Over the past few months, LSA has enjoyed a hugely successful and exciting period, with athletes producing outstanding performances both at home and on the international stage.
At the end of March, Dara Carr delivered an incredible performance representing Ireland at the European Masters in Toruń, setting a new national record in her age category. International success continued as Sinéad Farrell earned selection to represent Ireland at the World U23 Skyrunning Championships in Croatia following her victory in the Wicklow Way Half Marathon. Sinéad returned home with a silver medal in the 5km race and a bronze medal overall across the weekend’s combined events.
Anna Gavigan kept the international success alight, winning the Ter Specke Bokaal in Amsterdam with a superb throw of 53.73m.
Closer to home, LSA athletes impressed at the Dublin Graded Meeting. Xavi Hubert claimed bronze in the Men’s Senior High Jump Championships with a season’s best of 1.60m, while Léa Hubert and Michelle Branigan delivered strong sprint performances and personal bests. The momentum continued at Dublin Graded Meet 2, where PBs came thick and fast across the squad, alongside another gold medal for Anna Gavigan in the Dublin Championship Discus.
The club also proudly hosted its first ever Women in Sports event, where Dara Carr and Anna Gavigan shared inspiring stories and highlighted the importance of encouraging young girls and women to stay involved in sport.
Meanwhile, LSA athletes took on some of the world’s biggest marathons. Alexandria Conway and Ciara Cullen completed the iconic Boston Marathon, marking their 5th marathon major. Outstanding performances also came from Alex Wood at the Connemara Half Marathon, Stephan Bueck at the Vienna City Marathon, and Darragh Doherty at the Manchester Marathon.
Congratulations to all our athletes on their incredible achievements.
We have a strong club presence heading to Cork at the end of May for the Cork City Marathon and Half Marathon! Wishing them all the very best of luck!
Keep up to date on all the events by following LSA on our website and social media pages!
Website
https://lambaysportsathletics.ie/
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/lambaysportsacademy
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/lsadonabateportrane/
Adult memberships queries:
lambaysportsathletics@gmail.com
Little Athletics and Juvenile athletes (7-18) :
lsajuvenilereg@gmail.com
Table quiz fundraiser raises €5,500 to support athletes who will represent our community at the Special Olympics Ireland Games in June!
16 athletes and 6 volunteer coach chaperones from Donabate Portrane Special Olympics Club will proudly represent communities across Fingal at the Special Olympics Ireland Games, taking place in sports venues around Dublin from 18th–21st June. This is a fantastic achievement for the Special Olympics club and one they are incredibly proud of.
To support the costs associated with these athletes attending the Games, a team of volunteers from Donabate Portrane Special Olympics Club held a fundraising event on the evening of Wednesday the 29th of April. 37 teams gathered on the night to participate in a table quiz and to have a chance of winning some of the amazing raffle prizes on offer, which were kindly donated by local businesses.
Club volunteer Louise Duffy said ‘We are incredibly grateful for all of the support we have received with our event, whether it was by way of attending, buying raffle tickets or donating a raffle prize. The night really highlighted the generosity and community spirit that is out there. Sending athletes and chaperones to the Ireland Games will cost our club over €10,000, so the €5,500 raised at our table quiz event will go a long way in ensuring that our selected athletes get to take advantage of this amazing opportunity’.
The club would like to thank the following local businesses and donors for making the event such a huge success. Donabate Portrane Tennis & Golf Club, Bliss, Eamon Lawless, Windward Management Hotels, Cadbury Chocolate, Newbridge House, Roganstown House & Country Club, Donabate Community Centre, Corballis Farm Horse Trekking & Therapeutic Riding Centre, Maxol Donabate, Iarlaith Keane, Supervalu Donabate, Razors Edge Barbershop, Keeling’s Pub, The Brook Pub, Jones Garden Centre, McCartan Pharmacy Donaghmede, Adelle Cully Ceramics, Pasta Castello, Cates Café, House of Hounds, Ciara Lee, The Sea Sauna, Donabate Pharmacy, Tobin’s Pharmacy Donabate, Life Pharmacy Donabate, Esthetique, Vik Barbers, CrepeBerry’s, Beacus Beag, Sea Scoops, Tower Bay Brew & Grogan’s Portrane.
