Maria Butterly will launch her new song ‘HERO’ produced by Bill Shanley and recorded in the world famous Windmill Lane Recording Studios in Naul this month. This song touches on an important and hot topic hitting young teens today-bullying. There is an interesting Story behind Maria’s new single ‘HERO’.It is a story of a young teen being called names in school, who dreams up a fictional hero character that represents the inner strength within us all, which allows us to confront and overcome the challenges presented to us whether internal or external. And addresses anti-social behaviour, bullying, and the challenges young students can be faced with in their world! Music has the power to connect with people and this new single from Maria ‘HERO’ is another example of that. A lot of my songs are inspired from true stories, some my own and some of others like this one. It’s radio friendly and the story is a good talking point!…. Not so long ago, I received a handwritten letter from an LMFM listener who was on the verge of taking his own life at 1am in the morning, until he heard my song ‘ANGEL’ being played on LMFM radio, he said the words of the song lifted him and brought him comfort and most of all ‘Hope’ that night and stopped him from doing the unthinkable. He is still with us today!
LAUNCH GIG: Friday 11th February, 2022.
Venue: Seamus Ennis Arts Centre,
Naul, Co Dublin.
Tickets are limited! €16 Available from TSEAC.i or mariabutterly.com
Community and voluntary groups in Fingal are invited to apply for funding under the 2022 Community Activities Fund.The Community Activities Fund (CAF) is a once-off fund that provides grants to assist community and voluntary groups with facilities upgrades, equipment purchase and running costs. The CAF is funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development with Fingal allocated €301,042 in funding for groups across the county. The CAF is administered by Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs) in each Local Authority area. It is part of the wider Community Enhancement Programme, which has funded over 8,000 projects in urban and rural communities throughout Ireland since first being launched in 2018. Applications are now being sought from community and voluntary groups in Fingal for grants up to a maximum of €15,000 with a closing date for applications of Friday, February 18, 2022 at 6:00 pm. Commenting on the announcement, AnnMarie Farrelly, Chief Executive of Fingal County Council said: “The work of the community and voluntary sector is highly valued by Fingal County Council.The Community Activities Fund will assist community groups with the valuable work they do within our communities. I would advise community groups to examine the CAF and avail of the opportunity to apply for funding if it is relevant to their activities.” Declan Ryan, Chief Officer of the Fingal Local Community Development Committee added: “The Community Activities Fund comes from within the Community Enhancement Programme group of funds. These funds have been availed of widely by community groups in Fingal in recent years, which has resulted in valuable funding being distributed to groups in disadvantaged areas in particular. The new CAF has the added benefit of allowing applications for both capital costs and operating costs. This added flexibility is very welcome. The Fingal LCDC looks forward to supporting the delivery of this scheme.” Full details on the 2022 Community Activities Fund and how to apply online can be accessed at submit.link/Ch.
Balbriggan Adult Education are providing a free Irish beginners class in their centre for anyone interested. The class will begin on Wednesday February 2nd at 2pm – 4pm and will run each Wednesday thereafter for 8 weeks. Places are limited due to social distancing in the classroom so please email BalbrigganLibrary@fingal.ie as soon as possible to reserve your place.
There is a phrase I’ve heard which says, ‘There is money in rubbish’. All of us in the Balbriggan\North County Dublin branch of Guide Dogs have proved this over several years, especially over the past two years. Annually our branch puts out this request, ‘If you have any used postage stamps, stamp albums, or coins which are no longer in circulation, please give them to us. We will turn them into Euros and lodge them to the guide dogs account.’ We receive coins from all over the world and old postage stamps. In our guide dog boxes and large collection dogs we find coins from all over the world and from Europe that are no longer legal currency since the Euro came into place. We get paper notes of all sorts of denominations, coins and used stamps from our branch volunteers and friends. The stamps go into a box and over the past two years a total of 41 kgs were accumulated. We also received 13 kgs of old foreign coin and 18 foreign notes. A stamp and coin collector from the UK bought them. We received €610 for 41 kgs of stamps, 13 kgs of old coin and old notes. We actually collected 12 kgs of old Irish coin and 22 different old Irish notes. There were some part or torn euro notes, these and the old Irish notes were brought to the Central Bank of Ireland for converting to Euros. The old Irish coin was sold to a local coin collector for €100. The Central Bank needs old Irish coin sorted in a particular way before they will convert them into Euros for us.We also received sterling coin which came to £165. A branch volunteer took them up North and converted them into sterling notes. These were then converted into €187.93. All money was lodged to the guide dogs’ account.If you have any used postage stamps or old Irish coins or notes or foreign coins or notes, please contact us at 085 7663107 or email GuideDogsBalbriggan@gmail.com Thank you, Tom O’Neill, Guide Dog Owner.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD was briefed on the Our Balbriggan Regeneration Plan when he visited the town recently for the official launch of the Irish Institute of Music and Song. During a walk from the Our Balbriggan Hub in St George’s Square to Balbriggan Harbour, the Taoiseach, who was accompanied by Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, was shown the sites for several major regeneration projects which have received funding from the Urban Regeneration Development Fund (URDF). Among the projects the Taoiseach was shown was the Heart of Main Street, the one hectare area of natural green space along the Bracken River which, with the help of almost €7m in Urban Regeneration Development funding, is going to be transformed into a Green Corridor linking Millpond Park with the centre of Balbriggan and leading to the Beach and Harbour. The Taoiseach was also taken to Quay Street, the Harbour and the Beach where over €11m of URDF support will transform the area on both sides of the Railway Viaduct. Following the short tour, the Taoiseach said that he was very impressed with the Council’s plans for the town: “I’ve been in Balbriggan before and I must say that I am impressed with the development that is underway here. The Our Balbriggan Regeneration Programme is really exciting and I think will open up the wonderful natural beauty of this area and coastline and the public realm to enhance that.” The Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Seána Ó Rodaigh, said she was delighted to show the Taoiseach around Balbriggan and talk to him about what is planned: “The town is set to be transformed through more than €50 million investment with an ambitious new vision, which will, with the support of all of our stakeholders, realise the town’s full potential.“The Irish Institute of Music and Song will be at the heart of this I have no doubt. The construction of a 400 seat Concert Hall in Balbriggan is significant locally, regionally and nationally..“
First Time author Balbriggan Woman Linda Murray recently launched a children’s book called ‘Dragon Fire and Fairy Dust’ with all the proceeds of it going to Temple St Childrens Hospital.
