The Poc Fada Committee would like to thank everyone who participated in the St Pats GAA annual Poc Fada marking the first event of St Pats GAA Centenary year. The weather stayed dry to add to the occasion. Special thanks to Edel Byrne of Fingal County Council and Newbridge house for the use of the grounds and facilities. St Pats GAA Execute for promotion and Insurance. We are very grateful for the attendance and participation of Club Chairman Rory O’Neill. Thanks to everyone who helped on the day, from the Men’s Sheds: Sean Buckley, Des Carthy and Oliver Mc Donald and Photography and online promotion Larry Carolan. St. Pats: Mick Mc Gleenan, Bryan Kelly, Niall O Connor, Daniel Murphy, Cathal Carty, Conor Davey, Paul Kennedy, Alan Quinn, Cormac Kelly and Tim Kelly.

The event saw enthusiastic involvement with 19 Family Teams and 9 Adult Teams competing in the Poc Fada courses. The adult/juvenile longest Poc competition was a particular highlight, filled with spirited fun.

2024 Honor list

Adult Team winners: Richie Seaver/Ruairi Convrey,
Family Team winners: Donagh & Sean Wilkinson
Adult long Poc winner: Niall O’Connor
Juvenile age 9-12 winner: Eoin Quinn
Juvenile age 13-15 winner: Senan Ryan

Thanks to Fiachra O’ Mathuna and his 2012 players who competed among themselves. The placings were: 1. Eoghan Tully and Killian Folco - 2. Donnchadh Elmiger and Josh Ryan 3. Harry Reilly and Hugh O’Mahony

EggHeadz CLG is delivering programmes and support services across Fingal and Dublin. Here is some of what we’re doing: Community Engagement: EggHeadz supporters, volunteers and community members took part in the Christmas Day Dip and Sip event. This event was hosted by Wayne and Eithne Hand of ‘The Carriage’ Coffee Van at Tower Bay, Portrane on Christmas morning. The community raised over €3,000 towards directly supporting our youth counselling service. Thank you to all who supported the event and contributed. Pictured (L-R) is Mairead (Counsellor), Diarmuid Tonra (Fitness Instructor, Fresh Fitness, Donabate Portrane Community Centre) and Sophie Matabaro (EggHeadz). Activities & Events: EggHeadz is proud to announce that we are an official host for Pieta House annual ‘Darkness into Light’ event. Donabate Portrane is now an official participant of Darkness into Light for Pieta House. This a truly uplifting event which takes place in communities nationwide. All members of the community are encouraged to join us on 11 th May 2024 to walk together, enjoy the sunrise together, have a cuppa and highlight mental health in the community while raising much needed funds for Pieta House. Thank You to Sinéad Ronan Wells (Campaigns Events Officer, Pieta House) pictured with Sophie Matabaro (EggHeadz) Youth Camps: Our Spring Camp returns for a third year where we will bring more fun, fitness, outdoor activity, relaxation, sport and therapeutic supports. This inclusive camp takes place over 3 days from 26 – 28 March, book online. Tween & Teen Workshops: A variety of workshops for Tweens and Teens focused on relaxation, health and wellness will take place over spring break. Workshops include jewellery making, kayaking, yoga, wellness workouts, crystal energy, pottery painting, nutrition, meditation and exam anxiety. FREE Youth Counselling - Our Youth Counselling Service is a FREE of charge and confidential service for young people (aged 12-25). Appointments take place weekly in Donabate Portrane Community Centre on Mondays between 9.30am and 3.30pm. Contact Mairead on 086-329 6812 or by email eggheadzcounselling@gmail.com to book an appointment.

NEW Website: EggHeadz is delighted to start 2024 with a NEW Website. Our services have been running for over three years now in the Fingal and Dublin area. Log on to www.eggheadz.ie to read about our impactful programmes and upcoming community events, activities, and educational workshops for the year. For more follow us on social media visit our website or scan the QR code.

