A packed schedule has been put together for the third annual Our Balbriggan Loves Learning Festival, 2023 which takes place from Monday March 27 to Saturday, April 1. The festival provides an opportunity for a range of groups and services to platform learning opportunities available to local people in Balbriggan and surrounding areas.The Our Balbriggan Loves Learning Festival 2023 celebrates lifelong learning and promotes it through a wide variety of informative, creative and enjoyable activities.These include educational opportunities and workshops in the fields of arts, music and the community. All are welcome.The festival is one of the actions identified in the Our Balbriggan Rejuvenation Programme and was first organised in response to local demand for stronger adult learning opportunities and more information about education and training services available to local people.The Our Balbriggan Rejuvenation Programme is led by Fingal County Council’s Economic, Enterprise, Cultural and Tourism Department and the festival offers both in-person and online events. A Loves Learning Festival section on Balbriggan.ie will operate as a central hub for information on all events as well as for pre-recorded videos with practical learning advice. For a full list of events why not check out balbriggan.ie/loves-learning-festival/Resource providers for the festival include Fingal County Council, Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Education Training Board, Balbriggan Adult Education, Intreo and Empower.Organisers are conscious that learning comes in all shapes and sizes, whether for creatives, aspiring entrepreneurs or those who just want to come along to learn and enjoy.The Our Balbriggan Loves Learning Festival has something for everybody.

We hosted JKS Ireland Open Squad training recently. Everyone from red belt upwards was invited to attend. We covered kata fundamentals and worked with different JKS Ireland instructors to improve our techniques.We also covered kumite drills. These are important for competitions. We also hosted Brown & Black Belt training recently. Everyone who is hoping to take a Black belt grade attended and went through the grading examination syllabus and katas required for the exam.We welcome new members all the time.Our classes are as follows: Tigers (5yrs – 7yrs) Thursday 4pm & Saturday 10am. Juniors Tuesday 6pm and Thursday 5pm. Seniors Tuesday 7pm and Thursday 7pm. The first class to try out is free. Contact Dermot on 087-8073885 for details on how to join our club.Contact us on Facebook: JKS Swords Karate Club or on Instagram: jks_swords_karate_club

Our U8s camogie had a wonderful surprise on the last day in Gormanstown recently ….For their comraderie, team spirit, super smiles and great skills our little super stars were awarded the title ‘GORMANSTON U8 TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT.’ Their coaches and parents were absolutely so proud of them all. They will have a special little opportunity for medals, certs and photos with the plague very soon. Well done all involved and a special thank you to Siobhán McCann of the Fins Minor Camogie Team for coming along to encourage and support the girls.

Also the club is seeking young singers, dancers, musicians, actors or quiz buffs to represent us in some sections of the Dublin Scór na nÓg (Under 17s) competition which takes place on 26th March. Further info from Liam- 086 3814422

St Colmcilles GFC Nursery, “Cilles Cubs” are all back on the pitch, training every Saturday morning at 10.30Am in our grounds at Holybanks. Our nursery caters for all ages, 4years up to U12 years. If you are interested in introducing your children to Gaelic Games through a fun and games why not pop down on Saturday morning. All our mentors are fully trained and Garda vetted. We offer a great opportunity for children to become part of a local sports club, making new friends and to enjoy a great sport. We are also currently looking for new mentors to join our coaching team. Any training required will be provided along with garda vetting. For more info on training / coaching you can contact Cora 0833741305 or Aaron on 0863888944

Fine Gael’s new Local Area Representative for Swords, Luke Corkery, has called on Fingal County Council to prioritise the development of the Dublin Airport ‘Pathfinder’ project, which is set to link Swords to Dublin Airport as part of an improved Active Travel network for the town. Luke Corkery said, “The Dublin Airport Pathfinder project is hugely welcome and long overdue; one of 35 nationwide initiatives announced at the end of 2022 by the Department of Transport that are set to be delivered by local authorities. We in Swords need a cycle link to the Airport. This project will be transformative. The Airport is one of our biggest employers here in Swords and the vast majority of those employees commute to work on a daily basis. Many of them live less than 5km away from the Airport and could easily cycle there rather than depend on bus services or cars, but currently the infrastructure is simply not there. It’s quite dangerous to even attempt to cycle near the Airport. A cycle link to Swords will facilitate vastly improved connectivity, and this will be further complimented by the completion of the Airport and Swords routes under the Bus Connects scheme, as well as the eventual completion of Metro Link. The Pathfinder project will save Swords commuters time and money, with no need to wait for a bus or spend a fare. In addition to the obvious health benefits, this is a green initiative that offers an alternative to those who have no option but to drive.There is a huge opportunity here to provide a new option to Airport commuters, and we can’t afford to prolong this project. Now that €200,000 has been allocated to this specific project as part of the NTA’s Active Travel Allocations for 2023, I am calling on Fingal County Council to urgently identify a suitable route and finally develop an Active Travel link between Swords and the Airport. We need joined-up planning here. There is also a need to identify suitable parking spaces, free of charge, at the Airport. They need to be available in bulk, to cater for the expected demand”, he concluded.

