Congratulations are in order for Swords local Szymon Kupiec on the award of his JKS Shodan Diploma recently. He was presented with his Diploma by the head of JKS Ireland Dermot O Keeffe Sensei 6th Dan in front of JKS Ireland Brown & Black Belts at this month’s National training session. Szymon took his Black Belt examination in December 2021 after 10 years of training. He had to complete a series of Kihon (Basics), followed by several Kumite (Fighting) matches with other examinees. He finished the examination by performing his Katas (Forms) Bassai Dai, Junro Nidan and Heian Godan. Szymon is continuing his training and working towards his 2nd Dan Black Belt.

We hosted JKS Ireland National Brown & Black Belt training this month. We covered our grading syllabi for 1st and 2nd Dan Black Belt and then studied the Kata Unsu. This is an ancient kata with a lot of complex and demanding moves. The name Unsu translates from Japanese to English as Cloud Hands and explains some of the stranger hand movements of this Kata.We welcomed Makita Sensei 6th Dan JKS Honbu Dojo Instructor from Japan and Jesper Marksvarden Sensei 7th Dan JKS from Denmark for our Spring/Summer Seminar in mid-May. This is the first time since the pandemic began that we have had visiting Instructors and it promises to be a very exciting Seminar over two days. Full report in the next Club News. Class reports: Tigers and Juniors are on course for the summer grading examinations. Everyone is working hard learning their Kata and practicing their Kihon. Seniors continue to work on the technical aspects of Karate with a focus on exploring how it translates into real world self-defence.We take new members (Children, Young People & Adults) all through the year. Contact Dermot on 087-98073885 for details on how to join. Contact us on Facebook: JKS Swords Karate Club or on Instagram: @jks_swords_karate_club

Fingal County Council has concluded public consultation on proposed protected cycle lane upgrades for St Cronan’s Avenue and Brackenstown Road in Swords. Interested individuals and businesses in the area were invited to respond to plans for cycle lane upgrades, through an online portal or by post, from 25 March to 29 April. The consultation was promoted to those living in the locality through a leaflet drop, letters to local businesses, social media posts and an online information session which took place on 12 April. Fingal County Council also met with key stakeholders including Brackenstown Parish, Dublin Bus, Swords Express, St Cronan’s Junior and Senior National Schools, ESB Networks and local business owners before and during the public consultation period. 31 submissions were received in the course of the 5-week consultation period. All submissions received by Fingal County Council are being read and considered by the Department of Environment, Climate Action and Active Travel and by their design consultants prior to commencement of work on site. The Project Team, in Fingal County Council, are pleased with the local engagement for the plans in the area. We have received a good deal of interest in the plans for St Cronan’s Avenue and Brackenstown Road and the submissions received have helped us best understand the needs of the community. All submissions have been made public and can be read at consult.fingal.ie/en/node/24833/submissions

Swords Tidy Towns has been very busy readying our town for the visit of the judges for this years National Tidy Towns Competition. Judging is done between June and July and hundreds of other Tidy Towns groups across the country will also be doing the same.There is only so much our hard-working volunteers can do to impress the judges, there is also an onus on Swords residents to play their part by supporting us. You can this by always binning your litter, disposing responsibly of your dog poo, encouraging and complimenting young kids when they follow your example. When you see our volunteers out and about honk your horn if driving or express a few kind words if passing. The hard work of our Tidy Towners has been justly rewarded by winning a National Silver Medal four times in a row. With your help we hope to make that five this year, who knows, maybe we could even win the Gold Medal, we can but dream

The Senior Infants of St Colmcille’s Girls’ National School Swords beat off stiff competition to win Woodie’s Budding Gardener prize of a bespoke gardening workshop with judge Brian Burke Woodie’s DIY, Home and Garden launched their Budding Gardeners competition in January to encourage children and families to celebrate the joy of gardening, cultivating a hobby that will stay with them for life. Woodie’s asked children to flex their green fingers and get planting by working on a garden patch at school or at home for their chance to win some fantastic prizes.Hundreds of children got involved and spent time in their gardens working on the three tasks designed by Judge Brian over three months. The Senior Infants of St Colmcille’s Girls’ National School have been announced as winners of the Snack Box Challenge. The task involved sowing lettuce seeds in planting boxes, nurturing and caring for them until grew into salad leaves, something simple for the children to grow themselves and eat for their lunch. The project integrated both science and SPHE with the class discussing healthy eating whilst enjoying their new hobby. The class have won a gardening workshop with Woodie’s Budding Gardeners Judge Brian Burke, who will be visiting the class in June. Pictured: St. Colmcille’s Girls’ National Catholic School Senior Infants, Swords celebrating their win.

