By Ken Duffy

Swords Tidy Towns hard-working volunteers were out on the Well Road pruning and chopping the overhanging branches and hedging, they also trimmed back the ground vegetation. The area was very overgrown and the low hanging branches and hedging were a hindrance to pedestrians using the footpath. This urgent work needed to be completed before March 1st as this date is the national deadline for this type of work to be completed pre nesting season. Swords Tidy Towns once again took part in the Swords St Patrick’s Day Parade, the theme for the parade this year, was “Going Green”. Once again we held our fund-raising Bucket Collection at the end of the parade and we thank you for your generosity. All donations are ploughed back into the town of Swords to the benefit of its community. We had a sell-out night at our Table Quiz in Peacock’s Bar Rivervalley on Thurs Feb 9th. A big thank you to the management and staff for setting out the room so well and for taking such great care of us on the night. The craic was mighty, our Quiz Master and STT volunteer Noel Cosgrave gave an outstanding performance, and not forgetting our hard working Quiz Night committee, Georgy Hughes, Teresa Cosgrave, Isobel McClean, Billy McClean and Ken Duffy. There were raffle prizes galore thanks to the generosity of local businesses and individuals for which we are very grateful. We would also like to thank all those who came out on the night to support us, we hope you enjoyed the evening as much as we did. The total for our fund-raising quiz was 2,015 euro, a fantastic result. Once again, a big thank you to everyone for your support, all monies raised will benefit our future projects for Swords. The Table Quiz winners on the night were - 1st place (who were very appropriately named) “And In First Place”, the 2ndplace competitors were “The Last Of Us”, and in 3rd place were “Go Leir” meaning – All. Many congratulations to the winners and hard luck to those who didn’t win, and thank you all for supporting us on the night.

The Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Howard Mahony, has opened three public amenities in Swords which represent an investment of €6million in the county capital. They were the first phase of Swords Regional Park in Oldtown, Swords Archaeological Park in Miller’s Glen and Ward River Recreational Hub in Rivervalley. The Mayor was accompanied by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, and the Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, AnnMarie Farrelly, at the first two openings and they were then joined by Minister for State at the Department of Transport, Jack Chambers TD, and the Chief Executive of Dublin Airport, Vincent Harrison, at the opening of the Ward River Recreational Hub which was funded by the Council and the Dublin Airport Authority. Speaking afterwards the Mayor said: “The parks and outdoor sports and play facilities we opened today clearly demonstrate Fingal’s continuing commitment to the provision of high-quality open space amenities.” The 20 acre park at Oldtown represents phase one of the Swords Regional Park which will eventually develop into a major new park extending to more than 250 acres along the banks of the Broadmeadow River between Miller’s Glen and Lissenhall and linking to the Estuary stop on the proposed MetroLink. The nine acre Rathbeal Archaeological Park in Miller’s Glen brings to 40% the amount of public open space in Fingal that is located in designated heritage landscapes. Evidence of human activity in the park goes back as far as the early Neolithic period, almost 4,000 years BC. The Ward River Regional Park Recreational Hub is part of the 200 acre Ward River Regional Park and features newly developed grass pitches as well as a Third Generation all-weather sports pitch with innovative LED floodlighting. The new car parking provided as part of the Hub will also benefit general park users and provides a foretaste of the improvements to the park which will be included in the Ward River Regional Park Development Masterplan which will be the subject of public consultation and a planning application later this year. The Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, AnnMarie Farrelly, said: “The opening of these three amenities, in different parts of the town, represents a six million euro investment and shows Fingal County Council’s commitment to ensuring Swords grows sustainably and develops into a well-designed county capital.

Aer Lingus Bowls club is an inclusive club. We welcome all abilities, ages, and genders. Are you interested in trying lawn bowls this Spring/Summer? Do you know someone who might be interested? Would your club, Men’s/Women’s shed, Active Age group, organisations for individuals with additional needs, or school be interested in trying Lawn Bowls? All equipment will be provided for taster sessions. Please contact Des Walsh on 087 0678903/ Sandra McCarthy 0863114540 for further information or send a message on Facebook messenger Aer Lingus Bowls Club. We look forward to welcoming you. You will be assured of a warm welcome.

Our U8 girls had an experience to remember at Parnell Park when they played at half time during the Dublin Camogie v Kilkenny game. Congratulations to the 2015 girls, fresh out of the Academy this year, who took to the field during the half time break at Parnell Park during the Dublin Camogie v Kilkenny match today! Thanks too to their sponsors The View Malahide for their windbreakers & hats keeping them warm! The girls were buzzing after playing Fingallians GAA Club and then meeting their camogie heroes. The Dublin ladies were phenomenal, chatting with the the girls and signing hurls afterwards.

As part of International Women’s Week the Women’s KickFit groups came together in a game at Gannon Park Malahide Utd recently which saw teams from Malahide Utd V Howth Celtic competing in a Women’s KickFit Game on Sunday 5th March. There was plenty of skills on show on the day. The KF programme is to bring women together from 18+ who don’t play on a team and want the fun and craic in an non-competitive way and use the programme as a social event and maybe get involved in their local club.

