The Excitement is building in Donabate and Portrane in anticipation of the Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival 2023, coming soon to a venue near you! People often ask where did the festival get it’s unusual name. The Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival takes it’s name from a rock formation deep inside a cave on the cliff walk between Donabate and Portrane. An arrangement of the erosion in the rock looks like the shape of a pig, and in certain tidal conditions, when the light is just right, the rock formation drips with iron-laden, red-coloured water, looking like the pig is actually bleeding! In 2013 when a name was being sought for the festival, this name was chosen because the feature is on the walk linking Donabate to Portane. The festival kicks off this year on Thursday September 7th with a Trad session in the Brook Pub in Portrane, starring renowned Uileann Piper Eamonn Galldubh agus a chairde, and featuring members of Comhaltas Leithinis. Everybody welcome for some craic agus ceol!

Over the following 10 days until Sunday September 17th there is a full timetable of events with
something of interest to all cultural tastes and audiences of all ages. Some highlights of the festival include:Craft Workshops for children and adults; Gala Concert in St. Patrick’s RC Church featuring the Young Dublin Symphonia and more; Mol an Óige, a showcase of some of the fun-sized talent on the peninsula! A festival favourite;Pizza Trad, or Céilí dancing and complimentary Pizza in the sun! Short Film Festival in St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland over 3 nights; Open Mic for Comedy, Music, the Spoken Word and more;Guided Tours of St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland, Martello Tower and Newbridge House; Art and Photography exhibition; September Miscellany featuring the Chinkwell Writers with musical interludes; Historic walk and talk in Portrane; Casino Night for some gambling fun and Rat-Pack entertainment; Wellness sessions in The Community Well; Sing-a-long sessions; Short plays from the Donabate/Portrane Dramatic Society; BioDiversity walk and talk at Turvey Island Hide; and lots more! Check out the Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival brochure, website, Facebook and Instagram for full details of all the events. There will be a raffle running throughout the festival with some lovely prizes including artworks from some of our local artists, and lots more. Tickets will be on sale at all festival events. Some events require advance booking to secure a place. See the website for information about these. Most events in the 10-day festival are free of charge. However, a small cover charge will apply to a certain limited number events, to guarantee attendance. If you would like to get involved with the Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival please contact Eilish McDermott on 0877911833, or any committee member. Come along to any of the the festival events from the 7th to 17th September across the peninsula and let’s embrace our local culture!

Becca Nolan has been a member of Donabate Portrane Special Olympics Club since it started in November 2018. She volunteers at four different sessions every week and the athletes love her. Becca has also competed for the club as an athlete in athletics and brought home gold and silver medals. Over the past year, Becca has been successful, and we as a club are immensely proud of her. As a club, we want to announce and celebrate each of her achievements.The first award that Becca won was in October 2022 when she was awarded Special Olympics Ireland’s Young Volunteer of the Year. More recently, in May 2023, Becca was presented with her Bronze Athlete Leadership Award by Special Olympics Eastern Region. To qualify for this award the athlete must complete various tasks and activities. They must volunteer on a committee, volunteer in their community, take up a new hobby, and give a speech in public or present to a group (something that Becca is fantastic at doing).

In June Becca was nominated and awarded a Fingal Community Champion Award by the Mayor of Fingal for all her time volunteering and coaching in Donabate Portrane Special Olympics Club. Her latest achievement was being selected as an International Basketball official for the Special Olympics World Summer Games 2023 in Berlin. Becca was an excellent official and was a wonderful representative for our club, her basketball club (Swords Special Olympics basketball club) and Special Olympics Ireland. Donabate Portrane Special Olympics Club is enormously proud of Becca, and we look forward to seeing what is to come for this amazing woman.

Donabate Parish Hall welcomes back all its users - the various groups that do weekly activities Cards, Irish Dance, Senior Citizens to name just a few! and those that do block events like the Dramatic Society Production & the Photography Exhibition by Through the Lens to also just mention a few! It is hoped to run a few children’s camps again during the year starting with one at the October mid term break of a Cultural & Creative nature.There is limited availability now in the Parish Hall for booking activities & events but if you have a request we will do our very best to facilitate you or your group.Please contact the Parish Office on 01 8434574

September is here and time to think of which classes you would like to take. We have a great
range of classes on offer. To tone up we have from Dance to Fitness, to Yoga and Sit and Get Fit
and Pilates. We also have Stronger for Longer which concentrates on strengthening and balance. Then for the mind we have French and Spanish and to exercise the vocal cords we have Singing and Music. Our free activities are Boules, Croquet and indoor Bowls and Table Tennis, and for the very fit we have Pickleball. You must register for all classes and activities.Registration for classes and all our activities will take place on the 4th & 5th of September from 11.00 a.m. to 14.00 p.m. We hope to have our website ready by then so that you can join online. If you need any information about AAfA please check our website activeageforall.com or you can of course email us at activeageforall@gmail.com It TEXT only to 086 880 6808.

In July, Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed had an entertaining and information visit to the Irish Military Museum and Park, near Collen, Co. Meath, where members got to see and hold guns and rifle, military uniforms and vehicle related to both World Wars, 1916 and other conflicts. We also took the opportunity of an impromptu visit to the nearby Broomfield Men’s Shed where we were treated to typical Men’s Shed hospitality over tea and sandwiches. Last month, we had a joint croquet day with Active Age for all. A full report and photos of this fun day will be available for next month’s issue. If you are interested in joining us, please call our PRO, Jim, on 086-3694316.

