Lusk AC were there in huge numbers on the last Sunday in January at the Raheny 5 mile with 70 club members among the 3,800 taking part in the iconic road race. Two weeks later, a smaller group travelled to Co Meath for the Trim 10 mile. It was then on to Co Kildare for one of the toughest of challenges. The Donadea 50k is not for the faint hearted and is 10 laps of a 5k route in the forest. Congratulations to Annette Foy, Peter Doyle and Sinead Sharkey for whom the high training mileage paid off as they all came through with flying colours. There has been Indoor action on most weekends so far this year and it was brilliant to see our Men’s team reaching the final of the club league for the first time in the club’s history. A number of our athletes are trying out new events for the first time and have really enjoyed the experience. The Dublin Juvenile Indoor Championships Day 3 took place in the National Indoor Arena, Blanchardstown. This was day three of five scheduled days of competition. The first event kicked off at 10am with the 60m hurdles, preceded by 60m and field events. All our athletes from the youngest U9 to the U14 were fantastic; some competing for the first time. We had great support and assistance from the parents and coaches who helped make the day run smoothly. Over 1300 children took part in competition that day. Our Fit4Youth programme has been very popular and we welcome any new members. The Lusk 4 mile is the club’s main fundraiser of the year and takes place at 3pm on Sunday 5th March. It’s always a great event so if you’re not running come out to cheer the runners and walkers along. Juvenile races take place before the adult race.

The long evenings aren’t far away and all of teams have been training hard since the start of the year in anticipation of the return of football, hurling and camogie matches. Best of luck to all our teams as they set out on their 2023 season. All support is welcome at our fixtures. Details on dates, venues and times of home fixtures can be viewed on our website at roundtowerslusk.ie

Club Planning Programme – Following on from our 2013-2018 and 2018-2023 strategies, we have formally entered into the GAA’s Club Planning Programme. This programme has aided over 1,000 clubs since its inception in 2008 to develop strategic plans. Our strategic plan will set out our hopes, ambitions and challenges on and off the pitch for the next five years.. Nursery – Come down and join us for fun, games, hurling, camogie and football at our nursery for 4- 7 year old boys and girls every Saturday from 11am to noon. Registration is from 10.45am. LGFA –Ladies Gaelic Football team including picture taken in an amazing event in Cahir in Co Tipperary. All new players are welcome to join the many juvenile and adult teams in our Ladies Gaelic Football Section - U8, U10, U12, U13, U14, U16, Minor, Adult Ladies (First Team and Second Team). Our Gaelic4Mothers & Others initiative sees women playing Ladies Gaelic Football in a fun, non- competitive and social environment. If you or someone you know is interested in playing this year, please call into the clubhouse any evening or drop us an email roundtowerslusk.office@gmail.com. Finally, congratulations to Sarah O’Neill and Bronagh Neary who represented the club at the Dublin Club Stars games in DCU on Sunday 11 February.Lotto – Our Weekly Lotto is edging towards €8,000. This is a crucial fundraiser for the club and if interested you can play our Lotto here on klubfunder.com/Clubs/Round_Towers_Lusk/lotto. The Lotto o draw takes place in the clubhouse at 9pm every Thursday. Many thanks for your continued support for our club - and good luck.
Seachtain na Gaeilge – To celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge Cloigtithe Lusca we will be hosting a Pop-up Gaeltacht each Saturday up to the final day which is the 17th March 2023. This is an excellent opportunity for Lusk to practice the cupla focal in the run-up to the big day! Please do visit our GAA Round Towers Lusk club website. Entertainment – The TAP Bar in GAA club in Lusk has got some fantastic events coming over the month and would be delighted to see you there and enjoy some Live music. - 11th March – Totally 80’s Band – All the best 80’s music starts after 8.30pm - 18th March – Pat Gaffney – Great American Culture -25th March – The Macks – Trad Music- 1st April – Cliché – All of the best music songs. Please visit our club website on linktr.ee/roundtowerlusk or call in and check our club bar for a refreshment also open for bookings including family events and parties.

Lusk Tidy Towns Association wish to say thank you to Fingal County Council for power washing the Square area and for upgrading the flower bed on the Main Street and for erecting a sign for the Balrothery Union Graveyard. It is a comfort to see these improvements working to enhance our community. Thank you to the trainees and staff of EVE Plantmarket for their Annual Litter picking around Lusk. This is very much appreciated by all. Thank you for your support and remember please ‘KEEP LUSK TIDY.’

Our Drama group had great success when they performed A Charming Affair in the Wicklow Drama Festival with one of the cast receiving a Merit Award for her performance as the maid. The group also won Best Costume, the Adjudicator Award and Best ICA sketch. It was a wonderful achievement as it was their first time performing in public. A big thanks to our director Alma Farrell and Mary Hagan for their support and encouragement along the way.

The Lusk Heritage Group are planning what should be an interesting Story Telling evening for Thursday 16th March to celebrate St Patricks weekend. They have a number of people lined up to share stories, poems and reminiscences about the village and its surroundings. So remember the
date is Thursday 16th March, the place is Private Room in Murrays of Lusk and the time is 8.00 pm. You don’t have to be a third generation long standing resident of Lusk to enjoy the evening. Newcomers, visitors and total strangers are all welcome to come together and do what Irish people are famous for, - telling their stories and sharing an evening together. It sounds like the perfect way to start your St Patrick’s weekend celebrations. The heritage group recently came across these two beautiful old pictures of Lusk. They are from the Irish Capuchin Franciscan Archives. The picture with the old car (late 1930s registration) was taken in 1940, while the picture with the woman and two children was taken 15 years later in 1955. The children have been identified as Joe Hickey from Cork and the late David McDonald who lived in Kells. Both of them were brought up together in Lusk and had very happy memories of their childhood there. But can anyone identify the woman in the picture? Its 1955, with her apron and shopping bag, she looks like she was heading to or from Katie Hunts shop and coming from the Jack Browne side when the photo was taken.

