Active Age for All recently acquired two sets of croquet equipment and asked Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed to assist by assembling the two flat-packed trolleys included with the sets. So, with engineering know-how and carpentry skills, not to mention a code-cracker’s ability to decipher the unintelligible assembly directions, a few of our members proved themselves up to the task. We managed to produce two fully functioning trolleys in time for Active Age for All’s socially distanced return to croquet. With the easing of Covid-19 restrictions to permit outdoor gatherings of 15, the Men’s Shed has arranged a few outdoor get-togethers over the coming weeks. Work at our allotments also continues. If you wish to join us, please contact Jim on 086-3694316.

Councillor Adrian Henchy has welcomed news of a Skate park for the area. He said I was very pleased at a recent area committee meeting to receive confirmation that as part of the Ballymastone Sporting and recreational campus, Fingal County Council have agreed to install a skate park as part of this project. This has been one of my key objectives since my election in 2014 from my visits to our local primary schools and engagement with students of our local secondary school as well as many youth organisations and indeed local residents calling for the installation of a skate park local to Donabate given the nearest one is currently in Swords. The first step was getting this stitched in as a local objective for Donabate within the Fingal Development Plan and its very positive to now see Fingal County Council follow through on its commitment. Donabate is a growing community with a very young population and its critically important that we provide a wide range of facilities and amenities to appeal to as many young people as possible. I am also very pleased to see this amenity co- existing with the proposed eight lane Olympic standard athletics facility and the full size flood lite all weather facilities to accommodate Gaelic Games and Soccer.

On Monday 10th May, the croquet players were all ready to celebrate the start of the 2021 season using their new equipment. This was purchased, at the end of last summer, using a grant from Fingal County Council Community, Culture and Sports Division. Prior to this we had a loan from Croquet Ireland, and we thank them very much for that.
Thanks too to some of the Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed, Jim O’Donohoe, Gerry Kirwan and Oliver McDonald, who volunteered to put together the trolleys that arrived in kit form. (see photos). The existing AAfA members who play croquet regularly were really pleased to see this arrival. At the time of writing, we have more members wishing to join and we will be at trying to extend our playing time, or additional time, to try to accommodate this.

We will continue to monitor the changes in opening-up from Covid and how it might impact on our activities. Keep checking on our weekly emails to see what else may be happening from time to time. All we need now is a summer of glorious weather.

A Labour Party delegation consisting of Duncan Smith TD, Cllr James Humphreys and Corina Johnston Area Representative met with senior officials of the Gardai including Assistant Garda Commissioner Anne Marie Cagney, Superintendents Brian Woods and Ronan Barry to discuss the need for additional Garda resources on the peninsula. Corina Johnston said;“in their response the Garda informed us of their intention to provide two additional Gardai for foot patrol duties on the Donabate peninsula on each weekend commencing on Friday 30th April. This forms part of their good weather initiative which will continue during the summer period. “Johnston continued; “ While I welcome the much needed additional resources for Donabate, I stressed the need for community Gardai to be assigned to Donabate on a permanent basis given the projected growth in the population.”Johnston continued; “ Duncan Smith TD and I have been advocating for the introduction of the See Something Say Something Garda text initiative on the peninsula. Superintendent Barry gave his continued support to the introduction of this text alert initiative which has proved successful in a pilot scheme in Swords. The extension of this scheme will be decided in conjunction with Fingal County Council and the Chamber of Commerce in the near future.“ Johnston added; “the following issues were raised by our delegation:- the need for a community based policing forum- the need for a domestic abuse officer for the Swords and Donabate district- an online post primary school programme initiative in advance of the school summer recess.The Gardai committed to giving serious consideration to these proposals.”Johnston concluded;”Duncan Smith TD and I also raised the need for a permanent Garda station on the peninsula.We suggested that in the event of the Progressive Credit Union proceeding with their intention to sell the Credit Union building, as seems likely from responses received to date, that this could well be an ideal location for a Garda station. In their response the Gardai said that while they have no objection in principle to a Garda Station on the peninsula, this however would be a political decision“

Thanks to Fingal County Council for giving us nearly a full grant aid for two fantastic gazebos, and our particular thanks to Rafe Costigan Senior Community Officer for his assistance with this project, who took on board our vision of the best way to be outdoors in Ireland in our changeable weather! We are told to get outdoors, it is safer & healthier so that is what we intend doing, practicing our music & song in the wide open spaces. Erin McGahan our Gaeilge Officer & Fintan O Reilly our Youth Officer, came along recently for a mini work party to fill our sandbags to secure our gazebos when in use! You will hear us around the peninsula over the summer and as always feel free to contact us at leithinis@comhaltas.net. We are really looking forward to getting together again to play and enjoy our music once more as can be seen on our pictures .

In case you think that the selection of wild birds on the Donabate Portrane peninsula is limited to robins, starlings, crows and seagulls,have a look at this selection of photographs taken in Portrane by Swords man James (Chick) McNally. A much wider selection of photographs can be seen on The Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival’s facebook page bleedingpig.ie James (Chick) McNally has spent many wonderful hours capturing these images for us. He has a lifelong passionate interest in nature and conservation.Chick is a member of Bird Watch Ireland and is currently involved with the little tern project which is being conducted on Portrane Beach for the past twenty five years.This involves a team of volunteers who erect a fence and patrol the beach to protect the little ternsThe little terns lay their eggs in the sand and are vulnerable to predators – both animal and human – while they are sitting on their eggs waiting for them to hatch.There is great rejoicing when the babies are ready to fly back to Africa.

