Swords Boxing Club is celebrating an extraordinary achievement after six of its young athletes captured Irish national titles at this year’s Junior and Schools Championships—an exceptional return from just seven entrants.
In a display of skill, determination, and depth of talent, Danielle Smithers, Rhys Kinsella, Victoria Nic An Bhaird, Sarah Lilly Byrne, Rian Branagan, and Evan Prunty each emerged victorious in their respective divisions, marking one of the most successful campaigns in the club’s history.
The near-clean sweep underscores the strength of the Swords club’s development system, with coaches and supporters praising not only the results but also the discipline and commitment shown by the fighters in the lead-up to the championships.
“To come away with six national champions from seven boxers is something special,” a club representative said. “It reflects the hard work these young athletes put in every week, as well as the dedication of our coaching team and the support from families and the local community.”
Each of the six champions demonstrated composure and technical excellence throughout the competition, navigating tough draws to reach the top of the podium with all six claiming unanimous decision victories in their final. Their success highlights Swords Boxing Club as a growing force in Irish amateur boxing, particularly at underage level.
With momentum firmly on their side, Swords Boxing Club now looks ahead to the upcoming four nations championship (this June in Scotland), national cadet championships, and European championships in Turkey, confident that this latest triumph is a sign of even greater achievements to come.
Swords locals will have the opportunity to see what is on offer from an array of artisan producers on June 7th called “Magic of Beauty and Creativity | Bewitch”.
Taking place at Bewitch Your Beauty & Kortell House of Beauty in Swords from 11am 5pm the artisan and beauty event will bring together women from the Swords and wider Dublin area who create products with their own hands — including handmade items, jewellery, artwork, candles, home baking, and other unique creations.
The goal of the event is to support local makers, small businesses, and women-led creativity, while creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere for the community.
Alongside the artisan market, the event will also include: beauty consultations; professional photography; raffle prizes and gifts; beauty and haircare products all in a friendly and social atmosphere
The event is organised within the Russian-speaking community in Dublin, but it is open to everyone.
Ryan Cowzer took gold at 54kg in the Neilstown Box Cup, putting in three strong performances and finishing the final with a first-round stoppage.
Mark Quinn claimed gold at 55kg after an exciting, hard-fought final.
Senan Fox earned silver, battling his way to the final and losing a very close decision to a quality opponent.
Christopher Lawrence secured silver after a strong semi-final win, but was unable to contest the final due to family circumstances.
Ruby Skelly showed real dedication to make 48kg, and with no opponent in her division, was awarded gold.
A strong weekend overall, finishing with 3 golds and 2 silvers.
Rush Community Council has announced a new student bursary to support eligible students from the Rush electoral district who are pursuing third-level studies in journalism, photography and media-related fields.
The bursary is funded through remaining funds associated with Rush Community News, which is no longer in publication. Rush Community Council has approved the use of these funds to continue supporting education and the development of community-focused media skills.
The bursary is open to students residing in the Rush electoral district who are entering their second year or above of an eligible course.
Commenting on the launch, Erin Cartlidge, Chairperson of Rush Community Council, said:“This bursary has been established to ensure that the remaining funds from Rush Community News are used in a way that supports education and recognises the importance of media and communication skills within our community.”
Full details of the application process will be announced shortly.
For further information, please contact Rush Community Council at manager@rushcoco.ie
Monday April 27th: The sun shone for the first RUSH FESTIVAL OF WRITING, which took place on Saturday, April 25th and saw some of the country’s best writers descend on the seaside town for a day of conversations and workshops.
The day began with two workshops for children at the beautiful Rush Library, which was formerly the town’s 18th century church, where former Children’s Laureate na nÓg Niamh Sharkey held a workshop based around her latest picture book Penguin TV before encouraging attendees to take to the floor and share their own drawings by joining her infamous giant ‘doodle’.
Alan Nolan brought his unique energy to his Draw Your Own Superhero workshop with a hilarious presentation on his own work, as well as talking readers and writers aged 8-12 on how to design their own comic book creations.
The day continued at the nearby festival hub at Rush Community Centre, where festival co-founder Lauren Murphy quizzed celebrated authors Sinéad Gleeson and Anna Carey on their creative practices in an illuminating conversation about how and why they write - as well as practical advice on how to get your work published. On a similar theme, acclaimed author Belinda McKeon led a two-hour afternoon workshop for adults on Creative Writing, with one attendee saying it was “particularly beneficial” for developing character and story.
At The Strand Bar & Restaurant, Irish cultural icon and raconteur Eamon Carr regaled a captive audience in an enthralling conversation led by journalist Pat Carty, which took in his work as a poet, songwriter and journalist. The Horslips man also shared some amusing stories about his first time in Rush many years ago!
The evening events took place in front of capacity crowds at the Millbank Theatre, where at 5pm crime fiction writers Catherine Ryan Howard and Andrea Mara proved as entertaining in conversation as they are in the written form. The world-beating duo discussed the pros and cons of the big-budget TV adaptations of their work, how they stumbled upon the genre of crime fiction, their sources of inspiration and more in a lively discussion led by Sinéad Cuddihy of Tired Mammy Book Club.
Finally, following a short speech by Mayor of Fingal Cllr. Tom O’Leary, who spoke of the importance of the creative arts and the particular abundance of talent in North County Dublin, the festival’s headline event began at 8pm with one of Ireland’s greatest writers, John Banville in conversation with author Kevin Curran.