Linda said, ‘I am a Balbriggan local and started writing during the first Lockdown as I was not an essential worker. I found myself very isolated, being alone all day and missing my working life and social outlet. So I started writing poems and moved onto verse stories which are great fun, because you can really let your imagination run. I post my stories on a public Facebook page- Linda Murray Poetry for Life and I got a lot of encouragement so I decided to get a children’s book together. ‘ Well done Linda !
Congratulations to our 3rd Ladies junior team who won the league today ..first year playing together and have won league and championship a lovely mix of young girls and a few Gaelic for Mothers taking the step up .. well done in 2021 to all the players , coaches and management.
The Inter Hurlers also finished off a hugely successful season with a fantastic game against Castleknock which went to extra time and penalties in front of a great home crowd. Congratulations to the players and mentors for a fantastic season of hurling - looking forward to 2022!
A team of Green Schools students from St Finians Community College planted 115 trees beside the Brackenstown Road on Thursday 2nd of December. A huge thank you to the inspirational Orla Farrell from Easy Treesie, Edward Stevenson from the Swords Woodland Association and Councillor Joe Newman. Well done to all for taking care of our future environment. To learn more about Orla’s work @easytreesie @plantfortheplanet_official
By Ken Duffy
2021 was a productive and successful year for Swords Tidy Towns, which in its self is remarkable considering our volunteers had to work through a pandemic to achieve this. Right from the start of the Covid 19 crisis our volunteers wished to continue on working as best they could, by working in pods they were able to achieve this. The crisis actually increased our membership. People who were stuck at home through no fault of their own found they had time on their hands and wanted to do something positive with that time by helping in their community. We have over forty members on our books at present and we are always looking for new members, Swords is a big place and it continues to grow. We linked up in 2021 with numerous Swords groups who wished to contribute by doing litter picking or planting around the town for us. These included the National Learning Network, Youthreach, McVery Trust, St Michaels House, others we have worked with are Prosper Fingal and Anew. Our Chairman sits on the board of directors of both the Fingal Leader Partnership and the Valley Project. We started and completed our Frontline Workers Commemorative Garden opposite the fire brigade station. We have planted flower beds and rockeries down River Mall and along the river towards the Old Schoolhouse. We completed a beautiful wild life mural funded by a grant from Fingal County Council on Brackenstown Rd at the lane entrance to the park. We linked up with the Swords Woodland Association and Fingal County Council on a project to plant 3000 trees. We agreed to take on 23 TY students from Fingal and Swords Community Colleges each Saturday for 20 weeks to help them achieve their Gaisca Medal Awards. Our Rock Garden on the Rathbeale Road a collaboration with Fingal County Council won another International Green Flag Award. We were finalists in this year’s Pakman National Awards, we won a Silver Medal in the National Tidy Towns Competition making that four in a row. A very good year.All of this, everything achieved, is down to the continuing hard work of our members, their love of their town and their ambition to make Swords the best it can be, roll on 2022.
We are still getting there and let’s hope 2022 will bring more great news. At the moment we are still busy building our young athletes to be future black belts ,Poomsae champions , Olympic hopefuls , Taekwondo referees or even trying to fill the kids with confidence and fitness. We help everyone no matter what Taekwondo path they want to follow. Here are some photos of our guys in action and as you will see the first four pictures are of our less advanced students training session while the next six are of when Junsa Taekwondo hosted a training session with Elite Taekwondo. This training session was aimed at the more advanced groups and it was a fantastic training session bringing both styles of Taekwondo together. Junsa Taekwondo classes are very popular so if you are interested in taking up a new sport for any reason please don’t hesitate to contact Master Stuart Russell on 087 7775202 or message our club on Facebook @ Junsa Taekwondo. Happy New to everyone from Junsa Taekwondo.
