Article By Ken Duffy

Once again our hard working volunteers who are out in all weathers year in year out have been justifiably rewarded for their efforts. On Friday 28th Oct we attended the National Tidy Towns Awards Ceremony in the RDS Ballsbridge where we were awarded a National Silver Medal in our category. This makes five National Silver Medals in a row, as our member Gerry Brennan remarked afterwards, if we win another Silver next year, we will equal the Dubs six in a row, what an achievement that would be. The presentation of our award will most likely take place early in the new year in Trim as they were the regional winners. As I have written many times in the past, our success is down to a collaborative effort with Fingal County Council, in particular with the hard-working lads in their Operations Department who we work hand and glove with. Swords Tidy Towns have linked up with other Swords based organisations in our ongoing efforts to work with other like-minded groups to make Swords the best it can be, to help it achieve its true potential. No man or group is an island, when we collaborate together with determination and goodwill with a common goal, its amazing what can be achieved. New volunteers are always needed and very welcome, whatever your skillset it will be put to good use. Donations are also much needed and very welcome to help continue our great work which can be seen all around Swords town centre. We have come a long way since the 2003 Irish Business Against Litter report which designated Swords the 3rd dirtiest town in Ireland. With your help and backing we will continue to make strides in making our town the very best it can be. You can contact us by email at swordstidytowns@gmail.com.

All tickets sold go back to the club. €10 a ticket. Please support for a chance to win some fantastic prizes and help raise funds for your Club.

St Cronan’s Junior National school is preparing to celebrate 50 years this year. The school was established in 1972 and while the building on the Brackenstown Road did not open until 1974, the school took in its first class into temporary accommodation on North Street 50 years ago.The school has been led over the years by wonderful principals, Mrs Garvey, Anne McMahon, Brigid Manton and Edel Moloney and is now in the capable hands of Edel Blake. This year of celebration is a chance for our community to remember the wonderful work and dedication of the leaders and staff who went before us and who laid the foundations of the great school we have today. It is also a chance to remember and celebrate the pupils who have attended our school throughout the 50 years while also celebrating the wonderful school we are today. None of the great work achieved in our school would be possible without the support of the parents and the team of teachers, SNAs, secretaries, cleaners, bus escorts and caretaker who all work so hard together to be the best they can be for our children. All of this hard work is done under the guidance of the Board of Management who volunteer their time. As part of the celebrations, we would love to collect lots of photographs of the school and pupils over the years. If you have any photos you would like to share with us which we hope to display in the school hall please email them to anniversary@stcronansjns.ie and tell us something about the people in the photos. Follow our school on social media to keep up to date with celebrations @stcronans_jns Sarah Boylan, Deputy Principal.

This Christmas why not send a special ‘Greetings from Malahide’ card to all your friends at home and abroad. In doing so you will be helping us to fund needy projects in our area. The Christmas Cards, with six beautiful views of Malahide painted by local artists, have been professionally printed and are ready to go. The cards are of the finest quality and fantastic value at a pack of six for €5. You won’t get better value this year! If you’d like to get your order in early, contact us:-WhatsApp or text 0858172660 or you can email us at lionschristmascards@gmail.com or We will deliver locally FREE - pay on delivery.

Heidi Bedell
Malahide Tidy Towns

Mould is not something people commonly aspire to but when you’ve decided to become more ‘environmentally friendly’, a lot of preconceptions get challenged. At a time when Heidi Klune can thrill the world dressed as an earthworm and the Baron of Dunsany is applauded for letting his extensive grounds go completely wild, it’s a small thing to start to recognise ‘mould’ as one of the big players that run the world, essential to our lives.Malahide Tidy Towns began collecting leaves for leaf mould in 2019 and I thought I’d share our learnings over the last 3 years. Contained in wire mesh bundles at St. Sylvestors Church and beside the Tennis Courts, the first year we just left them there. This was not based on ‘reliable scientific research’ but more that we hadn’t really got a plan when we set them up. In 2020 we simply added to the, now reduced, pile and it wasn’t until Autumn 2021 that we got organised enough to dig out the piles to explore the results.Thankfully we had lots of help from volunteers including some students from Scoil Íosa. (See photo 1). Of note was the large number of earthworms (Lumbricus terristris).These were larger and healthier than I’ve seen in normal soil and there was a large number of worm eggs too. The compost was spread on flower beds around the village – mostly the bed on Railway avenue, which some might have noticed was looking particularly good this year!Recently we dug out the compost from 2021.Volunteers have been collecting up leaves over the last couple of weeks but our big push on leaves was Saturday 12th November. We got 4 bags of compost from 2021, which some might feel is a poor return for all the effort involved but they’d be very much mistaken. Our 4 bags of leaf compost are 10 times more valuable than compost imported from outside the area as they’re full of the microorganisms present in the local soil. If you want to do something good for the earth, a leaf compost pile is a good way to start!