The St Sylvester’s U15 boys have achieved a first in the Club’s living memory by winning both Football and hurling Féile competitions they competed in this year. In Division 2 football, the team coasted through their games meeting Clontarf (Round 1), OPER (Rd 2), St Vincents (Round 3) before a strong challenge of Templeogue away in the semis to qualify for the final v Castleknock at O’Toole Park.The boys showed the benefit of the hard work throughout the season with an impressive display & winning 4-9 to 1-5. It was a well-deserved Championship win for a talented team that has fight to full strength following a huge number of injuries last year that ruled them out of the top division. No doubt that they’ll be back with a vengeance in the Division 1 league!

In Division 3 hurling, the team welcomed a new coaching team of three from the Syls senior team, Daniel Murphy, Conor Hoyne & Sean Murphy who have worked well with the lads to develop their team dynamic. The boys won all 3 rounds versus Kevins (R1) Whitehall (R2), Skerries Harps (Rd 3) to meet Erins Isle in the semifinals and win 4-14 to 1-6. The final, held at Broomfield was a close game until halftime with a draw 0-6 to 1-3 but the Syls boys rallied and triumphed with the final score 2-12 to 2-4. As is tradition, both teams paraded the winning cups over the bridge from Bridgefield and to the Clubhouse after each win to a delighted membership waiting to congratulate them

Recently Junsa Taekwondo took part in a development tournament in Baldoyle organised by our national governing body , Taekwondo Ireland and hosted by Baldoyle Taekwondo. The tournament was an excellent opportunity for all our students to gain experience and was open to all age groups from 5 year old to seniors. It’s was a great tournament where Junsa had numerous wins and great performance’s but most of all a fun afternoon. Junsa Taekwondo trains in Lusk scout den. For more information on class times contact Master Stuart Russell on 087 7775202 or follow us on Facebook @ Junsa Taekwondo.

We were delighted to finally be able to host the Lusk AC 2021 awards and party night on Friday 6th May at the Shoreline Hotel. Thanks to everyone who attended, to the party organisers, to the Shoreline hotel for looking after us and helping to make it a night to remember.

Congratulations to our 2021 Award winners: Fit4Life Award - Paul Kelly - Top Juvenile Female Field Athlete - Ellen Gahan - Top Female Field Athlete - Sarah Derham - Top Juvenile Male Field Athlete - Pádraig Ryan - Top Male Field Athlete - Stephen Fee - Top Juvenile Male Track Athlete - Finn Corcoran - Top Juvenile Female Track Athlete - Kristy Seaton - Most Improved Female Athlete - Una Gaines - Most Improved Male Athlete - Keith Greene - Top Female Road Athlete - Alex Bell - Top Male Road Athlete - Mark Dunne - Juvenile Coach of the Year Female - Orla Smith - Juvenile Coach of the Year Male - Mark Geraghty - Coach of the Year Female – Sheila Bourke - Coach of the Year Male - Dwain Moore - Group of the Year - Post Fit4Life Group - Outstanding Achievement Award - Stephen Brennan - Athlete of the Year - Cara McNally - Club Person of the Year - Aidan McKenna - Club Appreciation Award – Nicole Hodson. During the past month Lusk AC members have taken part in many road races, the Belfast, Boston, Connemara and Limerick marathons, Track and Field events at Santry and Tallaght stadiums, The Templemore AC Throws Festival and Parkrun 5Ks with remarkable success.