Just like that our 5th year in operation has come to an end and what a year! Our Young Athlete Program continues, and we welcomed many new members throughout the year. This group cater to athletes aged 4 years + and focuses on gaining gross motor skills and introducing the basic skills of various sports e.g.,running, throwing, catching, balancing, turn-taking, striking, etc.,all through fun and games. Our three basketball groups started this year, and they have all progressed so well. We have a ‘Come and try’ basketball’ team and a girls’ preteen/teen team training on Thursday evenings. On Fridays, our teen boys’ team meets up. The athletics club meets on Saturday mornings. Over the past year, their members have been introduced to the rules of athletics meets and have been training hard to master them. They have recently trained on the ALSAA track and in the National Indoor Arena and tried out new events like the high jump and the long jump. Our wonderful gymnastics club has gone from strength to strength and the progress of the gymnasts is very impressive. It is hard to believe that they have only been training for less than 10 months. They finished off their fantastic year by hosting an interclub gymnastics competition with Tivoli Tigers Special Olympics Club.None of these clubs could exist without our amazing volunteers and coaches. We would like to publicly thank each and every one of them and look forward to seeing them and all our athletes when the club starts back in September. We are always looking for volunteers to give just a few hours a week with our club or if you would like to enquire about your child joining our club, please email us at dpsoclub@gmail.com

The Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival people are hard at work putting the preparations in place for the upcoming festival in September. From Thursday 7th to Sunday 17th September, venues across the peninsula will play host to lots of cultural activities for festival-goers of all ages and all cultural tastes. This year, the programme for the festival will include all the tried and tested favourites including: Short Film Festival, a feast of film for fans of the silver screen; Mol an Óige, showcasing some fun-sized talent on the peninsula; PizzaTrad, or Céilí dancing and Pizza in the sun; A Gala Concert, featuring the Young Dublin Symphonia and more;Art and Craft Workshops for children and adults; Casino Night, with gambling fun and music and dancing till late; Short plays from Donabate/Portrane Dramatic Society; Guided tour of historic St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland; Sing-a-longs featuring any singer, any song; and lots more.

This year the festival is embracing technology with 2 workshops called “Make a Movie on your Mobile Phone”, one session for 12-18 year-olds and one session for adults. A hand-held Gimble worth €165 will be presented to the best movie in the 12-18 year-old workshop. Most of the events of the Bleeding Pig Festival are free of charge, however there is a small fee for some of the great workshops and events. The number of attendees for most of the workshops is limited and reserving a place is essential. Booking is through Eventbrite and reservation opens on August 18th 2023. Full details of all the workshops and events that require booking are on the Bleeding Pig website and Facebook page. The first event in the Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival will be a fund-raising Pub Quiz in Keelings on Wednesday 23rd August. Tickets are €10 per person. Tickets can be reserved in advance from Emer on 0863691871. A raffle will be held throughout the festival, with prizes of some beautiful works of art by local artists.Tickets for the raffle will be on sale at all festival events. The Bleeding Pig Festival will hold a bag-pack on the weekend of 25th August, and brochures for the festival will be available at that time. Keep an eye on the Bleeding Pig Festival website and Facebook for details of all events. The organisers would like to thank all our generous sponsors, without their support the festival could not happen.Check out bleedingpig.ie and Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival Facebook page for full details about all the events in the festival, and come along in September and enjoy some local culture!

Donabate Parish Hall has run a number of successful camps this year to cater for local kids they are generally of a cultural & creative nature. They aim to offer a variety of camps to cater for all interests. The most recent was the Lego bricks 4 Kids Summer Camp which was extremely popular with nearly 30 kids taking part. The organiser Alison Bosonnet was delighted with the turnout and said the hall is fab a great space. Regular classes and activities include Irish dancing, Leithinis, Traditional Music, Mother and Baby Group and Cards to name a few! If you are interested in finding out more about the camps and classes or in using the hall for some community activity or event please contact the Parish Office on 01 8434574.

The Mayor of Fingal said recently, “As many people across Donabate Portrane will have seen in recent months an appeal went out from a small group of local residents from the peninsula who were anxious to restore and improve the grave in Donabate Cemetery of the late Eddie Guerrini who was affectionally known locally as “ Neddie”. Cllr Henchy said, “ I am delighted to say this appeal has been a wonderful success and the restoration of “ Neddie’s” grave has been completed in recent months. While the local residents behind this wonderful initiative want to remain anonymous, I just wanted to say a massive thanks as a public representative of my local community for completing such a benevolent kind gesture. It is greatly appreciated.

Donabate Village Open Air Art Exhibition is happening in August! Come take a walk down our open air Art Gallery on Uisce Eireann’s railings at The Hand from 11am to 5pm, Saturday & Sunday. If you are interested in showing your work, there are a few places available. Make contact with Peninsula Art Group by email to mareseart@eircom.net.

Many thanks for the help, advice and support from Corina Johnston, Labour Party local Area Representative. Duncan Smith, TD, Labour Party. Rafe Costigan, Senior Community Officer, Fingal County Council and Cllr Dean Mulligan,Independent4Change.