This two-day event, with exhibition, talks, music and film, will commemorate the 170th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the RMS Tayleur ship off the coast of Lambay Island in 1854 with the loss of nearly 400 lives. The Tayleur has been referred to as the “First Titanic Shipwreck”. The event will be held on Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd this month (February 2024). Donabate Parish Hall and Donabate Portrane Historical Society have come together to put on this special event. We will be charging €5 for each evening event and will sell tickets in advance to all interested groups. A limited number of tickets will be available to individuals and will be available for buy from 7pm to 8pm on Tuesday, 6th February in Committee Room in Donabate Parish Hall. We are delighted and very grateful that we have sponsorship to cover the main costs of the event from Martin Harte CEO of Temple Bar Company, who runs the hugely popular TradFest, which came to Donabate for the first time last month and was a great success. Any surplus from ticket sales will be donated to the RNLI Lifeboat. The Programme of the Event in Summary is as follows: Wed 21st February - 11 30am - 12 00noon: Eithne O Connell who lived on Lambay & Laddie De Jong a diver will open the exhibition of artifacts from the Tayleur Ship & chat with adults present. Light Refreshments. 12 00noon - 2 00pm: Playing & Singing by Men’s Shed “Gerry & the Plonkers” to include Sea Songs. 7 00pm - 8 00pm: Reception & Viewing artifacts, with historians and divers present, opened by the Mayor of Fingal, Adrian Henchy. (Ticket Only) 8 00pm - 10 00pm: Talks on Lambay Island Eithne O’Connell raised on the Island and Edward Bourke author & diver on the Tayleur. Cormac Lowth and Laddie De Jong will also be there on the night. Local historian, Peadar Bates, will close proceedings on the night. (Ticket Only) Thurs 22nd February 11 00am - 2 00pm: Local Primary School visits (By Invitation Only) – 7 00pm - 8 00pm: Viewing of artifacts, with historians and divers present (Ticket Only) – 8 00pm - 10 00pm: Screening of “A Night to Remember” (1958 Film), reputed to give the best account of the Titanic Tragedy. The Tayleur has been called “White Star Line’s First Titanic”. For general information about Donabate Parish Hall, please contact the Parish Office at 01- 8434574.

January was a very busy month with Registration for classes and classes starting. Registration was very successful with some classes full in the first 30 minutes. We had online Registration for the first time and many managed this very well. But still it was nice to see everyone at our in-person Registration days. We still have some places left in Yoga, Art, Singing & Music Functional Yoga (Chair Yoga) and our language classes Intermediate French and Beginners and Intermediate Spanish so please contact us if you are interested, see our website for details activeageforall.com We held our AGM on the 19th of January and we had a very good attendance! A new Committee was elected and Mary Farrell wished them well for the future as she finished her term as Chairperson Breda Dockrell, a founding member of Active Age gave a very interesting presentation at the meeting, titled The Beginnings of Active Age - A Record for Posterity, as we are now just 10 years since the first seeds of Active Age took root. This presentation was very well received by her audience. It is amazing how we have grown from such small beginnings, mainly through the foresight of those early founders and carried on by other dedicated members of the Community. We have gone from strength to strength with 250 members at the last count. If you would like to help or serve on the Committee, we are always looking for willing volunteers, please contact us. As always for any information about AAfA please email activeagefor@gmail.com. TEXT only 0868806808 or view our website activeageforall.com.

A lack of facilities is a significant concern for residents in Donabate and Portrane. The Donabate Local Area Plan allows for 4,000 additional residential units to be built in the coming years. While increased housing supply is very welcome, we should equally be pushing for better facilities. Our local authority should approve planning applications by developers on the condition that adequate sporting and social infrastructure are part of their application. Fingal currently has no public swimming pool. There has been an ongoing campaign to have a public swimming pool built in Fingal for many years. With the population of Fingal now at over 170,000, this is not an unreasonable or overly ambitious proposal. And given that a significant number of houses that are being built in north county Dublin are planned for Donabate, we have as good a claim as any other area for a pool to be located on the peninsula. By comparison, Leitrim has a population of 35,000 and has two public swimming pools. A pool in Donabate could cater for residents here and nearby towns. While the pop-up pool that was in the car park of the community centre in Donabate was a great temporary addition, we should be advocating for a permanent facility. The pop-up pool demonstrated that there is huge interest in swimming on the peninsula. I have written to the Minister for Sport making enquiries regarding the Large-Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF) and how communities can best access funds under this scheme. A public pool is a proposal I will continue to advocate for at local and national level. If you want me to keep you updated on this campaign or if you would like me to share with your correspondence or responses I receive from State Agencies, please email me: eoghandockrellfg@gmail.com.

