The Annual Peninsula Walk took place on Sat 14th Sept to coincide with the Bleeding Pig Festival and Trad & Pizza at the Brook Pub. A great day had by all - walkers, musicians & ceile dancers!

The next two walks are listed below:
Saturday 19th October

Walk from Greystones to Bray - this is a challenging new route of about 10km - exact route TBC.
Saturday 9th November

Walk a flat easy route either Beach, Canal or Greenway also about 10km.

There will be further walks in January, February & March 2025.

All walks subject to the weather! If interested: Contact Carolyn on 087-9284307 or Des on 087-7846813

For a few years since we got the acoustic panels, we have been working towards providing a good space for over 18s to practice their music.

We are now ready to rock & roll! Actually, any type of music is welcome e.g. trad, jazz, folk, rock.
Noel Dowling, new to the parish, will be the leader of the Music Makers. Read his bio below and you will know why! He will be ably assisted by local musician and songwriter Sean Collins.

It is intended to run the sessions once a month on a Friday evening, starting for all on October 18th at 7pm. (This may become twice a month). We have the equipment for you to use; you just bring your instrument along.

Please email musicmakersph@gmail.com or WhatsApp or text 089-4916437, the Music Makers’ phone monitored by Noel, with an expression of interest if you are over 18 and playing music at present with nowhere to rehearse or create music in a warm inviting atmosphere - where you don’t drive the neighbours mad!

Noel is a husband and father of two living in Donabate and is a lifelong music enthusiast whose passion for music was ignited during family sing-alongs and gatherings. He studied Sound Engineering & Music Production at Ballyfermot College under the guidance of Pat Daly and Pete Holiday. Over the years, Noel worked as a sound engineer for renowned bands like U2 (on their Claw tour), Brody Dalle, Mumford & Sons, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Sneaky Sound Systems, among many more….

Outside of music, Noel has been a youth club leader at St. Pappin’s Youth Club and is currently on the committee of Gaelscoil Na Mara. Now working in Global HR Operations, Noel continues to support the music community and shares his love for music as an unofficial member of Gerry & the Plonkers. Music remains his first love, and he is passionate about nurturing future generations of musicians.

It’s all music this month Gerry & the Plonkers will be playing in the Parish Hall from 12 - 2pm on Wednesday 16th October all adults in the Parish welcome, especially seniors refreshments sponsored by the Parish Hall Committee. They will have a gig in November & December also. Then in 2025 three more gigs are planned for January, February & March.

Any queries re booking, events and activities contact Parish Office 01-8434574.

From time to time, Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed organises special events or outings to places of interest to its members. Last month was a particularly busy month for such outings.

In early September, members participated in the Boules Coaching course at Newbridge House, jointly arranged by Active Age for All and the Men’s Shed and ably delivered by Tom and Eileen Donnellan from Bayside Boules.

In mid-September, a group spent an interesting day at the National Ploughing Championships near Stradbally, Co. Laois. and in the month, a guided tour of Croke Park was arranged, which included the Skyline Tour, a thrilling rooftop walkway. It’s hoped to have photos of these outings for next month’s article.

Gerry & the Plonkers, the Men’s Shed music group, had a quiet September, but gigs in Donabate Parish Hall are lined up for the next three months, on 16th October ,13th November and 4th December, all on Wednesdays from 12 noon to 2pm. Light refreshments will be provided and all adults in the community are welcome.

Of course, the Men’s Shed weekly activities of exercise classes, croquet at Newbridge, work on our plots at Turvey Allotments and our Thursday morning get-togethers at the Scouts’ Den on Portrane Road, all continue as usual. So if you, or someone you know, would like to join us, just call our PRO, Jim, on 086-3694316.

Homes located at Brook Beach and Healy’s Lane in Portrane are in danger of being completely lost unless emergency coastal protection measures are not put in place as a matter of urgency according to local Cllr Corina Johnston.

“The residents of The Burrow, Portrane are deeply frustrated, angry and worried at the extent and magnitude of the coastal erosion over the years. The residents are fearful the impact the upcoming high tides, which are due to hit the coastline in the coming weeks, will have on their homes. The Beach Lane access road to 10 homes and properties was severely undermined in recent months and the upcoming high tides will make access inaccessible unless an alternative access is found.”

Duncan Smith TD has raised the need for emergency protection measures with the Tanaiste in Dáil Éireann and the OPW in further response confirmed it is open to Final County Council to seek additional funding for emergency works through The Minor Flood Mitigation Works and Coastal Protection Scheme.
“We have reached crisis point in Portrane. Unless emergency coastal protection measures are carried out along the beach and an alternative access route is found for the homes fronting Beach Lane it is inevitable that a number of homes will have to be evacuated. On behalf of the concerned residents, I am calling on FCC to seek the necessary funding,” Cllr Johnston added.

In early September in the Recreation Hub at Newbridge for mainly older people, there was a Launch & Coaching of Boules as we now have 2 courts. Tom & Eileen Donnellan experienced players, who have been to the fore in the progress and development of Boules across Fingal, delivered the coaching skills, basic rules and safety aspects on the day. They are great people who volunteer to coach best practice and get other groups of future Boules players up & running.

The launch was attended by some of our councillors with apologies from others. Unfortunately, Shane Sutton from FCC who organised a great job in providing the Boules was unable to attend as he had a number of other engagements.

Carolyn Smith of AAfA Gerry Kiernan & Jim O’Donohoe from Men’s Shed and Breda Dockrell from Donabate Portrane Liaison Group all who were very involved in seeking the Boules and seeing the project through were there to help run the event.

A very special thanks to all the people who turned up on the day to learn how play or learn how to play better!