Special Olympics Ireland, provides year-round sports training, athletic competition, and developmental programmes for almost 7000 athletes annually. Giving our athletes continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendships with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.
From 18th-21st June 2026, over 1,200 athletes and thousands of volunteers and supporters will come together for the Special Olympics Ireland Summer Games - a thrilling competition and a celebration of the skill, determination, and abilities of athletes. See Ireland Summer Games 2026 | The Special Olympics for more information.
May was a busy time at Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed’s plots at Turvey allotments, with continuous tending, watering and weeding, which will continue into June. But it is hoped that all the hard work will pay off with the promise of a bumper chop despite the late planting due to the abnormally wet winter.
Last month, Gerry and the Plonkers (the Men’s Shed’s music group) were honoured to be asked to play at an appreciation do in the Grand Hotel, in Malahide, for Alone volunteers. Alone is a wonderful charitable organisation, which provides support for vulnerable older people. So, it was a privilege for the band to provide the entertainment at this event. By all accounts, the volunteers and the band had a very enjoyable afternoon.
Recently our new member, Ray, took on the role of outing organiser for the Shed and has already arranged a visit in June to the Croke Park Museum and has other outings in the pipeline.
Our regular weekly activities of music practice on Mondays, croquet in Newbridge Park on Tuesday, exercise classes and a get-together for a cuppa and chat on Thursdays.
If you or someone close to you would like to join us, please contact our PRO, Jim, on 086-3694316.
Donabate Library was strongly represented at the Inaugural Hydrogen Grand Prix (H2GP) at the National Arena on Thursday, 23rd April, with ‘Ecomotion Donabate’ being awarded the Team Spirit award, which honours teams demonstrating exceptional sportsmanship, collaboration and resilience. The team was made up of Blaze, Sarah, Savanagh, Robyn and Beabhínn who took part in the , the 3.5-hour endurance race.
The event was the culmination of an education STEM programme where students designed, built and raced hydrogen-powered remote-control cars. Five teams from across the country qualified for the national finals after winning their regional H2GP Sprint race.
The H2GP is a global racing series and empowers the next generation of engineers, problem-solvers and clean energy champions. Through hands-on, project-based learning students get to enjoy the buzz of designing, building and racing hydrogen-powered cars while also gaining real-world experience in renewable energy technologies.
Speaking about the event, Marianne Checkley, CEO Kinia said:
“Today was a great success and we want to commend all the teams and their teachers. An incredible amount of time was put in from each team and they should all be very proud of their achievement of being involved in the first ever H2GP PRO national final.
To mark the end of our Spring/Summer 26 season, Lambay Cinema Club is pleased to present The Ballad of Wallis Island – the hit 2025 UK comedy that one reviewer called “Warm, perceptive and quietly life-affirming.”
The film centres on an eccentric lottery winner called Charles Heath and his attempt to force the reunion of two of his musical heroes.
Musician Herb McGwyer made his name in a popular folk duo with former creative and romantic partner Nell Mortimer. Now a struggling solo artist, Herb accepts a lucrative offer from Heath to perform a private gig on a remote island. The appearance fee will fund Herb’s new album.
But it turns out Charles - who has very personal reasons for organising the gig - has also invited Nell to play, forcing Herb into an unexpected McGwyer Mortimer reunion.
Co-writers and co-stars Tom Basden and Tim Key, alongside director James Griffiths, have delivered a winning crowd-pleaser with The Ballad of Wallis Island. With a perfect mix of humour and poignant character work, this film is a total charmer.
The Ballad of Wallis Island will be shown at St Patrick’s Church of Ireland church in The Square, Donabate (K36 Y521) on Thursday June 11th at 8:00pm.
Tickets go on sale on Thursday 4th June at 9:00am and cost €10 (€8 for students/OAPs)
To celebrate the onset of Summer, we will be providing a complementary wine reception before the screening.