‘It was a wonderful way to spend an hour,’ was a comment from an attendee at Cecil Allen’s book launch for ‘The Avenue.’ Speaking to a full house in the Malahide Library, Cecil like a seanchaí of old, quietly but with great skill, told three touching stories from his new book ‘The Avenue.’ The first story, Mrs Green’s Money’ explored a beautiful relationship between an older bed-ridden woman and a young boy. It illustrated how a young boy came to learn that money was secondary to friendship. The second story was darker and explored the lengths one family had to go to maintain their family against the clergy, society and public option. The third story was a light-hearted tale titled ‘Archie and the Box of Chocolates.’ It was a fun story of one man’s obsession with chocolate and how it got him into a lot of trouble. ‘The Avenue’ can be purchased in Manor Books, Malahide or as an e-book and paperback from Amazon.com ‘That was the first book launch I ever attended and it was wonderful. I really enjoyed it,’ was another comment from an attendee.”

With the end of the year fast approaching, it’s a busy time at Junsa Taekwondo. We are preparing for the last tournament of the year and the club grading. The club grading is probably the highlight of the club calendar. This is where the students preform there skills both in Kyrougi (sparring) and the traditional part of Taekwondo, stances, blocks , strikes and kicks. It’s a wonderful time in the club. Have a look at our preparation in our pictures. We at Junsa Taekwondo work hard to provide a safe and happy environment for our students we also encourage our students to take part in all aspects of our martial art and help promote their confidence, fitness and their own individual talents. A Happy Christmas to all our friends, supporters, our participants and their families and to you all!

It is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of 2022 which has been a remarkably busy and successful year for Lusk Athletic Club on all fronts with so many great performances in Track and Field events, in road and cross-country races by so many of our adult and juvenile athletes.Lusk Athletic Club had a phenomenal 50 club members complete the Dublin Marathon on Sunday 30th October with no less than 4 athletes breaking the 3-hour barrier. Across the pond another 3 club members completed the New York marathon on the 6thof November in very unseasonal temperatures (22 Celsius).Well done to Alex Bell, Dan Cronin and Fiachra Beirne. Great credit is due to all the coaches and athletes who diligently followed a 20-week marathon programme from June onwards. Congratulations to Cara McNally on a great run to finish in the top 10 of the Under 19 race at the Dublin Junior cross country championships which took place at Citywest golf course in November and to our Fit 4 Life group who graduated by completing the Donabate Parkrun 5K in November with great support from their coaches and club members who either ran the 5K with them or volunteered at the event.Thanks to the club committee and club members who put a huge amount of work into setting up the OTC which will be of massive benefit to all club athletes training over the winter months. Strength and conditioning every Friday evening open to all. The Lusk Athletic Club Christmas Party and awards night took place in the Man O War Gastro Pub on Saturday 3rd December and was another great club occasion. Well done to all who helped to organise this event and to all the award winners for 2022.

There was great excitement for members of the local Fingal Old IRA Commemorative Society 1916-1921 last week. The Society won a Special Achievement Award at the Underground Independent Film Festival which is in its thirteenth year on the International circuit. The Award was presented to the well known Deputy Mayor of Fingal County Council Cathal Boland at the Awards Ceremony held in Dun Laoghaire recently. Cathal directed the forty-five-minute long Dramamentary of an event which occurred in Ballyboughal in April 1921. Cathal based the film called “Who shot Sergeant Kirwan” on newspaper accounts of the event and the witness statements now stored in the Military History Archives along with the stories told by the relatives involved on the day. Many play the roles of their Grandparents in this Award-Winning film. It was a first and unique experience for the Director, Cast and Production team. Cathal said when receiving the Award that it was a great community event which drew people in and got them engaged. He added that while the Award was made to him the achievement was only possible by the collaborative work of the whole team. He said much of the credit must go to Eric Campbell who filmed, edited, and provided the special effects and his wife who composed the soundtrack. There were no professional actors involved and indeed this was a first also for Cathal. The Society has another film lined up and Cathal says they will go into production early next year.

Our Christmas lights were turned on the other day and we marked the occasion for the community with some hot drinks served by Top Shop and festive carols sung by the Lusk Choir. Many thanks to all who helped put the lights up, to Conrad and staff at Top Shop, to the Choir and to those of you who came to enjoy the moment with us.Did you know that Lusk has a new sports club? The Lusk Ravens basketball club is now in operation out of the Lusk National School Hall and has a weekly academy for 5th and 6th class primary school children as well as ladies’ and men’s training sessions. Check out their Facebook page for more details. This is sure to be a great addition to already very sporting community. Well done to all involved in getting it off the ground.It’s not just basketball that’s available as an extracurricular activity in and around Lusk. Lusk has art classes, an athletics club catering for all track, field, road & off road disciplines, dance classes, a football club, a GAA club, the ICA, various martial arts classes (Boxing, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Kickboxing & Taekwando), pilates classes, beavers, scouts and girl guides, yoga classes, walking groups and many more. If you’d like to know more about any of them or would like to set up a new Chess, Cards or even Tiddlywinks club or have a query on Adult Education and the likes then please contact us and we will help to direct you. Now that the dark evenings are upon us it’s important to have something to keep us active and in touch with others.As always, we are on the lookout for new members of Lusk Action Group. If you have drive, enthusiasm, care about the future of our town and have some time to spare, please consider joining us. You can email us on luskactiongroup@gmail.com.