Malahide Historical Society are pleased to announce the launch of our new website at malahideheritage.ie. The new, more modern format, as well as being easier to navigate, will facilitate the addition of more content as the Society plans to share more from its extensive archive of material on the history and heritage of Malahide, Portmarnock and surrounds. Click on the link above and save us to your Favourites. The Society is open to new membership. For an annual fee of only €15 members will get priority access to our winter/spring series of monthly talks on local and national historical topics (shortly to recommence in person) - receive three issues per year of our Newsletter - get opportunity to take part in occasional field trips - support the society in its work of promoting interest in local history, carrying out historical research, running talks, maintaining the website and running a museum in the Steward’s House, Malahide Castle Courtyard (due to reopen this summer). Come join us - email us at malahidehistoricalsociety2@gmail.com PADDY RYAN, President.

Malahide Lions Club, the Organisers of the Malahide Classic and Vintage Motor Show, are delighted to announce their new sponsorship partner Carole Nash Insurance Consultants (Ireland) one of Ireland’s largest motorcycle insurance specialists – now offering insurance cover for not just motorcycles but classic cars too. Carole Nash’s support will help ensure a quality event while raising funds for worthy causes. The Malahide Classic and Vintage Motor Show will take place at the Grand Hotel in Malahide on Sunday 22 May and will feature some rare and expensive cars. This will be the ninth running of the event which attracts car lovers and families from across Leinster and is likely to be the only show of its kind in the Dublin region this year. Expect to see up to 100 beautiful old cars on display ranging from old British classics like Austins, Triumphs and Jaguars to American brands and continental marques like Mercedes, Porsche, Renault, Volkswagen… the list goes on…. There will also be one or two special featured vehicles as well as ice cream and games for children. Colm Tully, Managing Director of Carole Nash Ireland, said “We’re really proud to be supporting The Malahide Classic and Vintage Motor Show. It’s a great event for the local community and one not to be missed for Classic Car enthusiasts. There’ll be a fantastic range of vehicles on display, with all of the proceeds from the event going to two very worthy causes!” The Show will open at 11.00am and admission will cost €5 per adult, no charge for children, with the entire proceeds going to two important causes - Ukraine humanitarian relief and Family Carers Ireland.

Junsa Taekwondo recently took part in our first international tournaments since the pandemic , while at home we have been training hard for our upcoming local competition. We have also been training up our more senior members to be corner judges and referees. It’s been busy! Junsa Taekwondo trains in Lusk scout den. For more information on class times contact Master Stuart Russell on 087 7775202 or follow us on Facebook @ Junsa Taekwondo.

During March and April Lusk Athletic Club athletes took part in a wide range of Indoor and outdoor events with remarkable success. Our Juvenile, Senior and Master’s athletes competed brilliantly in Track and Field events taking home a large haul of medals from the Dublin, Leinster and National championships at the National Indoor Arena and at the highly impressive TUS arena in Athlone. At Parkrun and on the roads many of our athletes continued to set new PBs and major credit is due to the athletes for their dedication in training and to their coaches in Lusk AC who give so freely of their time to help improve all our athletes. In March we had 33 members complete the Bohermeen Half Marathon and close to 100 members took part in the Lusk St Patricks Day Parade. On the 2nd April our latest Fit 4 Life group graduated by running 5k at the Donabate Parkrun some running a 5k for the first time after only two months of training. Well done to all and we hope that this is the start of your running journey. Apart from all the success on the running front, club vice chairperson Aidan McKenna, Kate, Cara and Pat travelled to Lesotho on the 1st April. Aidan and Lusk AC want to thank everyone who took part in events to raise funds for Lusk for Lesotho.

Here we have a few St. Patrick’s Day photos of some of our Juvenile members, who took part in the Lusk St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Our Adult Hurlers and 2011 Boys teams are looking for new recruits, so we have included 2 photos for them. Our U16 Footballers & U14 Footballers and the Lusk players from the U15 Ros Lusca team finally got to receive their medals from last season. The players enjoyed their Awards Night on Friday 8th April in the clubhouse with all their coaches. The medals were presented by our Senior Footballer, Adam Caul. Well Done to all the players and their coaches and we wish them all the best for the season ahead.

Lusk Tidy Towns Association have expressed their thanks to Fingal County Council regarding the tidy towns work programme for 2022, ie for cutting back shrubbery on our Black Raven bed area on the Dublin Road, for agreeing to re-letter our Market Square Sculpture, and also to replace the old flower bed on the green area. The committee are running a school competition on “Be Kind to the Planet”. A clean-up of the Balrothery union graveyard has taken place. This is a yearly project run by Lusk Tidy Towns and Mass is held every November for the deceased that are buried there. As always thank you to everybody who helps ensure Lusk is kept looking well as we head towards the summer. Remember Keep Lusk Tidy and bin that Litter.”

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.