For more information and to buy tickets, please visit lambaycinemaclub.com
We will be taking a break over the Summer with our Autumn season kicking off in September. To make sure you are kept up to date with our latest news, follow us on Facebook and Instagram and make sure you are signed up to our mailing list. Visit our website for details.
If you want to get in touch, email us at info@lambaycinemaclub.com
Pam Lecky, a local crime writer, living in Donabate has just released a brand new crime series: The Clew Bay Detectives, which will be published on the 16th of June.
Set in the fictional village of Glenfinn near Westport along the Wild Atlantic Way in County Mayo, Ireland, the series follows Ali Brennan, a landscape designer with a surprising talent for solving crimes. When the body of a wealthy businessman is discovered on a remote island in Clew Bay, Ali and her nephew Gavin are drawn into the complex mystery surrounding his murder.
Welcome to Westport, where the wild beauty of Ireland’s western coast hides deadly secrets…
Reeling from a devastating breakup, landscape gardener Ali Brennan escapes to the small coastal town of Westport, hoping its rugged shoreline and quiet rhythms will help her rebuild her life. But peace is short lived when wealthy landowner John Clifford-Murphy is found dead on a remote island in Clew Bay – alone, and inexplicably without his phone or vital medication.
The local Gardaí are quick to rule the death an accident. Ali isn’t so sure… especially when Clifford-Murphy’s widow begs her to look more closely. Joined by her enthusiastic college-dropout nephew, Gav, Ali begins to ask questions the tight-knit community would rather leave unanswered. And when her ex-boyfriend, Detective Aidan Cahill, turns up to inform her that her life is under threat, Ali is forced to confront the past she thought she’d left behind.
As secrets surface, the danger escalates. When Ali herself becomes a target – waking terrified and alone on the shores of nearby lake Doo Lough – it’s clear the investigation has drawn her into something far darker than she ever imagined. Can Ali uncover the truth before the killer strikes again?
The series is published by Storm Publishing with the second book in the series slated for publication in November 2026, and the third in June 2027.
Donabate Portrane Sustainable Energy Community (DPSEC) is a volunteer group working to make our community more sustainable through practical, inclusive events. The group was established in late 2023 by a group of locals passionate about climate action, biodiversity, and community empowerment.
Our objectives include improving the energy efficiency of buildings, increasing the use of renewable energy, helping nature to thrive, and promoting more sustainable consumer behaviour and transport choices.
In 2024, we were delighted to be awarded over €15,000 in Climate Action Funding from Fingal County Council, in partnership with Donabate Portrane Community Centre. With this funding, we were able to purchase items for the Community Centre which help to promote sustainable living and the circular economy. These include a set of reusable cups, a bike repair station, five new bike lockers, clothing rails for swap shops, five sewing machines, and raised beds for growing food.
We also collaborated with the local Scout Den on the most recent Climate Action Fund and are currently waiting to hear if it was successful.
One of our most popular initiatives has been our clothing swap shops, which take place every few months on a Saturday afternoon in the Community Centre. A swap shop is a place where people can bring items they no longer need and take home items they will use, for free. This helps to keep our resources in circulation for longer and reduce the cost of living for families. We have organised special swap shops for Halloween costumes, Christmas jumpers, and at the Portrane Summer Festival.
We also hold repair cafés at our swap shops, where one of our volunteers can help you to repair an old item of clothing, or to practice simple sewing and mending techniques on scrap fabric. We can help with both sewing machine and hand sewing skills.
We have lots more projects in the pipeline (or electricity line!), so keep an eye on our social media to find out what’s happening next- just scan the QR code on this page.
We love collaborating with other organisations like community groups, businesses, public bodies and social enterprises to share knowledge and resources and maximise our ability to achieve our vision. Equally, we are always looking for new volunteers to join the organising committee or provide one-off support for events.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at donabateportranesec@gmail.com or on social media if you would like to collaborate or support our work - we would love to hear from you!
Active Age for All are very pleased to have been given the chance to collaborate with a class of transition year students from the community college on a 4 week project of intergenerational activities proposed by one of their teachers.
