What wonderful weather we have just enjoyed, but now we must get down to the serious business of deciding what to do for the Autumn and Winter ahead! Active Age is here with great ideas and a brilliant Programme of classes to help you decide! For those new to the Peninsula Active Age for All (AAfA) was launched on the Donabate Portrane peninsula in 2015. It is a community organisation that provides social and recreational activities for those over 55 aimed at promoting health and wellbeing with an emphasis on enjoyment. New members are warmly welcomed. We run an extensive programme of classes from Sit and Get Fit, to Pilates and Yoga and Tai Chi and Stronger for Longer. With something for every level of fitness. We also provide language classes, Singing & Music and Drama. As part of our community work we offer some free activities - Croquet, Indoor Bowls, and Boules. Registration for all classes - paid and free - will start on the 5th of September and will continue on the 6th and 7th in Donabate/Portrane Community Centre. Details of dates, and times of classes and our programme is available on our website activeageforall.com. If you need any information about AAfA or our activities please email activeageforall@gmail.com Or Text only to 0868806808.

The National Juvenile Track and Field Championships took place in Tullamore in July. It is the highlight of the Athletics Calendar, and this year LSA had two athletes competing. Éabha O’Farrell competed in U16 girls’ 3kg Hammer and Anna Gavigan competed in U19 Girls’ Discus. Both had qualified for this event by winning their respective competitions in the Dublin Championships in May and June.This was Anna’s final competition as a “Juvenile” and she signed off in style by winning the Discus Championships with a throw of 45.95m and setting a new U19 Championship record!This was Anna’s third major Championship win this summer. At the start of June, Anna won theSenior Girls’ Discus in the All-Ireland Schools Championship representing Loreto Secondary School Balbriggan. Three weeks later she had her best success to date winning the 150thNational Senior Track and Field Championships.Anna is a great example of the Long Term Athlete Development policy. She has been training and competing with LSA since 2014 but it was only in 2018 that she began to win medals in the Dublin Championships and qualify for national finals. Later that year she started to train with coach Gerry Ronan, and has gone from strength to strength since then.Our younger Juveniles may well be inspired by being coached by a National Champion – Anna is part of the coaching team with Fiona’s group at our Thursday evening training session, and she also coached at our recent summer camp.Meanwhile, Éabha is another up and coming LSA Juvenile Athlete, also coached by Gerry Ronan. Éabha set a new LSA club record for 3kg hammer when she threw 36.80m to finish 5th in the National Juvenile Championships. LSA Juvenile training will recommence in September – watch out for details on Social Media.We always welcome new volunteers to help out with our growing club.For memberships queries or to get involved please do so on our gmail account on lambaysportsathletics@gmail.com. Keep up to date on all the events by following LSA via our social media pages! Or facebook.com/lambaysportsacademy or even Instagram instagram.com/lsadonabateportrane/ Twitter twitter.com/LSARunning. For additional information on the above please visit our website lambaysportsathletics.ie/

Donabate Parish Hall autumn programme starts at the end of August with a large array of activities taking place every day, these range from Irish Dancing to Cards, from Montessori to Senior Citizens, from Traditional Music to Bridge. In October/November daily classes will be suspended for a number of weeks to facilitate Cultural & Creative events. These will include Photography Exhibitions and an Active Age for All Display to name but a few! There are still a few spaces available on the programme but it is filling up fast - we hope the addition of the new acoustic panels will create an even better ambience for all our activities & events to take place in! For further information please contact Bernie in the Parish Office

At Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed, we are continuing our activities over the summer months. We have exercise classes on Mondays, croquet at Newbridge House on Tuesdays, a cuppa and a chat at our Thursday morning get-togethers at the Scouts’ Den and work on our plots at Turvey Allotments at other times as the need arises.We also have regular outings to places of interest, most recently to the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, the Custom House Visitor Centre and the National Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire, three very different but interesting venues. These outings usually end with lunch at a local eatery. If you are interested in joining us, drop down to the Scouts’ Den any Thursday morning between 10:30am and 12:30pm or call Jim on 086-3694316. We look forward to seeing you.