As we leave February and migrate to March you can feel and see Spring is definitely in the air. Its that time of year when nature bursts back into life to pleasure our senses. Birds greet us with their wonderful dawn chorus, the evenings get longer, and Swords Tidy Towns spring into action. Projects that have been hibernating in their winter sleep are awoken as our volunteers crack on with our action plan. Swords Tidy Towns will once again participate in the St Patrick Day Parade this year as we have done for many years pre the Pandemic. As is our tradition we will be having a Pub Bucket Collection after the parade, your donations on the day are needed and are very much appreciated. All monies collected on the day will be pumped back into Swords to keep her looking beautiful. Your help, helps us to fund the enormous amount of work put in by our group over the year. Our Quiz Night in Peacocks Rivervalley was very well attended by our supporters making it a great success. The craic was mighty, a wonderful time was had by all. Our Quiz Master and volunteer Noel Cosgrave played a stormer keeping proceedings light hearted with his usual good humour and banter. I would like to take this opportunity to thank local business and individuals for their generous donations which contributed greatly to the success of the evening. New volunteers are always welcome, you can just turn up on the day, we meet each Saturday at 10.30am in the Colourtrend car park opposite Penny’s, hope to see you there.

One Voice Singers - Swords, the new community singing group based in St Colmcille’s GAA started back recently . New members are welcome to come down and sing! The group welcomes adults of all nationalities, bringing people together with a special emphasis on community integration, diversity, and respect. It’s a great chance to meet new people and learn new songs, promising to be plenty of laughs, entertaining and above all fun. If you would like to sing your heart out, please register online at eventbrite.com/e/one-town-one-voice-singers-swords-tickets-486869137697 or come along to St. Colmcille’s GAA in Swords on each Tuesday at 7.30pm. For more information contact Jacinta at community@fingal.ie The One Voice Singers are supported by Fingal Community Development Office and the One Town One Voice initiative. More information at onetownonevoice.ie.

MALAHIDE United have opened up a considerable gap at the top of the UCFL Premier Division after they beat last season’s runner up VEC FC 3-1 in Terenure recently. A Jordan Briggs penalty and a solo effort from Stephen Cleary gave them a comfortable 2-0 lead at the break, while Karl Sheppard added their third late in the game.VEC bagged a consolation in added time but the day belonged to United who at this time of us going to press sit top of the pile on 30 points from 12 games, AGPFC, who lost to Atletico Malahide 1-0, are joint second with 18 points from 11 games, Harding IF FC, who won 5-1 at home to Rialto, who have 10 games played and Shelbourne AFC who have played 11.

Here we have a selectioHere we have a selection of images of the clearing work to create a meadow of wild flowers while also fencing off an area that will accommodate the native Irish Honey Bee hives that have arrived in recent days. This is in conjunction with the expertise of the Fingal Dublin North Beekeepers Association. This species is unique to Ireland and is is thought to have been brought to the Fingal area first by St Mologa. The area which has been cleared is to host a very large number of wild flowers to help the bees flourish as they are believed to be under threat of extinction at present and many other areas in this country are receiving hives to help preserve the species at present.

Recently the feast day of St. Bridget on 1st of February was marked but there is another female saint whose feast day occurred just two days later, on 3rd of February, for whom there is a Malahide connection.St. Werburgh was an early English royal abbess and was revered for ensuring healthy pregnancies. She was the daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia. Born in AD 650, she renounced the world on the death of her father, retreated to a convent in Ely, England and founded monastic houses over which she presided. On her death she was buried in Hanbury, Staffordshire, but her body was later moved to Chester to place it beyond the reach of marauding Danes and St. Werburgh over time became the patroness of Chester and guardian saint of Chester cathedral. Her memory lives on in the cathedral and in representations in stained glass. Chester had, from pre-Norse times, extensive trading connections with Ireland for corn, hides and fish. In 1176 a charter by King Henry II empowered the Chester City Burgesses to continue to trade with Ireland. Henry II had reserved Malahide for himself and granted Richard Talbot tenancy of Malahide provided he pledged to hold Malahide for the English Crown which the family did for 800 years until the last Lord Talbot, Milo died in 1973. Perhaps it was the traders from Chester who were responsible for the devotion to St. Werburgh in Dublin and the Malahide district or perhaps it was the early Normans.. we don’t know. A street and a church named after St. Werburgh are to be found in Dublin city near Christchurch cathedral but here near Malahide, her name is honoured by a holy well on the Gay Brook stream. Local tradition held that the natural spring well had a cure for sore eyes. A tale associated with St. Werburgh says that she brought five wild geese back to life that had been killed by a servant and as a result the emblem of a goose is associated with her and in the windows of Chester cathedral. In old Gaelic the word for goose is Gé, hence Goose Brook or Gay Brook. We have St. Werburgh’s miracle of the five geese to thank for the name. Our thanks to Malahide Historical Society.