We had 3 very special guests at the club this afternoon in Reese Brassington, Coach at Leeds United Academy, Craig Robinson, last years u12 All Ireland winner with Cork schoolboys league, and Micheal English, Lead Coach for Mayo schoolboy league. The 3 lads were fantastic doing Q&A’s with multiple teams about the culture, standards and requirements within the English academy system, and our players asked plenty of questions about the level of commitment required to win an All-Ireland championship. Reese was also kind enough to take our u12’s for a session, which all the lads really enjoyed, after all its not every day they get pointers from a Leeds United Academy Coach..Thanks a lot lads, it was a pleasure having you down and you’re more than welcome back anytime. Also,

RiverValley junior parkrun were delighted with the success of their first event last Sunday having moved the junior parkrun from Holywell to RiverValley. A combination of regulars and new recruits led to a great turnout that they hope to repeat now every Sunday morning at 9.30am. There is now the very well established and successful senior 5k parkrun every Saturday morning in RiverValley, followed by the 2k junior parkrun every Sunday morning for 4 to 14 year olds.New members are always welcome for this free event, and you can register for your free barcode at parkrun.ie/rivervalley-juniors/ to track your times and number of runs for reward wristbands.The Mayor of Fingal, Councillor Howard Mahony and Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs and Sport, Jack Chambers T.D. were there to help launch the event along with Councillor Darragh Butler, a regular volunteer, Councillor Brigid Manton, Councillor Joe Newman and Duncan Smith T.D. River Valley junior parkrun would also like to thank the Fingal County Council Parks and Operations Departments for their support. Sinead Davy, Sunday’s run Director stated “Our inaugural junior parkrun in Rivervalley Park was a massive success as the local community came out to support us. It was a festive atmosphere as Personal trainer Sean Carrigg led the children through the warmup and local band The Sidegaters kept everyone entertained at the finish line. A total of 88 juniors completed the 2k route and 40 of these were new recruits who had never taken part before. We were also delighted to welcome back all our regular juniors from Holywell junior parkrun. Thank you to all the volunteers and the parents who helped make our first junior parkrun such a success”. We would encourage everyone to sign up and print out their bar-codes so their times and number of runs can be recorded.

By Ken Duffy

The 2022 Fingal Horticultural Society Business Frontage Floral Trophy was jointly awarded to Swords Tidy Towns and Fingal County Council for their stunning floral displays on Main Street Swords. Accepting the award on behalf of Swords Tidy Towns were Teresa Cosgrave STT Sec and Noel Cosgrave , Rose Brennan and Mary Maxwell accompanied by fellow members Gerry Brennan, Matt Cullen and George Mongey. Accepting on behalf of Fingal County Council were the Mayor Cllr Howard Mahony and Cllr Darragh Butler. Sharing the Tim Clarke trophy with FCC has meant so much to our volunteers. To be recognised and complimented by your peers, is one of the biggest compliments that could have been paid to our hard-working team.Let us hope that this triumph can be repeated when the final results of the 2022 National Tidy Towns competition are published in early September. These past twelve months in particular, the volume of hard work put in by our group has been nothing short of phenomenal. Out in all weathers, and when the good weather arrived, out nearly every day, and as you can see, Swords has definitely reaped the benefit of all their hard work. As always we rely on grants and donations to carry on our work, every penny is ploughed back into maintaining the high standard of work we have set ourselves. You can contact us through our email address at swordstidytowns@gmail.com

An event has been organised for 23 September by the Swords Donation Centre for Ukraine to raise money for the people of that beleaguered country who are suffering under the Russian invasion. The organisers are delighted to invite you to a night of live entertainment until 2am and fine dining at Kettles Country House Hotel. They say they are working closely with charities in Ukraine to help them with much needed medical equipment such as sanitisation fluid, bandages and equipment for an underground maternity hospital. This fundraising event will give the organisers the opportunity to send over as much as they possibly can to help them where it is so desperately needed. On the night they will also have spot prizes including Hotel stays, family days out, cinema tickets and so much more. Tickets are available from Kettles Hotel or by contacting Natalie 0851305238 or Lorraine 0863485473. Ticket price €50pp

Many times over the last 20 years our sub editing team have spotted typos and other small grammatical errors among the thousands of pages and millions of words we have published in the 5 Local magazines across Fingal. During those times we have laughed at most, queried others between us and even spotted errors at the last minute prior to sending it to the printers. However there is an old saying, ‘The man that never made a mistake never made anything’ and boy did we make a big one last month when a heading said Malahide United had won the AFL ..eh duh ..wrong code of football and wrong pics (The pics were of Syls GFC) so I suppose the only thing we got right was it was two Malahide clubs. So our sincere apologies to Malahide United and to Syls however we were pleasantly surprised with the hundreds of messages we got pointing out our mistake and we promise to do our best to ensure that doesn’t happen again. So here is to another 20 years before the next one and thanks to our readers for pointing it!

The award winning writer Cecil Allen is the grandson of the famous actor and writer IrAllen. Cecil is the author of the hugely popular novels ‘The Actor’ and ‘Constructing Alice.’ He is a retired college lecturer from the Dublin Institute of Technology and holds a BA from Indiana University and an MFA from the University of Minnesota. He was a broadcaster with RTE for over twenty years and represented Ireland twice at International Toastmasters Competitions.He is the father of two sons and lives in Malahide with his wife Julie. Cecil writings centres on our common humanity and ability to function in times of stress. His writings explore our vulnerabilities and the often forgotten reserves of strength and intelligence we can marshal when required. One of the short stories from ‘The Avenue,’ Mr Dunnock’s Day was featured in a new anthology of short stories which was published in September 2022. About the book - The Avenue - The year is 1950, World War II is over, food rationing is nearly finished and the word teenager has just been invented. There are nineteen identical yellow-brick terraced houses on one side of the Avenue and twenty on the other yet each house is a world of its own and as different from the next as the people who live in them. The people of the Avenue include a woman who defies convention, a man who confronts a despotic clergyman, an inquisitive woman who never leaves her bed, a long-lost father, a woman with a disturbing secret and a man with an empty box of chocolates. Told with insight and humour these tales of growing up, religion, marriage, emigration, mental health, widowhood and old age reminds us of the small but important moments of everyday living.‘The Avenue’ will be published and launched in the Malahide Library on the 5th October. Admission is free and open to all.

