music time Thursday morning afternoon - Chat Puppets and story time-And whatever else will work for them. - Approximately. 7 members took it up, two one to ones and a small group.” This has poven highly successful so well done to Nora and Paul on their hard work.

Now, as lockdown eases, its time to get some good sea air into our lungs and where better than Balbriggan’s beach. Balbriggan beach is situated close to the Main Street, behind an eleven arch limestone and brick railway viaduct. There is a working fishing harbour beside the beach where trawlers enter and leave on high tides. The Front Strand is Balbriggan’s main beach. It is a natural inlet and is ideal for building sand castles, bathing and soaking up the sun if the temperamental Irish weather permits. During the summer months, a lifeguard is on duty when the appropriate flag is flying. A pleasant walk further up the coast takes you to the Martello Tower built in the 1800s to ward off any invasions by Napoleon. Just below the Martello Tower are the ruins of the Boathouses. In by-gone days this area was well-known for hot seaweed bath.Balbriggan beach is an ideal walking spot.Rich with history and natural vistas. Beyond the Martello Tower, heading further north you will see the imposing structure of Bremore Castle on your left. The beach stretching north from the Martello Tower is called King’s Strand. Walking along to the north end of King’s Strand you can spot The Sailors Grave, a mound of stones so called as it commemorates the dead of the ships such as the Belle Hill and Sarah of Runcorn that were wrecked off the nearby Cardy Rocks. Tradition has it that visitors add a stone to the cairn. A plaque was placed here in 2013 to commemorate the lost lives. You can walk along this stretch of coastline eventually arriving at the long beaches of Gormanston. (Note, this is a natural terrain without a man-made footpath). Hampton Cove Beach on the southern end of the town is a nice pebble beach popular with dog walkers. From here there is a nice view of the Rockabill lighthouse and of Skerries. The Lady’s Stairs Beach further south near the footbridge access to Ardgillan Demesne, is a lovely stretch of soft sand, at low tide popular with horse riders and joggers. Remember safe distancing and keep our beaches clear of litter but enjoy yourselves.

Subject to Covid guidelines, we at Glebe North will host two summer camps this year.. Camps will take the same format as last year with no use of changing facility’s and will run from 10am-1pm. Please book with us as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.Contact us at 087 205 6673 or
Send us a message on our email glebenorthfootballclub@gmail.com.

Thanks to sponsorship received from Progressive Credit Union, Balbriggan and the H.S.E., along with money raised through a Monster Raffle and other fundraising ventures in 2019, we are thrilled to have been able to purchase our new vehicle. Whilst the project was delayed considerably due to the constraints of Covid-19 over the past year, we are finally on the road. We would like to express our thanks to Progressive Credit Union in particular Brian Howard, the H.S.E. and all those who contributed in any way to raising funds for our minibus.

Balbriggan Meals on Wheels currently provides more than 80 meals per day, with meals delivered to the most vulnerable people in our community. We look forward to using our new bus to deliver meals to our clients as well as transporting our clients to and from our Dinner Club as soon as it is safe for us to resume this service. We are also announcing that our fundraising appeal has been launched. As everyone is aware, the present circumstances this year have once again meant that we have been unable to host any fundraising events. We are, therefore, at this time launching a fundraising appeal to assist us in continuing our work, cooking and delivering meals in the wider Balbriggan area. Donations may be made directly to our base in Hampton Street or through the donate button on our Facebook page. Any assistance from individuals or local organisations would be most gratefully accepted at this time. Contact us at Balbriggan Meals on Wheels, 14 Hampton Street, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.Tel: 01 8416743 or Email:mealsonwheelsbalbriggan@gmail.com