With the ongoing restrictions LSA members are unable to meet for training. Whilst some of our older training groups continued to follow their training plans on their own, we wanted to do something to unite all our juvenile athletes and coaches. The virtual challenge format provided by Athletics Ireland, with our own Olympic 2021 spin, gave us the ideal platform to do this with our “Three Week Olympic Challenge”. LSA was honoured that the CEO of Sport Ireland, sporting legend John Treacy, Silver medallist in the 1984 Olympic Marathon, took the time to introduce the challenge to our juvenile athletes.The challenge involved our 64 Juvenile members, ranging in age from 7 to 17. The idea was to form eight teams of eight and to mix athletes from different age groups and abilities. A coach and a team “country” was assigned to each team. Over three weeks we assigned three “events” for athletes to do in their own time, and asked parents to send the results to their team coach: Speed Bounce, 60m sprint and 300m time trial.We were very fortunate to be able to set up a temporary “race track” in the local area where athletes could run in their own time and record their results.Team coaches encouraged their eight athletes with advice and tips throughout the three weeks. The challenge was less about the competition and more about getting to know each other across the juvenile section: athletes, coaches and parents. It really delivered on that front and was a very rewarding experience. The many photos and videos we have from the three weeks are testament to that. Thanks to all the team coaches who were fantastic throughout and to the athletes who really embraced the whole spirit.“The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight; the essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.” Olympic Creed. For more information on any of our programmes, or If you have any questions, please email lambaysportsathletics@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook - Search “LSA”.

At the beginning of April, Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed was delighted to receive word that Fingal County Council had granted us a second plot at Turvey Allotments. Our first allotment has been the mainstay of our activities over the past year, when other pursuits have been curtailed. We are very grateful to the Council for giving us the opportunity to expand our work at the allotments. The past month has been remarkably busy. We cleared the plot of brambles, weeds and debris; we dug over and rotovated the entire plot, spread manure and erected fencing around the plot. A generous grant from Fingal Camber Community Fund was used to install a greenhouse, which we are using to propagate for planting outside. Anyone interested in joining, please contact Jim on 086-3694316.

By Breda Dockrell and Carolyn Smith

Fingal County Council is currently conducting a public consultation process to select a route for the Fingal Coastal Way; this will close on Thursday 27th May (2021). This is your opportunity to have your say; so don’t miss out. See the details at the end of this article for making a submission. The Fingal Coastal Way is a proposed coastal greenway extending along the northern Fingal coast from Newbridge House to the Meath Border (see Figure 1). It will link with the proposed Broadmeadow Way greenway from Malahide Castle to Newbridge House (which is being undertaken as a separate project) and the Sutton to Malahide Greenway, part of which is already constructed. In principle, this is a very welcome initiative by FCC. Unfortunately, none of the five possible routes identified by the consultants for the Donabate Portrane section of this Fingal “Coastal” Way (see Figure 2) capitalises on the full potential, in terms of recreation, tourism and heritage and business opportunities, of our beautiful peninsula.

1. All five suggested routes disregard the beautiful coastline of the Donabate Portrane Peninsula. Two of the routes go from Newbridge House westwards (inland) towards Blake’s Cross and Baleally Lane; the other three go eastwards towards Donabate Village and along Beaverstown Road to cross Rogerstown Estuary next to the railway line. All miss the coastal areas of Corballis, Donabate Beach, Cliff Walk, Tower Bay, Portrane Beach, The Burrow and Rahillion, with fantastic sea views towards Howth, Lambay Island and Rush.
2. The five routes suggested by the consultants fail to take advantage of on the great work and investment being undertaken by FCC in our area with regard to walking and cycling routes e.g. cycle/walkway along the Donabate Distributor Road, the planned development of the route from the Shoreline Hotel to Tower Bay and the route from Stella’s Castle (Portrane) to Carr’s Mill (Donabate).

Leithinis CCE Donabate Portrane held their Easter Slow Session of Traditional Irish Music and Song and it was a great success. A huge thanks to Erin McGahan and Fintan O’Reilly our Gaeilge and Youth officers who hosted the event. Along with leading the tunes they ran a quiz for the juniors which was a huge hit. Easter eggs were then delivered to all juniors who partook.We would like to thank Fingal County Council for the substantial grant under the Covid Round 2 fund for our 2nd gazebo. While it may be difficult to meet indoors, we hope that in the near future to meet outdoors for a pop up session in the gazebos as soon as restrictions lift. A special thanks to Rafe Costigan our FCC Community Officer for all the assistance he offers. We are continuing to hold classes over zoom which are going very well. In September we hope to add the concertina to our list of instruments offered. Our next slow session for members is on Friday the 7th May.Check out our Facebook page Comhaltas Leithinis Donabate Portrane for updates and information.