The Portmarnock-Malahide branch of Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind will be holding a Par 3 fundraiser in Malahide on 17th September. This is the second year that the fundraiser will take place at Malahide Castle Sports & Leisure Club. “Following the great success of last year’s event, we are really looking forward to holding the Par 3 fundraiser again,” said Pat Harney, Chair of the Portmarnock-Malahide branch. “Everyone who took part had a great day out in 2021 and all are welcome again this year, whether you’re an experienced golfer or interested in trying out something new to support a good cause!” “We’re delighted to be working with Malahide Castle Sports & Leisure Club again this year,” said event organiser and local IGDB member Frank Kelly. “It’s easy to register to take part - teams of 3 or 4 can sign up online and choose their time slot, and further details on how to register will be available soon.” The cost to register, which includes a round of Par 3 golf and two raffle tickets, will be €20 per person. There will be some fantastic prizes available on the day including a prize for the winning team, and a selection of raffle prizes donated by local businesses. Volunteers from the Portmarnock-Malahide branch of Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind will have a stand outside the Sports & Leisure Club on 17th September with merchandise and raffle tickets available to buy. You will also have an opportunity to meet some of our wonderful Guide Dogs, Puppies in Training, and Ambassador Dogs on the day! New volunteers are always welcome to get involved with Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. If you are interested in learning more, visit guidedogs.ie/ways-to-help/volunteer or you can find the Portmarnock-Malahide branch on Facebook at facebook.com/IrishGuideDogsPortmarnockMalahide and Twitter at @GuideDogsPM. The branch will share a link to register for the Par 3 fundraiser on their social media pages soon.

Syls Cycling Club Malahide is happy to announce its newest cycling programme “100k in a day”, a 6 weeks programme for cyclists with some cycling experience that are looking to get back into the sport.The programme starts on September 19th and offers a mix of theory and practical classes including group cycling techniques, cross-training (lectured by a professional cyclist), a bike maintenance workshop (from Jimmy’s Bike Shop in Portmarnock), and more! The theory classes will take place on Monday Evenings at Malahide Community School, while practical classes will happen on Saturdays or Sundays, starting at 9 am from Malahide. Cyclists are expected to have a roadworthy bike, cycling helmet, appropriate cycle clothing and cyclinginsurance from Cycling Ireland. According to Brendan Ryan, the Club’s Training and Development Officer, “The focus of this programme is to carefully guide cyclists through a training plan as it is aimed at those who are looking to re-start or continue cycling for health, fitness, recreation, commuting or to tackle a challenge or charity ride. It is a great opportunity to make new friends and get out into the fresh air” For an inactive cyclist, starting back can be a scary prospect. This easy-to-follow plan will have you confidently undertaking 60 - 70km spins, with the goal of completing 100K in a single spin by the end of the course. With the focus of putting theory into practice during cycle spins, Syls Cycling Club has successfully held different training programmes, including its highly popular “Couch To 50k” that happens every spring. Through the duration of the 100K in a day programme, cyclists should be able to:(1) Build fitness week by week (2) Increase cycling distance and ability by participating in spins with Syls CC (3) Finish the programme with a 100K spin, while having 1 or 2 coffee breaks to refuel.For course participants, the enrolment gives you Syls CC membership until the end of 2023! To express interest or request more information, email contact@sylscc.ie To find out more about Syls Cycling Club, visit sylscc.ie/

Syls Clubhouse has had a fascia refresh recently and doesn’t it look well? The club continues to take event bookings for our spacious rooms. So if your planning a special event in yours or your family’s lives then contact the club and they will put you in touch with Gina - the club’s wonderful event planner!

by Malahide Historical Society

Up until the 1930s only a narrow track ran between Seabank and the Velvet Strand at Portmarnock. The track was of such concern to the local authority that it sought permission to close part of the road owing to its dangerous nature running alongside the sea cliffs. Permission was granted and the required prohibition sign was erected at both ends of the closed section. At that time it was unique in being the only public road in Ireland to be officially closed to motor traffic.In 1914 a Swords man was fined 5 shillings with 10 shillings costs for riding his motor-cycle along the prohibited road. When the sea wall at Robbs Walls suffered ‘sudden damage’ in November 1928, presumably storm damage, the Council agreed to spend £150 on a retaining wall, the contractor being Messrs. Bissett. The following year the Council accepted the tender of Patrick Bissett for the construction of a sea wall at Robbs Walls in Portland cement at a cost of £1-11-6 per cubic yard or £4-6-3 per lineal yard. Motor traffic was restricted to residents along the way and to emergency services including the clergy and local doctors. Dublin County Council agreed, in 1931, to spend £200 and employ fifteen men anRd four horses to widen the part of the road running from the baths behind the Grand Hotel to Muldowney. Some more widening was done the following year but the Council received a deputation on behalf of a number of carters using horse-drawn vehicles who had been dismissed from carting stones from Feltrim Quarry and had been substituted by motor haulage. In 1933, approval was received for the expenditure of £5,600 on the continuation of widening, new road construction, etc. on the Portmarnock-Malahide road, which became the road as we know it today.