The Balbriggan 3D Model is a visual tool which will help citizens visualise the planned transformations of the town outlined in the Our Balbriggan 2019 – 2025 Town Rejuvenation plan, and can now be viewed on the County Council’s website. The Balbriggan 3D Model is a visual tool which will help citizens visualise the planned transformations of the town outlined in the Our Balbriggan 2019 – 2025 Town Rejuvenation plan. The model can be described as a ‘3D Map’ or ‘Digital Twin’ of Balbriggan as it was created using aerial survey photography and ground level photo surveys. It provides easy access to a visual representation of the reimagined Harbour and Quay Street area. A desktop version of the model might be best described as a future digital twin of Balbriggan. It is a data-rich virtual representation of Balbriggan offering stakeholders a platform to make data-driven decisions in a low-risk environment before deploying them in the real world.The model is also Virtual Reality (VR) ready, meaning that it can be viewed using a VR headset, offering a more immersive visual experience.The multiple user engagement options (movie, web, desktop and VR) is facilitated by the underlying game engine technology used by RealSim, Unity3D, the most popular game engine in the world. Fingal County Council are by extension harnessing the ease of use and multi-platform strengths of this technology to bring planning and community consultation into a new era of ‘Future Visioning’ and how we collectively shape the world we want to live in.“The Our Balbriggan Hub situated in Georges Square, in the centre of the town is the engine room for the Our Balbriggan 2019 – 2025 Town Rejuvenation Plan and the base for the Our Balbriggan team. This VR technology will enable the team to engage further with the people of Balbriggan and help them to visualize how their town will be developed. Post Covid, VR headsets will be available at the Hub to residents and businesses to explore the 3D model and will also be used at events and in schools to showcase the Our Balbriggan public realm improvement plans in a fun and meaningful way,” said Aoife Sheridan, Senior Executive Officer, Fingal County Council

Grasshoppers Early Years Arts Festival was set up in 2019 as a partnership between Acting Up! founder Cliodhna Noonan and Our Balbriggan - Get Involved. We opened with a wonderful Buggy Parade to the Square where we had an outdoor Capoeira performance for families followed by tea and cakes at Aster Family Centre. The 2019 workshop weekend for families with children aged 0-6 was a sellout success! We were determined to do more in 2020. Unfortunately, Covid had other plans. However, we were back in force with a fully digital festival in February 2021 and what a week it was!!! We presented zoom workshop performances from Croatia, Lithuania, Greece and Romania commissioned specially for our audiences. The programme was sold out within days of being released! We would like to thank everyone who participated especially our Balbriggan audiences!!! As schools reopened a week after the workshops, we invited them to participate further in Grasshoppers 2021 and to create an exhibition of artwork based on the theme of the local Lighthouse. We would like to thank Millfield Shopping Centre for the great exhibition space they offered us for the youngest artists in Balbriggan! You may have seen the magnificent display of colour and positivity just outside Tescos over the Easter break! We are moving into our final event for children and families aged 0-6. Watch it Grow 2021! in collaboration with Tidy Towns Balbriggan, and Balbriggan Libraries, offers school and preschools a chance to grow seeds, water them, watch them and investigate what insects might visit them over the next four weeks. Schools are invited to plant in a public space near them, on their school grounds or even on the windowsills of their classrooms! We will be visiting all schools in the area in the coming two weeks to drop off our packs! Happy Growing! If you have an idea for early years participation in the community or you would like to be involved in the team, drop us an email on grasshoppersfestival@gmail.com. Grasshoppers 2021 is supported by Our Balbriggan - Get Involved, Fingal Arts Office and The Arts Council of Ireland.

In Foróige we know that for many young people in Ireland, being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex means for them that they are living with daily discrimination or with constant fear of being themselves. This has long lasting effects from the treatment in the education system such as name-calling and bullying or even being denied equal opportunities as their peers because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.In Foróige, we always want to make sure that all of our young people feel welcomed, accepted but most importantly safe! We offer dedicated places where our young people who are part of the LGBTI+ community can feel comfortable and protected to explore their journeys and the challenges the community often face. Our LGBTI+ Groups will return from the 26th of April for face to face group work OUTDOORS! In this space young people decide what actions and activities they’d like to do, whether it’s exploring terminology, having a casual chat or planning for pride, we listen to our young people. Our Senior LGBTI+ Group is open for young people aged 15-18. Because of the success with this group we are very happy to announce our Junior LGBTI+ Group for young people aged 12-14. We understand how important it is for young people to feel heard and seen and the importance of creating a space where they can share ideas and be creative whilst being themselves. For information about any of our Foróige Clubs or Groups call Áine on 086-7710790 or email aine.mcguinness@foroige.ie

Balbriggan Roadrunners will be hosting their annual Summerfest 5k from the 28th of May to the 4th of June, in a virtual fromat this year. This has always been a great fun event to look forward to.The Balbriggan Roadrunners Summerfest 5km fun run will be going virtual this year taking place between 28th May and 4th June 2021. Registration costs €10 and can be done online.