We belong to the Walking Ireland Group which is part of Sports Ireland. There are over 400 groups in the country.We do SHORT EASY WALKS/TRIPS - 5km for most people require average fitness & we also do LONG MODERATE TO DIFFICULT WALKS which are 10/12km and can be hard so one needs to be fairly fit and able to keep up with the group.We try to vary the walks but sometimes we will repeat them especially as we try to be environmentally & cost friendly; we use trains & buses as much as possible! We are out to keep fit but also to have fun!!!! Our most recent outing with 15 people was after taking the train from Donabate to Balbriggan, we walked from there to Laytown some 11/12km along the beach with the tide out, going through some forest area which emerged near a great pedestrian bridge which lead directly into the Village Inn for some good food and well deserved refreshments! We returned by train from Laytown to Donabate after a great day out! Our next walk coincides and links with the Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival, so it is local - Saturday 10th Sept- starting at 12noon at The Parish Hall - walking to the Shoreline then on to Tower Bay short stop at Wayne’s Coffee Box - then down to Portrane and the Burrow walking along Rogerstown Estuary up Marsh Lane and back to the Brook for Pizza and Trad at 4pm! Bus or walk back to Donabate for the train ! Sound good - put in your diary and contact Carolyn 087 9284307 or Breda 086 8693243 if interested!

Pacers Trip to Epic Museum and the Custom House - On Saturday the 18th June the Peninsula Pacers embarked on a slightly different trip. Eight of us ventured into Dublin to visit the Epic Museum and the Custom House. Both venues being on Custom House Quay and an easy walk from Connolly Station it was more about exercising the mind rather than the legs! First stop was the Epic Museum in the CHQ building which tells the story, or rather a lot of stories, about the emigration of the Irish to all parts of the world. Beginning with the defeat of the Irish at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, which resulted in the ‘Flight of the Earls’ from 1607, to the present day. The departure of the Earls was a watershed in Irish history, symbolising the end of the old Gaelic order. You won’t find leprechauns and pots of gold here but you will learn the stories of Irish emigrants who became scientists, politicians, artists, poets and even outlaws.Following a relaxed lunch in the CHQ building we strolled down the quay to the Custom House where we were delighted to find that admission, and an official guide, were free.After a very interesting and informative hour, and having plumbed the long-suffering guides’ knowledge to the depths, we left him in peace, did the obligatory photo shoot and wended our way back to Connolly Station, There we were pleased to discover that we had time for a little refreshment before the train home. All in all a very enjoyable outing a great easy paced walk albeit in an urban setting and we can strongly recommend visits to both of these venues.

It is that time of year again when you get to decide what exciting classes you will choose for the coming winter. Hard to think about it now with the sun shining outside, but we in Active Age have been working hard preparing our programme for 2022/2023. You will see many of your old favourites there such as Pilates, Yoga, Sit & Get Fit, Stronger for Longer Art and Singing and Music.Our free activities - Croquet, Boules and Bowls and Table Tennis will of course continue. We are also adding some classes for those who are not as interested in the more physical activities, with Drama and Crafts and hopefully Cooking to be added to our programme.The full programme will be available online for you to see in August with a date of 5th of September for Registration for classes. As you all know classes fill up fast so you need to mark the date and come and register, even for the free activities as we have waiting lists for some of these.Enjoy the rest of your summer, looking forward to seeing you all in September! The photo competition theme is Positive ageing and it is open to people of all ages and abilities.DCU are looking to find rare gems of local talent from our communities to showcase our intergenerational engagement throughout Ireland. The closing date is 28th August 2022

What an end to a busy, fun, and successful year! We concluded our year with a wonderful end-of-year party. We had face painting, music, bubbles, tug-of-war, races, and medals. Garda Michelle and Garda Colm, from Clontarf Garda station, joined us for the fun. The athletes loved their car,especially the siren, lights, and car horn. Thank you to all the volunteers, fundraisers, and supporters who helped make this happen. This year, we have welcomed many new members into our Young Athletes Club this year. We have also started our new junior basketball club for athletes from 8 years to 16 years old. Thanks to our fabulous fundraisers and to our volunteer coach Ciara, we were able to offer swimming lessons to many of our members in the Pop-Up Pool.The first two athletes to ever compete for our club came away with 4 medals between them. We are so, so proud of Tim and Becca.Finally, one of the first athletes to join our club is moving to Wexford. We’ll miss you Noah. We will see you when you are competing for Munster and Ireland in the future. Thank you to Eamon, Susan, and Lottie for all your support throughout the years. It’s not goodbye, it’s au revoir.