Their hugely entertaining discussion was both profound, enlightening and humorous as Mr. Banville noted the importance of imagination in writing, his experience of winning the Man Booker Prize - noting how “all prizes are just like the big red toy fire engine you get at Christmas” - and how all of his books are “reserved sins”, while playfully threatening to direct the hordes of tourists that have descended upon his locality in Howth towards Rush.
The Rush Multipurpose & Youth Facility have received new sensory kits from Fingal which is available to use in our facility! The following is available:
A pop-up tent that can be placed in a quiet area, to be used as needed by a child seeking a calm and comforting space.
A sign-in sheet will be provided for individuals to complete when borrowing the kit, to help us track usage and ensure it remains accessible to all. The sensory kit will remain in the facility at all times and returned to reception after use.
A backpack containing a variety of sensory toys and lights.
Portmarnock Community School had its annual Sports awards Ceremony on Thursday 14th May. The guest speaker was Ciara Peelo who is an Olympian, sports commentator and coach. She spoke to our students of the importance of trying out different sports as a young athlete, sticking to it to build resilience and believing in yourself.
The sports awards ceremony is an annual event and it is to recognise the positive impact that sports can have on a young person’s life, which we all value and wish to acknowledge here in PCS. The awards ceremony is a celebration for all our students who participate in sports throughout the year - not just the athletes receiving awards.
Amid sunshine and showers Malahide Lions Club had a fantastic 13th Malahide Classic & Vintage Motor Show on Sunday 17th May at Grand Hotel Malahide with good crowds, and a simply glorious collection of cars.
Car makes displayed included Audi: Austin: BMW: Caterham: Chevrolet: Daimler: Fiat: Ford: Jaguar: Jeep: Jensen: Lotus: Mazda: Mercedes: MG: Morris: Nissa: NSU: Porsche: Renault: Riley: Rolls Royce: Rover: Saab: Sunbeam: Toyota: Triumph: TVR and Volkswagen.
Admission was €10 with entire proceeds going to charities including Barnardo’s childrens’ charity and Capuchin Day Centre for Homeless. Children under 16 were free and families were catered for with ice cream and a games tent.
The hotel’s state-of-the-art lecture theatre had motoring nostalgia videos running all day and drew big interest, especially when the showers came.
Awards were made for the best kept and most attractive cars, and the judges had a difficult time deciding on worthy contenders for the Carole Nash Insurance trophies.
After much debate and deliberation, the ‘Car of The Show’ was declared to be the immaculate Renault 5 GT Turbo, restoration of which was completed by the family of late Stephen Malone in his memory. Many congratulations to Gillian, Ted and Emma.
‘Runner-Up Car of the Show’ was the beautiful 1973 Ford Mercury Cougar of Robert Campbell all the way from Belfast.
The drivers themselves get to vote too, for ‘My Dream Car’ and the winner was the magnificent 1986 Chevrolet Camaro of Kacper Duzewski.
Well done to all the car owners who joined us yesterday. The quality and variety on show was exceptional.
Our thanks go to judges Geraldine Herbert, motoring editor with Sunday Independent, to rally and classic car veteran Rory Dooley and Amanda O’Reilly of our sponsors Carole Nash Insurance Ireland and whose sponsorship helps ensure a safe and quality event.
As always we are indebted to the fantastic team at Grand Hotel Malahide who provide us with excellent all-weather facilities (which were especially welcome during the showers), great catering and service with a smile
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all the drivers and Vespa scooters owners, the bikers, the owners of the huge American fire engine and the hundreds and hundreds of spectators who enjoyed the day and helped raise significant amounts for Barnardos childrens’ charity and Capuchin Day Centre for Homeless as well as Lions charities.
Malahide Lions Club
We Irish love our cows as evidenced in our language. The Irish word for road is bo-thar (cow-way), coin is bo-nn (replacing the cow as currency) and even inflation is bo-ilsciú (a lot of cows!) Many cultures revere cattle, it shows how mixed up our histories are. How ‘global’ humans have always been.
These days though, our cows are killing us, but we’re having difficulty adjusting. Our brains are chronologically challenged. Some of us have met a great grandparent and others might meet a great grandchild but beyond that is hard for us to imagine. It may be our grandchild’s grandchild that will suffer most from our choices today?
They will struggle for food, water and somewhere to live as the whole world competes for the last few habitable areas. The world’s forests will have died due to rising temperatures and the oceans will be too acidic for life (we crossed that Global boundary last November!).
The longer we delay in addressing climate change, the longer the world will suffer before the planet starts to come back but we’re looking at hundreds or maybe thousands of years.
Our illogical cow-love is not serving us. The politicians who stand ‘behind’ the Meat and Dairy industry, making it the exception to every attempt to reduce carbon, methane and nitrogen, are not doing the farmers, Ireland or the world any favours. They need to stand ‘in front’ of the farmers and be the leaders that the role of TD requires.
It’s not easy being a politician and, as we know throughout history, good leaders are rarely thanked, which is why, as the people, we must support them. Let politicians know that we stand with them in decisions to reduce our emissions.
No one likes to hear that the party is over and it’s time to tidy up, but the world is in a mess and we don’t have any other bóthán to go to!
Tidy Towns Malahide supports Sustainable Development Goal No. 13 Climate Action