The following is a run report from two of our visitors on a Saturday recently: “Long before we were ‘runners’ Claire and I had a lovely break in Malahide and often talked about returning. It is a beautiful location and the people are so friendly. Fast forward 6 years and we are both now parkrun addicts and love visiting events throughout the UK and further afield, so when we knew we would be flying to Dublin for the weekend our first thought was Malahide parkrun !This Saturday was also my 200th parkrun and whilst this may not be an ‘official’ parkrun milestone it is definitely a good enough reason to celebrate with a few pints of the black stuff. So the parkrun day arrived and we were very lucky with the weather. Rain and wind was forecast but it held off for the duration of the run. After arriving early (as is our way) we met Martha the run director and a few more of the volunteers before a small warm up and then we were off. We both loved the course and were both happy with our times. And the breakfast at Avoca cafe in the castle topped it off perfectly (don’t forget to show your barcode for a 10% discount).We would like to thank Martha and the team of volunteers, without whom the event would not take place. There were 251 participants today of which 29 were first timers at Malahide including 11 running their very first parkrun. We hope you all enjoyed your run and have now realised that your Saturday mornings will never be the same again. Congratulations - to the 14 runners who recorded course PBs including Alasdair BROWN who was the first runner home in a time of 17:12. First lady home was Niamh MARKHAM in a time of 17:41. Well done both fantastic running.There were plenty of milestone achievements to applaud including: Maciek MICHALOWSKI, Caitríona FINLAY, Dave WOODS, Ian BRENNAN (25 parkruns) & Michelle GRIMES (50 parkruns). Also worthy of mention Finnbarr O’BRIEN who has completed 400 parkruns. Until the next time we come back thank you Malahide parkrun.” David George (A3162129) Claire George (A1777261) - Cardiff parkrun

by Malahide Historical Society

We have heard stories that a local dialect could be heard spoken around Malahide as recently as the 1940s. Here is a most interesting extract of an article from Fingal County Council on the subject.
‘Fingal consists of most of the northernmost five: Balrothery East; Balrothery West; Nethercross; Castleknock Blanchardstown Coolock.Before describing this history, it is important to clarify that the linguistic situation in North Co. Dublin was complicated by the presence of a third language besides Irish and English: Fingallian. Fingallian was a poorly documented local descendant of Middle English, and appears to have originated in the very earliest English spoken by Anglo-Norman settlers in Co. Dublin; in this and other respects it was substantially identical to the Forth and Bargy dialect spoken in the south of Wexford. Despite pressure at first from Irish (from which, like the dialect of Forth and Bargy, it borrowed a number of words; see below), Fingallian survived as a curious, precarious linguistic island in North Co. Dublin until the mid-nineteenth century, when it eventually succumbed to local English. Unfortunately we have so little information on Fingallian that we do not know exactly how far its area of use extended or how this area then contracted. Its name and existing texts suggest it was spoken north of the city in the 1600s and 1700s; its influence is certainly detectable in the nineteenth century English of Oldtown, Co. Dublin, recounted in Patrick Archer’s Humours of Shanwalla (1906) here; remnants of it are perhaps also just noticeable in the twentieth century English of Swords, Lusk, Rush, Skerries, Naul et al. Irish loanwords in Fingallian are of particular interest to us; they must have been borrowed directly from the local Irish dialect then spoken in North Co. Dublin. (We have no direct information on whether or not Fingallian speakers also knew Irish; but given the extensive nature of borrowings from Irish - which mirror the pervasive English we find in the Irish of today - a situation where Fingallian was a minority language surrounded by and under pressure from Irish, and where the two languages were used indifferently by bilingual speakers, seems most likely.)’

Well done to everyone involved at the annual Master Mariner Competition, sponsored by the Irish Institute of Master Mariners.We are enormously proud of our young sea scouts who had an amazing weekend with the Irish Naval Service, National Maritime College of Ireland NMCI RNLI Crosshaven Lifeboat Station Irish Sailing Irish Coast Guard and all the external examiners.What an incredible opportunity to connect with Irelands professional maritime community and consider a career at sea. The next generation of Irelands Master Mariners is looking very bright indeed! An incredible weekend experience for the 22 competitors from across the Country competing in the annual Master Mariner Competition proudly sponsored by the Irish Institute of Master Mariners.The level of nautical skills shown by all competitors was outstanding. Everyone should be very very proud of what they have achieved:
Venture Scouts - Capt.Desmond Fortune ‘Founders Award’ - (1st)- Cormac Eason (267pts) - 9th Port Malahide Sea Scouts - (2nd) - Dan Clohessy (246pts) - 9th Port Malahide Sea Scouts
3rd - Adam Kavanagh (244pts) - 12th Ballykelly Scouts Rover Scouts

Capt.Cian Timmons Memorial Award - (1st) - Óran Ó hIrile (248pts) - 9th Port Malahide Sea Scouts - (2nd) - Evan Banable (235pts) - 9th Port Malahide Sea Scouts - 3rd - Darragh Ryan (213pts) - 1st Wexford New Ross Sea Scouts

Practical Skills - Eoghan Lavelle Cox’ns Award - Dan Clohessy - 9th Port Malahide Sea Scouts.
Congratulations to all those who took part and to their mentors.

Malahide Boules welcomes new participants!The recently established Malahide Boules group is keen to publicise the new boules playing surfaces (known as pistes) at Malahide Castle grounds and the organised playing sessions held there each Tuesday @11:00am and Saturday @ 3:00pm. The playing pistes are located next to the Playground area at Malahide Castle grounds and there is plenty of free parking nearby. We welcome anyone to join us, as there are no specific skills necessary to play the game, but rather just a willingness to try it out. If you would like to buy a set of basic boules (set of 3) these can be purchased for example at the Decathlon store, next to IKEA in Ballymun, or online (https://www.decathlon.ie ). If interested, you can contact us through our website //sites.google.com/view/malahide-boules/home or by email malahideboules@gmail.com,

A Happy Easter to all our members and friends at home and around the world.

At Junsa we have been busy preparing our students for tournaments at home and in Europe. Taekwondo Ireland have been running development training sessions and competitions for our young and up and coming athletes which Junsa has been attending. These development competitions are very important as this gives our younger students the opportunity to set some of their goals and improve there competition skills. We are also preparing our more advanced fighters for European events. We strive to meet everyone’s expectations and help fulfil our students goals.