Corina Johnston, the Labour Party Local Area Representative for Donabate and Portrane said recently, “I am pleased that a Motion submitted on my behalf by my colleague Cllr O’Donoghue and co-signed by Cllrs. Mulville and Henchy was unanimously passed at a recent Council meeting. The motion recommended that a site within the Ballymastone/Corballis area of Donabate and in the ownership of the Council, be identified and designated as the site Cultural/Arts/Youth/Multifunctional Community facility meeting. I am however disappointed with the Council’s response and while acknowledging the council’s commitment to relocate the library from the Community Centre to the recently acquired Credit Union site to free up additional community space this will not meet needs of the current and future residents of our peninsula. Duncan Smith TD and I held a public meeting in October 2023 to outline our ongoing campaign for the provision of such a facility within the Ballymastone/ Corballis lands. The well attended meeting endorsed our objective and a committee (DP Crossroads) has since been formed. At the meeting we outlined that the Donabate LAP facilitates the growth of the population of the peninsula to 20,000 with 3000 housing units in Ballymastone and Corballis within the next decade. The LAP supports the provision of a Community/ Cultural/ Exhibition and Performing Arts Centre for Donabate/Portrane and encourage the development of multi - functional community buildings which are not used exclusively designed for any one group. According to Census 2022 41% of the population of the peninsula are under 30 years of age. There are over 30 active Arts, Cultural and Youth groups on the peninsula who have no permanent home. It is apparent from the response that FCC are not in favour of providing a site for the Centre. It seems that it is acceptable to FCC that Donabate can grow to a population of 20,000 people but not provide the necessary infrastructure to support the needs of the current and future population. This is totally unacceptable to me and contrary to the LAP. It is imperative that a site for this much needed community infrastructure be ringfenced as a matter of urgency before there’s not a suitable blade of grass not built upon. FCC undertook to meet the Crossroads group on this matter in the near future.”

2023 was another successful year for LSA. We are an Athletics club based on the Donabate/Portrane peninsula, founded in 2011. We now have almost 460 members, over half of those are children and teenagers. Last year our athletes competed in Dublin, Leinster, Schools and National Championships; European U20 Championships; World and European Masters Championships; numerous road races, mountain races, and marathons at home and across the world. We also have a National Record Holder Under 20. Other notable events were a successful road race in May, a Summer Camp in July, and the first sod turned on our future home in August. We are a friendly growing club, run by volunteers. Our members log thousands of kilometres across the peninsula and beyond, at a wide range of paces and there is a big welcome for everyone who likes to keep active. We always welcome new members and volunteers. If you would like to get involved please contact us - details below: For any Adult memberships queries please contact us lambaysportsathletics@gmail.com Little Athletics and Juvenile athletes (from age 7-18) please contact lsajuvenilereg@gmail.com Keep up to date on all the events by following LSA on our social media pages! On Facebook please contact us on .facebook.com/lambaysportsacademy or contact us on Instagram at our Instagram site on instagram.com/lsadonabateportrane/ Twitter twitter.com/LSARunning Please also visit our website lambaysportsathletics.ie/