This will also be part of some great North Dublin virtual events that have been taking place since early Jan this year, when Raheny Shamrock AC kicked off their virtual 5 mile. Balbriggan Roadrunners will be helping North Dublin and the rest of the country to keep smiling and enjoying our running.The club is very mcuh about participation and including all runners, walkers and joggers to the enjoy their events. We hope you can be part of this great event and share your experience on the Balbriggan Roadrunners Balbriggan social media pages and the My Run Community page. There is also the option to purchase the event merchandise including T-shirt. Snood and medal.

Fingal County Council is delighted to announce the commencement of the formal planning process for the proposed Bremore Regional Park Development Project. The proposed park development project is an important step in delivering the long-term vision for the park. The project led by the council’s Parks and Green Infrastructure Division covers the key infrastructure required to upgrade Bremore to regional park status and to best serve the needs of the local community. The park proposals have been designed to achieve the best fit between the provision of active and passive recreation and improved linkages to surrounding urban areas and taking a sensitive approach to the visual, historic and ecological attributes of the site.The focus of this Planning Application is on the lands within the park to the west of the rail-line as well and the section of the park to the south-east (designated as a new Coastal Park) encompassing a project area of over 15 hectares within the park. The park development project is organised under three distinct zones:The Balbriggan Sports & Recreational HubThis multifunctional campus will provide for a range of sporting activities as a shared public facility; these include athletics, all-weather football pitches with flood lighting; full size GAA pitch, soccer pitches, basketball courts, tennis courts, car park access and changing facilities. Central Zone Open Spaces - The central zone of Bremore Park has been designed to improve access, circulation and permeability between adjacent residential areas, the park and the sea while enhancing the physical and natural amenity of the space. The Coastal Park -The proposal for the Coastal Park aims to create a family orientated space which facilitates play, active recreation and social interaction. The existing playground and bandstand are supplemented with a skate bowl, grassed play-mounds and half-court basketball court which further animate this space. Soft landscaping of ornamental planting and trees will feature within a high-quality public realm with public lighting, street-furniture and bicycle parking. Seating areas will afford opportunities to sit, look and experience the sea.Building on the successful community consultations held to date, the council actively encourages feedback and comment on the proposed Bremore Regional Park Development during the submission period of 16th March to 30th April as detailed in the attached part 8 planning application available through the Council’s website.

It is 40 years since Balbriggan & District Historical Society was founded and here is a snap-shot from our archives 2016 Commemoration.The Society’s flagship event for 2016 was “Éirí Amach Na Cásca – Is Cuimhin Linn” our full day History Seminar in May. The seminar was opened by Mayor of Fingal Cllr David O’Connor and concluded with readings of Proclama-tion by local Secondary School students. The seminar featured 5 talks: Bairbre Curtis “Fingal in 1916”, Liz Darcy “Conserving an original 1916 Proclamation”, Jimmy Wren “The 1916 GPO Garrison and the connection with the OTooles G.A.A. Club”, Sean Collins “Observing from afar The Easter Rising Louth and Meath” and Micheál MacMathúna “Sinéad Ni Fhlannagáin (Bean De Valera) Daughter of Balbriggan and 1916” The last talk was timely providing context for Commemorative Plaque honouring Sinéad Ní Fhlannagáin De Valera which was about to be unveiled in the town. The enthusiastic audience enjoyed the excellent talks on both the local and national experience in 1916, and left with lots of new information and an appetite to learn more about this facinating period in our history.

The Society was also centrally involved in the Balbriggan 1916 Commemorative Committee which organised, among other activities, the erection of a Commemorative Plaque honouring Sinéad Ní Fhlannagáin De Valera. This Plaque was unveiled as part of a Commemorative day which included a Mass and Parade featuring the Fingal Old IRA, locals scouts and guides and the local community. May McKeon performed the duty of MC on the day, Gráinne Maguire read the Proclamation, and speakers included Mayor of Fingal Cllr David O’Connor, Mícheál MacMahúna, and Éamon Ó Cuív TD, grandson of Sinéad and the Plaque was un-veiled by Nora Ní Chuív her granddaughter. It was a memorable and important day for Bal-briggan and it was great to see so many of the DeValera and Flanagan family members there who were delighted to share with us their personal memories of Balbriggan. The event was attended by a large enthusiastic crowd and the Plaque will be a lasting physical reminder of the occasion.