Local Labour representative, Corina Johnston recently said, “I was contacted by a number of local residents last week regarding a potentially significant archaeological find on lands in Donabate which are subject to a live planning application.”I met the residents on site, who confirmed that they had been alerted to the find by a local farmer who stumbled upon the opening while sowing in the field. They immediately visited the site and unearthed what appears to be an underground tunnel with writing on one of the walls similar in nature to Ogham writing an early medieval alphabet.In view of the potential significance of the find Duncan Smith TD and I contacted the National Monuments Services and Fingal County Council and requested an urgent visit and an interim inspection of the site. In the meantime the entrance needs to be protected and closed off. The manner of the demolition of Turvey House a building of historical importance in 1987 must never be allowed occur again. National Monuments have confirmed to Duncan Smith TD and I that “this matter is currently being followed up on and an entry will be added to the Sites and Monuments Record in due course.” I have ascertained that the find is located on land that is subject to a current planning application with An Bord Pleanála and I have notified the board of recent developments on the land which may have implications for the planning application. We will keep you informed of developments.”

The Mini All Ireland Football tournament is a regular annual feature on the schedule of events at St Donabate. In June 2019 a hurling version of the tournament was introduced. Covid restrictions meant that the inaugural tournament was unable to run in the years after its first launch. Three years since the first event, and with massive development of hurling in the club including a developing camogie section, meant the revival of the Mini All Ireland Hurling and Camogie tournament for 2022 was sure to be a success. Almost 300 kids from Academy age group all the way up to Senior age (U14/U13) entered to compete for the coveted Cup winner’s trophy. With the football tournament launching separate boys and girls sections, the hurling event sought to do the same. With camogie in its infancy in the club, the U11 girls its inaugural team, it is a testament to the rapid development of the sport that well over 100 girls applied to compete in the camogie section across a number of age groups. Despite changeable weather conditions during the week of the tournament, which was held leading up to the June bank holiday weekend, the best of the weather held out to allow all the games to proceed with great support on the side lines as parents and supporters cheered on their temporary county allegiances. The quality of the games meant there were some really exciting group stage games and penalty shoot outs were required in many sections to determine placings for finals day. The sun shone bright on Friday’s finals evening as the competition came to a close. There was a great atmosphere around the grounds as both the cup and shield finals took place after which winners were crowned and goodie bags devoured by all.

Donabate quilters are a sewing group who meet on Tuesday evenings 7:45 -9:45 pm in the portacabin at Donabate Community Centre from September to end of May. When last March Olive, who is one of our members, mentioned that her daughter Dr. Caoimhe Costigan had worked with the National Neonatal Transport Team, and that they used small baby quilts to cover the incubators while transporting the babies. She also mentioned that the Neonatal Unit at Holles Street Hospital was very interested in using quilts on their incubators also. We discussed this at our class and quickly decided it was a very worthwhile project and that we would be delighted to make the quilts.

We liaised with Dr. Carmel Moore, Neonatologist at Holles Street Hospital, she explained what type of quilts were required, measurements, and types of fabric. She also explained the function of the quilts. The incubator covers are important because babies born early or unwell are sensitive to light, before 32 weeks the eyelids are very thin and their pupils cannot constrict, we try to control the level of lighting depending of a baby’s stage of development and sensitivity. This also helps to develop sleep rhythms that are important for growth and brain development. So knowing this important information and exactly what was required, we got busy designing, cutting, sewing and quilting. And 2 months later, we had 22 beautiful quilts of various designs and colours ready for the Neonatal unit. On the 8th of June, 3 of our members: Maura Porter, Liz Downey, and Linda Harford brought the quilts to Holles Street Hospital, where they were met by Dr. Carmel Moore. To demonstrate its function, she placed a quilt on to an empty incubator to show how the light would be reduced while still allowing access to the baby. The Donabate Quilters were very happy to be involved in such a worthwhile project; making quilts that were colourful, functional, and a practical aid to the Neonatal unit. Please note it is important to stress that the incubator is empty in the photos.