Leithinis Donabate Portrane CCE held their Annual General Meeting on November 20th. We would like to thank the members who attended and who also volunteered to join the Committee. We are a small branch and are delighted with the extra help. The meeting was also attended by Mary Whelan, outgoing Cathaoirleach of Dublin County Board CCE. Mary was presented with a bouquet of flowers as a thank you for all the guidance and advice she gave us since our very first meeting and over the past few years. We wish Mary the very best of luck. Some of our Junior and Adult Members played at the Annual Christmas Fete in the Educate Together National School on the 26th of November. It was a great opportunity for us to showcase our branch and for our members to play some tunes together. We also played a few tunes at the turning on of the Christmas Tree Lights on Portrane Green. Well Done to all the volunteers involved, the tree looked fantastic. The Dublin ‘Tradfest’ will be held on the 24th to the 28th of January. Some of Ireland’s best traditional musicians will be playing in venues across Dublin including our Parish Hall on the 28th when our very own Donabate Portrane local Gerry O’Connor, Banjo player with the Dublin Legends will be playing in the Parish Hall on the 28th. Our classes are back up and running in January. If you are interested in learning to play a traditional Irish instrument such as the Fiddle, the Tin Whistle .and the Bodhran, Banjo, Flute, Concertina, and Accordion. You can please contact us on line at leithinis@comhaltas.net and we will get back to you.

At the end of November, Gerry and the Plonkers (the Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed music group) played a free lunch-time concert in Donabate Parish Hall. All who attended enjoyed the music, the sambos and the tea. Many thanks to the Parish Hall Committee for sponsoring the wonderful sandwiches from Cate’s Café and to Evaleen, Tatiana, Breda, Kay and Martina, who made and served the tea and coffee. Although between 30 and 40 people attended, we trust these lunch-concerts will become regular events and for bigger audiences next time. Great oaks from little acorns grow. Last month, the Men’s Shed had their once yearly Christmas Dinner in Keeling’s pub. A great night was had by all, a hearty meal followed by a fabulous after-dinner sing-song of all our old favourites, ably led by Peter Cooney, Tony McArdle and Willie Cahill. Although things are relatively quiet at our allotments, our usual weekly activities continue - our exercise classes, croquet, musical jam sessions and our regular Thursday morning get-togethers in Donabate Scouts’ Den. Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed wishes our community and all who have supported us over the past year, a peaceful and healthy New Year. If you’d like to join us, please call our PRO, Jim, on 086-3694316. New members are always welcome.

What a busy year this has been. A full year without Covid or Lock downs. We started the year on a sad note with the death of our Chairperson Philippa Coady RIP. Her wisdom and kindness were sorely missed. A new Committee was elected and we Registered members for classes. What a response, we had queues out the door, everyone anxious to get back to normal. Here are some of the highlights of the year: the first would be our Bealtaine Celebration – The Bealtaine Miscellany - our choir the Caintóirí gave a short concert with the Rosemount Singers from Julianstown followed by readings from the Chinkwell writing group and Peig McManus who read from her brilliant memoir I Will Be Good. It was a most enjoyable celebration. We had a wonderful Fun Croquet Day with The Men’s Shed in the summer, refreshments were served and a rematch has been promised. Then in October we had Positive Aging Day where we invited people to come and sing with the Caintóirí and we were joined by Gerry & the Men’s Shed Plonkers and writers from Chinkwell & Peig McManus. The Ukulele group also played. Inclusion Day in November was a great success. A Dementia Friendly Coffee Morning. It was organised with DPCC with presentations from The Alzheimer Society who gave a most informative talk. Followed by music from The Cáintoiri and the Plonkers and refreshments were served. Our Carol Concert as usual was a welcome start to the Christmas Celebrations with a Raffle in aid of St Francis Hospice. It was standing room only! The non-alcoholic Mulled Wine and Mince Pies were much appreciated. So Happy 2024, and we have some dates for your diary: ONLINE REGISTRATION for current members will open from the 5th to the 8th of January for those who wish to register early. REGISTRATION for everyone will be DPCC on the 10th & 11th of January from 11.00 to 14.00 AGM is on the 19th of January at 11.00 a.m. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and we look forward to 2024. For any information about Active Age email activeageforall@gmail.com.