The Portmarnock-Malahide branch of Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind will be hosting a local fundraiser for the charity on Saturday, 19th August. Supporters of the charity are invited to take part in the fundraiser, which will take place at the Par 3 course at Malahide Castle Sports & Leisure Hub. The Par 3 fundraiser is an annual event, now in its third year, and golfers of all abilities are very welcome to register to take part. Registration costs €20 per person and teams can consist of 2, 3 or 4 players. “We are delighted to be returning to the Sports & Leisure Hub again this year, and we’re very grateful to manager Mick Breen for all of his help and support for the third year running,” said Pat Harney, Chair of the Portmarnock-Malahide branch of IGDB. “Whether you’re a committed golfer or would just like to have some fun with your team and support Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, we would love to see you on the day!” For non-golfers who would like to support the event, raffle tickets can also be bought online at a cost of €5 each. Two raffle tickets are also included with each golf registration. There will be plenty of prizes available both through the raffle and for golfers, and Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind will have a stand outside the Sports & Leisure Hub on the day, where raffle tickets and other merchandise will be available to buy. You might even meet a Guide Dog, Assistance Dog, Ambassador Dog, or Puppy in Training when you visit! To register to play and select your tee time, or buy some raffle tickets, go to igd-portmarnock-malahide.myshopify.com.

A super adventure for the Amikokenda Beavers who all headed out to sea recently! We challenged all our youth members to embrace the spirit of adventure, teamwork and seamanship to get out and reach the Malahide Safe Water Buoy; the recognised marker that you have left the Malahide channel and have reached the Irish Sea! Say hello to Ireland’s future mariners!

While the summer rolls on training and competing still continues. While the beginner and intermediate groups are taking a short break the advanced group will keep training. At Junsa we believe that certain age groups need to rest and recover from a busy schedule our older students need their Taekwondo ambitions fulfilled, so that’s what we do.

Junsa will be actively recruiting new and old students come the end of August. If you have ambitions to keep fit, become an athlete or just want to join a taekwondo club that can offer you all the dynamics of our wonderful club. Please come and see us.

The Lusk AC club were delighted to hold a very successful inaugural Lusk Summer Festival 5k at Rogerstown Park recently. It was a challenging route but the stunning views at the top made it worthwhile. Our next race is the 7k Man O’War Round at 7pm on Thursday 17th August. Register at myrunresults.com. Congratulations to our young athletes who competed at the Nationals in July. They now get to take a well deserved break in August. The Dublin Marathon race series is now well underway. Well done to all who have taken part in the first two races and thanks to all club members who have volunteered at those events. The Frank Duffy 10 mile is next in the series on Saturday 19th August in Phoenix Park. These races are a great way to build up your distances in the lead up to the Dublin Marathon.

Lusk Heritage Group are planning a Storytelling night in Murrays, the Square, Lusk for Friday 8 th
September. The format will be similar to their previous very successful evening, with a range of well known people, stories, memories and local history. We will give more details of speakers and topics in the September issue of Lusk Local. A big turnout is expected if their last storytelling night is anything to go by, so mark Friday 8th September into your diary and watch out for further details. You can also keep up with Lusk Heritage news by checking out their Lusk Heritage Group Facebook page. They recently reported on the funeral ceremony of Sir Reginald Barnewall and his wife Maureen whose last wish was to be transported all the way from Australia to be buried in Curraha, a little graveyard in County Meath. The Tombstone of his ancestor, Christopher Barnewall, is in the tower of Lusk Church since 1575. At the memorial ceremony in Curraha Aidan Arnold, chairman of the Lusk Heritage Group, presented Joseph Barnewall, the present head of the Barnewall family worldwide, with a copy of his forthcoming book Barnewall de Berneval, 800 Years a Norman-Irish Family. No date is fixed yet for publication but it is the final stages of checking before going to print.

Lusk AFT were delighted to be chosen along with AsIAm as a beneficiary of some of the monies raised by Lusk United during their fantastic 24-hour football fundraiser in June. Lusk AFT committee and Friends of Lusk AFT were there to raise awareness and provide information to the many club members and supporters who stopped by. It was great to see supports for our autistic members at the event with the club providing a lovely Quiet Area. After welcoming Adam Harris of AsIAm to Lusk, Lusk United Chairperson Niall McGuirk signed the Autism Champions commitment making Lusk United the latest club in Lusk to join the journey to become Autism Champions. Adam then headed over to The Twisted Clipper to be interviewed by hosts Pierce Keegan and Stephen Daly for a (Between Cuts) podcast on Autism – available on Spotify. A massive thank you to the Lusk United 24-hour fundraising committee and club for their generosity and welcome. Lusk Summer Festival proved to be another fabulous day out and Lusk AFT
were there again this year to provide a social story, information stand and a Quiet Area. We were delighted to be able to offer kids and teens a quiet space to relax away from all the excitement and stimulation of the festival. The committee are grateful to Lusk Bridge Club for their very generous donation in May which will be used to buy a gazebo for events like the Summer Festival. A big shout out to Rush and Lusk Educate Together PGTA who gave a presentation at the incoming Junior infants’ parents evening on becoming an autism-friendly association and the importance of making those small changes that can make a big difference to autistic pupils, staff and parents/guardians. Finally, please help us to raise awareness of autism by following us on our new FB page Lusk Autism Friendly Town. For more information on Lusk AFT email Lusk Community Network at info@lovelusk.ie . LCN are kindly facilitating us until we set up our new email address. We will keep you posted!

