The Lusk Mens walk and talk group meet at the Hub car park at 7:00pm every Monday for their weekly walk. This is open to all men and it’s an opportunity just get out of the house, have a nice walk, clear the head and have a chat if you wish. You can do it as a once off or every week, no joining necessary, just turn up. This group is organised by Ciaran Russell, so if you want to introduce yourself to him and before long you will find you have made new friends. So why not let any friends or neighbours know about it as new members are alaways welcome

There is a lot of community attention recently on the development of Lusk. Recent years have seen vast amounts of residential development around the area. While residential development is positive in so far as it provides housing, brings us new friends, and grows the community, it must be matched or preceded by the necessary infrastructural, social, recreational and commercial development that is required in order to have a balanced development of the town.Fingal County Council currently have their Development Plan open for consultation. If you have anything to say about how your town develops in the future then please submit an observation on fingal.ie/development-plan. You could submit an observation on anything including (but not limited to) litter, bins, traffic lights, speed signage/traffic calming measures on approaches to the town, proper road and footpath maintenance, blake’s cross junction improvement, lighting, housing, sports facilities, youth clubs, library, planning condition enforcement, no further residential development being permitted until the rest of the required development catches up, schools, council engagement with the community, etc. Lusk is our town. It’s up to us as a community to let the decision makers at local and national levels know what we want for our town. It is only through active engagement with the community that positive change can be delivered.Remember that the Summer Festival is coming up in June. LAG is looking for sponsorship from any local businesses and support from members of the community to help out on the day. As always, we are on the look out 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 and we will get back to you on luskactiongroup@gmail.com.

At the April Council meeting Cllr Rob O’Donoghue welcomed the progression of plans for upgrading the cycling infrastructure in the Lusk area. As part of the Sustainable Transport Grants Lusk received €550k for cycling infrastructure from between Blakes Cross to Ministers Road. The design process for which is advancing to provide protected cycle paths for cyclists. Discussions are now ongoing with the Operations Dept. in relation to reducing the speed limit for the section between Kilhedge Lane and Ministers Road junction. The Active Travel Dept and Operations are collaborating to investigate if cycle paths can also be introduced on the section north of Ministers Road junction to Murtaghs Pub. Cllr O’Donoghue stated that ‘the identified works are much needed in order to improve the safety for road users in the Ministers Road area and the new ramps to be installed on Ministers Road will make commuting safer for all residents using the roads.’ In other Council news, Cllr O’Donoghue welcomed the recently installed pedestrian access gate within the Lusk Recreational Hub which will provide access to the adjacent schools. O’Donoghue continued “This installation should help in reducing the parking along the Lusk Bypass during busy school times as parents will able to use the carpark at the recreational hub and allow children to walk safely within the Hub to school. The connecting paths in the Hub will also be upgraded this year to facilitate safer travel to the schools for students in the town.”

It’s great to be back to classes and socialising after our Easter break. Our classes will run till the end of May. Active Age members are now involved in the Failte Isteach Programme with DPCC and Fingal County Council. We put out a call to our members for those who wished to be involved in this programme for teaching conversational English and were surprised at the response – 20 members of Active Age are now involved. We are being trained by those who have worked before with this programme. We will be working primarily with those who have newly arrived in Donabate from Ukraine, but conversational English will be available to people from anywhere who are new to our area. At the first group meeting of Failte Isteach many teachers emerged and people who had worked abroad and taught English. The encouragement from those who had previously worked on this programme was most reassuring and it became clear that you don’t need to be a teacher particularly – that if you just want to contribute and communicate with people who have a real need to belong somewhere at this point in their lives. If you know of anyone who needs to feel more connected to their community by attending Failte Isteach classes, do let them know that they will be happening, and tell them to leave their name at the Community Centre. On the 10th of May we will hold a Coffee Morning for Sick Children with the Children’s Health Foundation and we hope that we will get the usual great support from our members and neighbours. We have started a new Acorn Tablet Try Out programme to digitally connect our older members. Having completed our first programme with many satisfied and new digitally connected customers. There are still some places available so please contact us. As always if you wish to join us or want any information about Active Age for All please email us at activeageforall@gmail.com / text us on 086 8806808 or take a look at our website www.activeageforall.com.