The first week was an hour of meet and greet, getting to know one and other, with the 3 elders outlining their life experiences and the students then telling us of their aims and ambitions. Then a bit of team work with a music quiz, quiz master Gemma was kind enough to put in some antique stuff for the ancients !
Also we were able to discuss with the students about what they would be interested in doing as part of the project; not really a surprise but sporting activities came out very strongly. The plan that evolved was the sports of pickleball, bowls and table tennis with a balance of jewellery making and photography.
On our second day there was a choice of pickleball or jewellery making with the majority opting for the jewellery making, our tutor Helen had her hands full with 17 girls and boys all eager to be creative.
Meanwhile Active Age members Joe and Noel were running the rest around the courts at pickleball.
The next session was on photography with members of the AAfA camera club giving a talk and practical session on the basics, with an emphasis on getting the best out of the mobile phone camera. We then gave them a variety of objects eg: shells, pottery figures, fabric and asked them to use different lights and angles to create pleasing photographs. The Bleeding Pig Festival have invited the students to put on an exhibition of their photos as part of the festival in May and I really hope that they do as a lot of talent emerged in this session.
The last session of carpet bowls and table tennis in the Sports Hall was good fun; the table tennis was very energetic but the carpet bowls, I think, was the biggest surprise for the students. Initially they viewed this as too easy, too quiet and gentle but they quickly discovered that it wasn’t as easy as it looked and presents quite a challenge, and some skill, to get that bowl going where you want it to !
These four weeks have been an absolute pleasure for the three of us and the willing helpers brought it for specific activities, we were all very impressed with the students, a lovely bunch. Many thanks to the teachers from the Community College and the Active Age members who took part, we do hope that this could become an annual (or bi-annual) event, there is a lot more scope there.
Table quiz fundraiser in aid of 16 local Special Olympic athletes who will represent our community at the Special Olympics Ireland Games in June!
16 athletes and 6 volunteer coach chaperones from Donabate Portrane Special Olympics Club will proudly represent communities across Fingal at the Special Olympics Ireland Games, taking place in sports venues around Dublin from 18th–21st June. This is a fantastic achievement for the Special Olympics club and one they are incredibly proud of.
The youngest athlete selected, Simon Smyth (aged 12), is very excited to represent his club and community. His mother Rebecca said ‘Donabate Portrane Special Olympics Club has been a lifeline to Simon. It has brought an immeasurable amount of fun, joy sport and friendships to his life!’.
Club coach Deborah McArdle said ‘Sending athletes and chaperones to the Ireland Games will cost our club over €10,000, so we are fundraising to ensure that all our selected athletes get to take advantage of this amazing opportunity. As part of these efforts, we are hosting a table quiz in Donabate Golf Club on Wednesday the 29th of April at 8pm and would love the support of as many people as possible by booking a team’.
The cost of entering a team of 4 is €50, and 100% of proceeds will benefit the club. There will also be a prize for the winning team, spot prizes and a fantastic raffle on the night. Why not support this fantastic local cause and secure your team today, by texting Louise on 087 7180324.
Special Olympics Ireland, provides year-round sports training, athletic competition, and developmental programmes for almost 7000 athletes annually. Giving our athletes continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendships with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.
From 18th-21st June 2026, over 1,200 athletes and thousands of volunteers and supporters will come together for the Special Olympics Ireland Summer Games - a thrilling competition and a celebration of the skill, determination, and abilities of athletes. See Ireland Summer Games 2026 | The Special Olympics for more information.
The Men’s Shed movement is based on the moto: “Men talk shoulder to shoulder”. This describes our core ethos, that men build social connections and improve well-being by working together on practical projects rather than through direct face-to-face conversation.
Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed meets on Thursday mornings from 11am to noon in the Scouts’ Den on Portrane Road for a cuppa and a chat and to organise our many other activities. There is an exercise class before that at 10am, which many members attend.
So, any man who is free at that time would be more than welcome to join us and learn more about our many other activities and events (e.g. exercise classes, croquet in Newbridge Park, music sessions, outings to places of interest). Or you could contact our PRO, Jim, on 086-3694316. Please pass on this information to a friend, neighbour or loved one who might like to join us. We are always open for new members.