The Lusk ladies attended the ICA annual garden Party which was held in An Grianan an on the 7th July. It was a wonderful day with lots of beautiful style, a scrumptious lunch, fine music, a stylish fashion show,and to top it all, Teresa Killoran from Lusk was presented with first prize when she was voted best dressed lady of the day. Recently also Lusk ICA participated in the Flavours of Fingal Horticultural competitions, We are delighted to say we were awarded prizes for our scones and tarts and displayed centrepieces for the picnic table

The Lusk Summer Festival 2023 took place on June 24th and was a huge success. with an estimated attendance of over 8000 people. Lusk Action Group is immensely grateful to the Lusk community, the organizing committee, Fingal County Council, and the Progressive Credit Union for their support. The recently released CSO report places the population of Lusk at nearly 11,000 and nearly 8,000 in the town itself. This has grown even since the census was taken. Responding to the continuous growth of the town, Declan Ryan, the new Town Regeneration Officer from Fingal County Council gave a presentation to 11 Community Pillars/Groups who are nominated representatives on the Lusk Vision 2030. The message from the presentation was to adopt a ‘Town Centre First’ approach policy for Lusk. The Town Centre First policy aims to create town centres that function as viable, vibrant and attractive locations for people to live, work and visit, while also functioning as the service(s), social, cultural and recreational hub for the local community.Further, it explains that the Town Centre First approach vision will be coordinated through policies, actions and cross-government support that puts the Town Centre of Lusk at the heart of decision-making through which funding will be leveraged to deliver on actions from the various pillars with representation from the Community. Some of the immediate challenges facing Lusk include lack of vibrancy in the town centres, dwindling employment opportunities, out of town/online shopping, poor pedestrian/cycling access, lack of parking, limited access to green spaces and no social amenities, especially for young people. However, the town is projected for various opportunities to look forward to in the Lusk Vision 2030, like climate change adaptation of the city, digital transformation & remote working, demographic change, experience-led blend of retail, and regeneration of public spaces for modern use. Every town is unique, with unique strengths, the Town Centre First policy creates the perfect platform for community ownership of Lusk. Please consider taking on active roles in the community Pillars of the Lusk Vision 2030.

Cllr Rob O’Donoghue has welcomed the inaugural meeting of the Community Pillar of the Town Centre First scheme in Lusk this month. The Town Centre First policy aims to create town centres that function as viable, vibrant and attractive locations for people to live, work and visit, while also functioning as the service, social, cultural and recreational hub for the local community. The Town Centre First scheme will build on the Lusk Vision 2030 document produced by Lusk Community Council to aid in the regeneration of public spaces, improve parking, access to amenities and green space and seek to improve the vibrancy of Lusk town centre. To facilitate this, a consultant will shortly be appointed to produce to add to the recommendations of the Lusk Vision 2030 across three pillar groups, the Community Pillar, the Business Pillar and the Public Realm Pillar. These documents, which will form a Lusk Town Plan, will allow Lusk to seek funding for funding under schemes such as the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund and the Town and Villages Scheme. The Community Pillar will have the objective to allow for the collaboration of Community groups in Lusk, with FCC to support the building of the structures and capacity to implement projects identified in the Lusk Town Plan.

Speaking at the inaugural meeting Cllr O’Donoghue stated, “There are 11 community groups, across all ages and demographics that have agreed to join the Community Pillar which I am proud to be the Chair of. There are many excellent community groups in the town whose goals are to bring improvements to Lusk and I am excited to see how this committee can contribute to the positive development of Lusk Town Centre.”

What a successful May and June for the Balbriggan Branch of Guide Dogs. We are delighted to say that between our merchandise stand on Guide Dog Day the 26th May in the magnificent Millfield
Shopping Centre, Balbriggan and also on SuperValu, Balbriggan on 27th May, our branch raised a truly wonderful fundraising total of €1,433.78. Skerries Community College also organised a sponsored dog walk for Guide Dog day on the 26th May where the teachers and students walked and raised a wonderful €330 in aid of Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. We also attended Summerfest festival on the 4th June, there was sunshine and smiles all around and we are delighted to say, we actually raised €337.70. On our Guide Dog funding page we also raised €355 throughout the month of May, a massive thank you to Ms Reilly and also Ms O’Neill’s class at Scoil Chormaic CNS who raised €320 of that for our Branch. We also want to say a massively big thank you to those who supported us and continue to do so. We appreciate it. There will be more events coming up over the following months, so make sure to keep an eye on our social media pages and feel free to contact us if you would like to volunteer or help out. We have a request for an old usable iPhone if anyone has one they would kindly like to donate to the Balbriggan/North County Dublin Branch. We currently have an iPhone 5 but are looking for an upgrade, preferably sim free. This is used for events which is in conjunction with the Sum Up machine, which makes it possible to tap your card at our own merchandise stands. If you have an old iPhone you would like to donate to us, you can contact us through our own Facebook page at Balbriggan Branch of Guide Dogs or indeed call us or text us on 085 7663107. If you are interested in volunteering with us please feel free to contact our Balbriggan/North County Dublin Branch of Irish Guide Dogs by phone/text 085 7663107, email us at GuideDogsBalbriggan@gmail.com or find us on Facebook at Balbriggan Branch of Guide Dogs.