We’re delighted to inform you that Lusk United have surpassed the incredible milestone of reaching 1,000 members.At a closer glance the club now consists of the following membership details:

Total members – 1,022 - Juvenile members – 732 - (Female / Male breakdown – 263 (36%): 469 (64%) - Adult active-playing members - 150

Founded in 1969, Lusk United AFC provides an opportunity for the community of Lusk to participate in soccer with well in excess of forty teams now participating in football and associated activities. Outside their core activities, the club has been instrumental in being involved in additional community events in recent years, such as the 24hour football fundraising-match in aid of Pieta House and the continued hosting of the East of Ireland Marathon series.In recent years the clubs growth in girl’s football has been phenomenal, which has been highlighted further with the likes of the club’s partnership with the FAI in delivering a girls only football programme for transition year students from local secondary schools whereby thirteen girls completed the FAI Safeguarding Workshop and the FAI PDP 1 coaching course. They also received some first aid training with St. Johns Ambulance and had a workshop with Jigsaw North Fingal on mental health. Another example of the growth of female participation within the club is as one of the founding members of the ‘Ladies KickFit’ programme – an exemplar of female participation in sports via a FAI & Fingal County Council (Sports Office) partnership.
Congratulations to all involved, a marvellous achievement!

As the COVID challenge in society wanes, Lusk Community Council is focused on delivering a range of strategic initiatives for Lusk. Lusk Vision 2030 is the strategic plan that we commis-sioned and completed in 2021. We are now focused on the delivery of this strategic plan for the town. The Community Council is delighted that Lusk Vision 2030 has received recognition in Eu-rope with its shortlisting in the New European Bauhaus Prizes 2022. The project has been chosen as one of 52 overall finalists out of 1,100 submissions from across the EU. No matter what the outcome of the awards, this international recognition for Lusk Vision 2030 to be shortlisted is a source of great pride for the town and for the Community Council.We have submitted the final Lusk Vision 2030 plan to Fingal County Council for the review of the Fingal Development Plan as we seek to embed the Lusk Vision 2030 priorities in the Fingal Development Plan 2023-2029. In line with the principles of “Town Centre First”, the construction of the Lusk Community Cultural Centre represents the single largest community led investment in the town to date. As the con-struction project is nearing completion, we are focused on opening up of the Cultural Centre with a very special exhibition, staffing arrangements for the new community facility and the creation of a community campus composed of the Cottage Community Centre, Saint Macullins Centre and the Cultural Centre in the heart of the town. We see the Cultural Centre as a phase 1 project on the Katie Hunt’s site. The Community Council and Fingal County Council have received grant ap-proval for €48,600 under the Town & Village Renewal Scheme for the design of phase 2 for the site. This phase 2 project represents a very significant workload that we are now beginning and look forward to bringing forward new phase 2 proposals in line with our Lusk Vision 2030 strate-gic plan by the end of 2022.

The consultation period for the Fingal Development Plan 2023 – 2029 has now closed. Lusk Action Group along with other community organisations and local residents made submissions on the plan. We thank the members of our community who took the time to make submissions. We all strive to improve our town. Lusk Action Group has recently been made aware of building quality issues being experienced by homeowners in The Forge estate. Mindful of the fact that the same developer responsible for the delivery of this estate is now looking for planning permission from An Bord Pleanála for another very large estate within Lusk, we intend to investigate these issues, document them, and present them to the developer and relevant authorities and push for any necessary remediation to be undertaken without delay. If you are experiencing any building quality issues in this estate, please contact us at the email address below. Summer is fast approaching and it’s always a busy time in Lusk with many people enjoying the outdoors. We ask that the local environment is kept to the fore of people’s minds during this time and if you encounter litter to pick it up and dispose of it in a bin of which there are lots around the village. You might consider a litter picking walk once a week or even once a month. All you need is a bag, a pair of gloves and a litter picker. Half an hour along a patch of your choice makes such a difference to our town. Remember that the Summer Festival is coming up in mid-June. LAG is still looking for sponsorship from local businesses and support from members of the community to help on the day. Please get in touch with us at the email address below if you can donate or help. As always, we are on the lookout for new members of Lusk Action Group. If you have drive, enthusiasm, care about the future of our town and have some time to spare, please consider joining us. You can email us on luskactiongroup@gmail.com.