In late March the Parish Hall had an event to launch the newly refurbished Parish Hall. Due to covid concerns numbers were limited.Our Mayor of Fingal Seána Ó Rodaigh who arrived by train an active traveller! was the guest speaker. Fr Pat Reilly PP spoke on behalf of the Parish Hall Committee and the community. Both of them focused on the importance of community and places that cater for the depth & breadth of activities that take place in our area. The Parish Hall mainly caters for Cultural Activities, Recreational, Meetings & events.The Programme now runs with daily activities eg Senior Citizens, Flower Friends, Montessori, Bridge Club, Eggheadz Youth Yoga & Well-being, Leithinis Traditional Music, Irish Dancing, UkuleleUnited etc. Then on a few occasions during the year the daily activities are suspended for about three weeks to facilitate Drama, Exhibitions and special events to take place. eg Through the Lens Photography Exhibition, The Film Club marked International Women’s Day for the Bleeding Pig and the Dramatic Society production in late April.Fr Pat thanked all that had a part to play in the refurbishment particularly FCC who grant aided the works and our councillors who supported these grants being allocated in the chamber.The grants came from The Community Enhancement Scheme, The Community Facilities & Remedial Works Scheme, Covid 19 Emergency Funding, Community Activities Funding Scheme and the Village Renewal Scheme.A number of public representatives came on the night and a big thanks is extended to them Duncan Smith TD ( who uses the hall) Cllr Adrian Henchy, Cllr Paul Mulville, Cllr Rob O Donoghue, Cllr Joe OBrien & Corina Johnston. He particularly thanked the Parish Hall Committee, Bernie Guillespie from the Parish Office, Breda Dockrell & Jim O Donohoe for their efforts in bringing this project to fruition. He outlined all the people who keep the place going on a day to day basis with such incredible voluntary work. He spoke of all the tradesmen & suppliers who had gone beyond the call of duty in work done on the Parish Hall.On the night some Leithinis CCÉ played a few tunes & UkuleleUnited played and sang a few songs - all which was very much enjoyed! Contact Bernie in the Parish Office anytime with re activities & bookings.

Special Olympics is an all-Ireland sports organisation for people with an intellectual disability. Donabate Portrane Special Olympics Club (DPSOC) is one of 293 Special Olympics clubs across Ireland. The club has over 80 athletes and is run by over 40 volunteers, who give of their time freely to support the athletes and help them develop their sporting skills. If you would like to volunteer your time on a weekly basis, the club is always on the lookout for new volunteers. The club is specifically for younger athletes, aged 4 – 12. Training sessions take place every Saturday at 11:30, 12:30 and 13:30 in the Donabate Portrane Educate Together National School. Sessions are volunteer led and no previous sport or coaching experience is necessary. All you need is a willingness to get involved and have fun. New members are always welcome. For further information please email dpsoclub@gmail.com If you have a child who would like to become an athlete in the club we have a waiting list for new members. Email us to get your child added to the list. Lastly we would like to congratulate Special Olympics volunteer Suzanne Dunne who completed her 5th marathon on Saturday the 19th of March in aid of the club. Suzanne raised €1,900 for DPSOC by completing 5 marathons over a 5 month period!

Donabate Portrane shedders are a busy lot. There’s not much spare time, with exercise classes at the Scouts’ Den on Mondays, croquet and boules at Newbridge House on Tuesdays, coffee and chat at the Scouts’ Den on Thursdays, tending the plots at Turvey Allotments on other days and occasional outings to place of interest. A vine in our greenhouse, which was thought to have died, is now thriving and has been nicknamed Lazarus. Who knows, next autumn, along with the usual spuds and onions, we may be harvesting and pressing our own grapes. Watch out for the latest offering from the Men’s Shed - Châteauneuf-du-Turvey! Now that we’ve had our first proper AGM in nearly three years, we’re open for new members and to suggestions for other activities. So if you’d like to join us, just contact our PRO, Jim, on 086-3694316.

The Peninsula Pacers went on a great 12km 3hr walk on a Saturday in mid April. The route was really interesting & the weather was only glorious. We parked at the Millbank Theatre / Rush Library and headed down the Sandy Lane to the South Shore beach where the beautiful vista of Lambay Island and The Burrow & Portrane awaited us! Turning right we headed to Rogerstown Harbour and on to the NEW Rogerstown Park passing along by fields of tulips then along a thin rough road which hugged the inner estuary. This walk is only possible at low tide! We returned to the Harbour and headed up the Chanel Rd back to our cars. Finally we went for a delicious lunch/dinner at The Man of War Pub - an original of the species! Good food and full of character now under new management. It was a lovely day and really enjoyed by all. Next walk will hopefully be in May. We try to cater for different interests & abilities so ring Carolyn on 087 9284307

Some people from BUGS based in Blanchardstown; whom many of us play with on a Wednesday night led by Tania Cahill & some Donabate folk led by Phil O Brien had a little session at the re launch in the Parish Hall. It was great fun and enjoyed by all. The group aim to play about one a month and the next session is Friday 20th May. If you play a bit already and are interested drop in at 7 30pm.

Leithinis Donabate Portrane CCE were delighted to be invited to play some tunes at the relaunch of the Parish Hall. Other acts included Ukele United and Donabate Dramatic Society. The Hall is looking fantastic and is a great community facility that is used by many local groups. A great evening was had by all.Our lessons resumed on Monday 25th April following the Easter Break.Our recent slow sessions led by Erin have been very successful in allowing members to participate in playing tunes in a friendly and fun environment , however we are always improving and to cater for the varying abilities we have refined the times of these sessions: 7.45pm to 8.30pm Junior Members - 8.30pm to 9.15pm slow tempo to suit all adult members - 9.15pm to 9.45pm faster tempo to suit adult members.The next 3 sessions will be held in the Parish Hall on : Friday 13th May and Friday 27th May. There will be a €5 cost per family to cover costs. We hope to see many of our members at these musical sessions.