On 2nd October the St. Colmcilles G4M&O ladies hosted a Gaelic Football Blitz, in aid of St Francis Hospice. There were 4 teams Erins Isle (Finglas), St Maurs (Rush), Starlights, (Santry) and us, each player had to pay €10 registration, that along with a raffle, where all the prizes were donated by local companies. Also, 2 beautiful children Indiana and Georgia, brought down their old toys and sold them for the charity. All our referees on the day offered their fee back to the charity and all the girls made this event a great occasion.Along with this last December, during Covid one of our members Neal Howard shaved off his beard. Money raised in total was of €3,005.The hospice is a charity very close to the hearts of all the ladies in the team, two of the girl’s mammies were cared for by the hospice staff and this is our way of giving back.

At the October Area meeting Cllr Rob O’Donoghue tabled a motion regarding the dangers of traffic on the Station Road between the train station and the Remount Roundabout. The motion asked the Chief Executive to provide a signalised crosswalk in the vicinity of the Lusk Utd pitches on Station Road. Cllr O’Donoghue stated that ‘The road between the Train station and Lusk is busy and getting busier, particularly at peak times, which in the mornings intersects with young children accessing the local creche and in the evenings where Lusk Utd use the pitches for training and matches’.The response from the Council stated that inclusion of a controlled crossing on the road would be considered in the programme of works. Cllr O’Donoghue welcomed the report and during the discussion noted that currently crossing was not easy at the location for users of the pitch and the nearby creche. He continued ‘Strong consideration of the crosswalk on Station Road is vital, it would be a fantastic augmentation to the area and complement the zebra crossing to be provided on the Station Road arm of the Remount Roundabout and the raised table and uncontrolled crossing to the west of the entrance at the community centre which are to be provided to make the town safer for pedestrians.’

Cllr Brian Dennehy has welcomed progress on the development of Rogerstown Park . In a statement this week the Councillor said: “ The plans to transform Rogerstown Park from a former landfill site to a regional park of 125 approx. acres on our doorstep, along with the walking / cycle route from the park to the train station and on to Lusk are progressing well, thanks to workshops organised by Fingal County Council and held over two days recently. The layout of facilities in the park consisting of a playground, skatepark, out sports facilities, Forrestry and animal glazing area’s amongst others were discussed agreed and allocated area’s throughout the park. The list of facilities requested came through a public consultation process in workshops held previously in Lusk, Rush and Donabate in the lead up to formulating a Master Plan for the park. These requests are now the main body of services required, leading the layout of the park. The various cycle walkway routes leading to the park were looked, at with the Rush route coming along the coastal route as per the greenway route. One of the more interesting proposals was from the Rogerstown park to the train station, where a route following the route of the railway track is being looked at, which would be more direct and considerably shorter than following the existing road and would enter into the carpark at the train station. This route which is also the Lusk access route to the proposed Coastal Greenway could be extended from the train station carpark cross country, behind the existing soccer pitches on the Station Road and parallel to the station road out onto the Lusk Ring road. The planned upgrade designs due to take place for the Blakescross junction also need to incorporate the access point to the Park, due to the turn being so close to the Blakescross junction. It is envisioned that a planning permission will be ready for lodging to An Board Pleanála in approximately nine months all going well. The funding for the works required in Rogerstown Park is currently included in the Fingal County Council three year capital budget.

Lusk Tidy Town Committee have been busy planting up flower tubs, watering and generally keeping Lusk Tidy despite all the building development. Thank you for your support. “Keep Lusk Tidy”

After 19 months of pandemic closure of our Community Facilities, Lusk Community Council is delighted that we are gradually reopening the Carnegie Library Community Hall, The Cottage Community Centre and Saint Macullins Centre. While attendee numbers have been restricted due to social distancing, the return of dancing, judo, Foroige, music classes and drama as well as our public representative clinics has been a great boost. In addition the Community Council is plan-ning the ongoing communication and roll out of the Lusk Vision 2030 for the town. November will see further briefings and engagement with the community of Lusk on how we progress the project.The recent restoration of the bandstand on the Green is a really important improvement to one of our most important public realms in Lusk. Many thanks to Fingal County Council for mak-ing this investment in the Green.