The ‘Recreation Hub’ is now complete with the 2 Croquet Lawns and 2 Boules Courts - for use mainly by older folk! It is a great addition to activities in the area; thank you to FCC.

At present AAfA & Men’s Shed play on certain days & times. If you are interested in joining either organisation it is €10 for Active Age for All & €20 for Men’s Shed.

A big thank you to the park staff who keep the Recreation Hub in such good condition!

Active Age for All Donabate/Portrane committee members manned an information table in Donabate Mall on Friday 30th August to remind present members about registration the following week and to inform others who may not know of us of the activities that we offer in our programme. As always it was great to catch up with people after the summer break and the interest shown by possible new members was very encouraging.

Online registration for members was on 2nd & 3rd September and walk-in 4th & 5th in the Community Centre. This was the first time where online and walk-in was working together since our website was launched. Unfortunately, the internet in the centre decided not to play ball which slowed things down quite a bit, especially on Wednesday, but we got there in the end and would like to thank everybody for their patience and forebearance. There are still a few issues to be resolved with the website, as usual in these cases it’s a matter of learn as you go. We are very pleased that our membership has shown a net growth this term and we now have 266 members.

We will always be looking for any need to expand our programme and would be happy to consider suggestions from people for courses they would be interested in. We take an active part in the Memory Cafe (last Wednesday of the month from 11am to 1pm) and are involved with the Positive Ageing week September 30th to October 6th this year.

Leithinis Donabate Portrane CCE’s new term of lessons in Fiddle, Tin Whistle, Concertina, Bodhran, Banjo and Flute resumed in September. We wish to extend a warm welcome to all our new students. In addition to our lessons we have slow sessions twice a month so our students can practice the tunes they have learned in class with fellow members. We also meet with other Comhaltas branches to play a few tunes a few times a year. We still have a few places left in some classes so if you are interested in learning a traditional Irish Music in a relaxed environment email us at leithinis@comhaltas.net and we will get back to you. We cater for adults and children at both beginner and intermediate levels. Lessons are €115 for 12 lessons and annual family Comhaltas membership is €20

We were delighted to be asked to play a few tunes at the launch of the Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival in the Brook Pub. As usual it was a great evening. Thanks to The Bleeding Pig Committee for giving us the opportunity to play. It was a great way for us to highlight our branch.

Further information about our branch can be found on our webpage www.leithinis.com and on our Facebook page.

There is something for everyone in LSA and we always welcome new members. We have a wide variety of adult groups ranging from social runners, to 5k, marathon, Masters track and Field and beyond. We now have over 420 members, more than half of whom are adults.

We had a fabulous summer camp in July, thanks to our volunteers. Our adult groups and older juveniles continued training and competing throughout the summer; our younger juveniles and Little Athletics will return to training in September.

A record number of LSA athletes qualified for the National Juvenile Championships in Tullamore in July. They gained valuable experience and won two medals, with Under 19 athletes Suzie Linkiewicz and Michelle Branigan winning bronze in the100m sprint and Javelin, respectively.

Our women’s Track and Field team had a great National League: first of all they qualified for the Division One final at the start of July, and then went on to place fourth in the final in late July.

There was more track and field action in August with Sinead Farrell winning bronze in the 5000m and Anna Gavigan winning gold in Discus at the National U20 and U23 Championships. James Keegan had some great track races in the Dublin Graded race series whilst Reuben Capocci notched up his first mountain race win. Credit is due to the athletes, their parents and all the volunteers who work hard to support them, with special thanks to Gerry Ronan for his expert coaching.

Our Masters women had wonderful performances in the National Masters Championships in August with a Gold in the 4 x 100m relay and Silver in the 4 x 400m relay, both the over 40s age category.

After the excitement of watching Team Ireland in Paris we hope to welcome new members (and their parents) to our Little Athletics and Juvenile sections. Our club is run entirely by volunteers, and we aim to be a club for all the community. To find out more please visit our social pages.

Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed has had a busy Summer. Their “inaugural golf classic” was held at Bellewstown Golf Club in early August. Work at their plots at Turvey Allotments has kept several members very busy, with new screen doors being fitted to the polytunnel in addition to the usual seasonal activity. Their music group, Gerry & the Plonkers played at Fingal County Council Vintage Picnic at the end of July and at the Turvey Allotment’s family day in late August.

Autumn promises to be just as busy. Gerry and the Plonkers will play free concerts at Donabate Parish Hall from 12:30 to 14:00 on Wednesdays 16th October, 13th November and 4th December, with light refreshments provided. An outings to the Croke Park Museum and Skyline Walk is being arranged for September. The Men’s Shed will also be partaking in the Boules Launch on Monday 9th September at Newbridge House.

All of this is in addition to our weekly exercise classes, our croquet on Tuesday at Newbridge, our music jam sessions on Wednesday and our tea-and-chat get-together on Thursdays.
So if you’d like to join us, please call Jim on 086-3694316.

Recently the Parish Hall has had some work done to upgrade the facility. The old Kitchenette has been mostly removed to upgrade it to a more modern and safer standard and new fire emergency doors have also been installed. This building work has been supported by FCC and been ably done by Michael Wogan of M W Elite Construction Ltd of Ballyboughal, North County Dublin.

Routine maintenance has been done on the electrics by Garvan Harte of CP Electrical & Security. This work was done in between some very successful Summer Camps in Lego, Art and Steam having been run.
The Parish Hall will be fully open and up and running again towards the end of August. In order to keep the hall in good repair and to do renovation work it is necessary to limit use on occasions for this to take place. The Parish Hall Committee apologise for any inconvenience but trust its users will be more than happy with the improvements.

There is still some limited use available in the Parish Hall; for any queries in this regard please contact the Parish Office on 01-8434574.