It is lovely to welcome spring and we would like to say a huge thank you to Lusk Community Cleaning Group for their continued hard work to get our town looking well. They are always looking for new members and it is a great little community to get involved with, so get in touch with us and we’ll send you their direction! After long campaigning for it, we were delighted to finally see the installation of bollards and changes to the road and footpath at Rush and Lusk Educate Together and Lusk Community College, under the “Safe Routes to School” funding by Fingal County Council. We would like to thank our committee member Cllr Rob O’Donoghue for all his representation regarding this. The continued power cuts have plagued us all over the last year and a half. Over this time, we have engaged with all our public representatives on this matter, and we have received very unsatisfactory responses from ESB Networks. We have logged our official complaint, which is the first step we need to officially take. We would urge everyone to email esbnetworks.complaints@esb.ie and from there we will escalate this issue as far as we need to in order to have this issue fully and permanently resolved.We are planning our 2023 Lusk Summer Festival! After the huge success of last year’s event, we are really excited to get this up and running again. It is a massive undertaking and we have a great organising committee but we really need new members to help spread the workload. So please consider joining us. It’s hard work for a couple of months but great fun and so worthwhile! Put the date in your diary! Saturday 24th June. We will be having our Annual General Meeting on Monday 6th March in Lusk National School (stage). All are welcome to attend. We are looking for new members. We welcome people of all nationalities –our young people, older people, women and men. We are proud to have a diverse committee. So if you have vision and enthusiasm or if you have a particular skill set that may be useful (or even if you don’t!) please get in touch with us. We are proud of our achievements and the change that we have been a catalyst to over the last three years. It takes committed people to make that happen. But there is so much more to do. We wish you all a very happy St Patrick’s Day! Enjoy the Celebrations!

At the Area Operations Meeting Councillor Rob O’Donoghue warmly welcomed the inclusion of funding to be spent on roads, footpaths and parks infrastructure in the coming calendar year in the Lusk area. He commented, ‘I am delighted with that the works that have been included and will be pushing for other areas in the town that need attention to be considered for upgrade through future works programmes and other funding streams.’ Works listed under the 2023 Programme of Works include footpath upgrades at Orlynn Park, road resurfacing at Chapel Green, further drainage works on Hands Lane, a signalised pedestrian crossing at the Dublin Road Roundabout, the installation of additional footpaths through the Orlynn Park and Chapel Farm Green Spaces, access from Ministers Park to Hands Lane as well as tree planting/pollinator planting as per the biodiversity town plan. Last month also brought to conclusion the drafting of the Development Plan 2023 – 2029 which will come into effect in early March. Cllr O’Donoghue stated ‘following a large volume of work from Community Organisations in Lusk to prevent unchecked re-zonings of land at the last round of the Development Plan, Lusk will get to develop sustainably over the course of the forthcoming Development Plan. I look forward to pushing initiatives such as the Lusk 2030 Vision in the remainder of this Council term.’

St Pats were ‘CLUB OF THE TOURNAMENT’ and their U8 boys ‘TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT’ at Gormanstown indoor hurling and camogie 2023. 30 plus clubs across Dublin, Meath & Louth, and 160 teams and 1900 players all took part in the 2023 Gormanstown indoor hurling & camogie tournament over the winter break. We had a hugely successful 5 weeks with boys and girls team from U8s-U11s representing the green and black. Well done to all the boys and girls teams. Everyone was was incredible. All the players and coaches over the past 5 weeks contributed to St Pats winning the 2023 Club of the Tournament. Special mentions to our unbeaten U8 girls (4 wins & 1 draw).The U10 girls who had two teams in the tournament with 5 players from the U9 team also playing a year above. Our U10 Boys who went unbeaten (3 wins & 2 draws). And last but not least, our U8 Boys who won the TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT for 2023. Congratulations to all the teams who represented the club.

Donabate Parish Hall has a variety of classes & activities & events taking place during the week. The Montessori to the rear of the building runs every morning, classes range from Wellness to Weights, from Youth Drama for to Irish Dance by day and Cards to Clubs by night. During mid term break there were additional meet ups by the group Egg Heads for to help young people needing support and they were very successful. In late February a very special event was held in the Parish Hall the screening of “Angel” 1982 Stephen Rea’s very first film - more of the night & pics in the next edition of Community Local. This month March we have all things Irish with Irish Dance & Traditional Music celebrating our culture & traditions. The Donabate Portrane Drama Society will be putting on a production in late April early May - not to be missed always great! If you need further information or wish to make a booking at the Parish Hall please contact: Bernie on 01 8434574.

Yes some great walks have taken place in the last few months and a few more are planned - a big thanks to Des, Audrey & Carolyn. In January we did the Drogheda Train Station to Oldbridge House and back a fantastic rampart walk .In February we returned to Howth and did the Old Tramline and part of the summit & Cliff Walk. In March we intend doing the cliff walk from Rush to Loughshinny on Saturday 25th March. In April we hope to go on the Pidgeon House Walk from Sandymount out to the lighthouse on Saturday 22nd April. We try to go by public transport generally train and have a meal after the walks. All people on the walks take personal responsibility for themselves and must have a reasonable level of fitness and wear proper attire for the walks. The aim is to keep active-walking and have some craic on the way! Contact Des on 087 7846813 or Carolyn on 087 9284307