“Give me justice, treat me fair
And I’ll not be discontented
Nor I’ll not be laughed at anywhere
But highly represented”
(Song: Do Me Justice)

The Tower Singing Circle is taking part in Fingal Inclusion Week (Nov.15th – 20th).The Theme is “Emigration”There are many kinds of Emigration songs –funny, heartbreaking, ironic, maudlin and we hope to have a selection of these on the night.The above lyrics are from the Irish Emigration song “Do Me Justice” which is about an Irish emigrant’s experience in England and the portrayal of Irishmen as “ a knave or fool”. So join us on Monday 15th November at 9.00pm. Everyone is invited to join us on Zoom and sing or just listen. Zoom link will be on the Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival website nearer the date. bleedingpig.ie

Donabate Quilters returned to their quilting meet ups In September.Everyone was delighted to be back and looking forward to working on their quilts. Some were looking for help with a particular pattern and others were already setting out to work on their Christmas projects.That is not to say that they were idle during the long restriction on classes. As you can see from the photographs below members were very busy…making baby quilts, quilts for friends that had helped, making memory pieces of a parent who had died, to give to their family and generally keeping busy.Donabate Quilters are delighted to take part in Fingal Co. Co.’s Inclusion Week and are holding an exhibition of their work in St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland on Saturday 20th November from 11.00am – 4.00pm. Everyone is invited and it is FREE.

During October we supported Positive Ageing Week where the theme was reconnecting. While we do not have all our classes up and running due to some continued restrictions, we have about two thirds back and it is a wonderful feeling to have some structure and social interaction again in our week. On the Wednesday of Positive Ageing week, we met up in the Community Centre and had lunch supplied by TRIANGLE who are due to open in the Centre in November. If the fare at the lunch was anything to go by, we will be very happy to see Triangle open. The sandwiches were delicious. We do miss the opportunity to have a coffee or snack after our classes. The Wednesday afternoon gathering around 3 p.m. at the Community Centre is about having a place where we can just connect. Perhaps your class has not retuned yet? Meet on the Wednesday for a chat. Feeling a bit isolated? Meet on the Wednesday for a chat. Just show up and say ‘hello’. If there is one thing we may have learned during the pandemic restrictions, it is to get out and take all the opportunities we can! If you are new to the area or new to retirement – you just need to be 55+ - you can call in to DPCC and collect an AAfA New Member form and fill it out and leave it for us, or email us at the address above and we email a form out to you. We can make contact and will do our best to include you in classes as soon as possible.

A Folly is defined as a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose. They can be found all over the country on the lands of the grand old estates, their function usually being decorative whimsy on the part of the owner but sometimes they served as a memorial of sorts. St Annes Park, once the property of the Guinness family, is reputed to have at least 10 follies in the grounds. On a sunny Thursday morning 7 stalwart searchers set off from Olives Room cafe to see how many we could find.The park is bisected by the small Nanikin river which feeds an artificial duck pond and is bordered by a very pleasant walk. In addition to the follies there is a walled garden with a clock tower, an arboretum, a rose garden and many sports grounds. All of these features are accessed by lovely walks around the park.Aside from the folly search we visited the Peace Tree just outside the park on the Clontarf Road. This, we all agreed, is a stunning piece of art depicting a plethora of wildlife, both land and marine, native to Ireland. After a 4km exploratory ramble we returned to Olives Room cafe for lunch and a tally of follies ( photographic evidence was required !) We were pleased to find that we had located 9 of them, including Annie Lee Tower Bridge, the Temple of Isis by the duck pond, a Roman observation tower and a Herculean Temple. All of the pacers who took part in the walk agreed that this matter requires further investigation !

Peninsula Pacers walk The Bull Island

Whilst one of our recent monthly walks one group did a short walk and history tour of St Anne’s Park, the other group did a 10km walk through the park and on to a loop of The Bull Island. It was a great day with fantastic views. There are benches along the beach to rest on and a fantastic outdoor cafe -Happy Out- with a toilet nearby for 30cent! where we had lunch. We intend venturing south side in November doing a flat coastal walk from Dunlaoighre to Dalkey.

By Sophia Latham and Laura Matthews, TY Journalism

Jabba Jabba Jambe is a high energy interactive drumming workshop for drum circles that is performed in schools, youth groups and adults. We were fortunate to welcome Godfred and David Day to DCC recently for a full day workshop for TY students.David Day is the founder of Jamba Jamba Jambe. He has studied African world drumming for over 20 years in Ireland and with teachers around Europe, the US, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Ghana and West Africa. For over 10 years David has been providing drumming workshops and Drum circle events such as festivals and schools, corporate and community groups.Drumming circles allows groups to play traditional songs and it creates opportunities for people to experiment with different instruments. It was invented in the 12th century by the Mandinke tribe which is now in Mali in West Africa. It has been played by West Africans for generations and it is part of ritualistic life in countries in Africa. Each TY group got to experience both traditional African dance and drumming. The day started meeting Godfred and Dave. They explained the activities and we got started on the drumming. We learned about the stories of the jembe (the drums), we learned new rhythms and rhymes to use whilst we hit the drum. It was difficult to stay in time, but it was a lot of fun! We got to take part in some Traditional African dancing with Godfred. The dancing involved a series of simple repetitive movements, however the group couldn’t miss a step and had to keep time. If a step was missed it would look out of order and we would have to start from scratch! This was a lot of fun! Everyone enjoyed these activities and got to learn about different traditions in African culture.