In the months of April to July Foroige Balbriggan Youth Services established three youth groups, two junior and one senior, from the Pinewood/ Castlelands area. During these months, due to government guidelines under the current restrictions all our youth work needed to take place outdoors. Balbriggan Meals and Wheels on Hampton Street generously offered the yard behind their premises as a base for the groups to meet weekly to take part in clubs and week long summer activity programmes.As a thank you Foroige Balbriggan worked with the young people in the area to create a vibrant mural and pollinator planters in the yard for the volunteers of Balbriggan Meals and Wheels to enjoy all year round.This project was part of a national week-long event of Foroige organised Youth Community Action events such as litter picks, painting and planting. Foróige is the leading youth organisation in Ireland and has been working with young people since 1952. Our purpose is to enable young people to involve themselves consciously and actively in their development and in the development of society. If you are a group or indeed an individual and would like more information about the work Foroige do in Balbriggan please contact the Foróige Senior Youth Officer Aine Mc Guinness for more information, which she will be happy to supply to you. @ aine.mcguinness@foroige.ie.
Meanwhile Balbriggan Meals on Wheels were also delighted with the murals that the Fingal Lighthouse Art Group did at the back of their kitchen area and want to say a big thank you to all involved. Fingal Lighthouse Art Group is a Not for Profit Art Group. Founded in April 2019, this art group helps those Artists without a platform to display their work. To become an associate member, contact Bernie on 086 817 1518.
Well done to Joanne Fulham and the Glasmore residence who were out in force prepping the Rathbeale Rd entrance to their estate for a Frontline Workers Commemmorative Garden. With €3000 worth of plants, shrubs and trees on order it should look the business. We also want to recognise and thank Alla who takes care of our poly tunnel and recently took advantage of the good weather to work on our patch on North St. Great work Alla well done. Not forgetting our members Billy, Grace and Georgy who were out weeding at the Malahide roundabout recently, played a scorcher guys if you will excuse the pun.
St John Ambulance is an international humanitarian organisation with over 500 000 volunteers in over 20 different countries. We have been providing First Aid cover and First Aid Training Courses in Ireland for over 100 years. For further information on our organisation, please click the images below.In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have developed an Instructor-led ‘First Aid and COVID-19 in the workplace’ online course. Swords Adult Division meets every Thursday evening from 2000-2200, Cadets meet every Wednesday evening from 1900-2100, both in Holywell Community Centre in Swords. We operate 1 ambulance, First Aid tent and a Cycle Response Unit. We cover many events, including Croke P ark, Dublin Zoo, Motorcross, RDS, Aviva Stadium, Local football events, local races and more. We also provide first aid courses in First Aid Response , Emergency First Aid, Baby and Toddler First Aid and more. Swords Division was established in 2014. Since the we have grown and have One ambulance, first aid tent and a Cycle Response Unit (CRU). We have 25 adult members from basic first aid, EMT to Nurses. In 2019, our cadet division was formed. Our division is lead by our Officer in Charge Mr Jamie Bollard MStJ, assisted by our senior NCO’s Michael, Noel, Jock and Claire (cadets).Our Cycle response unit was donated to us in 2019 by One4All gift cards.We are a very active division with a wide area to cover in North Co. Dublin.We provide professional event medical cover for any event, providing our Ambulance, CRU, Tent, First aid patrols and more. Our division provides First Aid courses, demos, talks and more, with our experienced instructors Noel, Jamie, Michael, Gerard and Declan. Our training equipment is of the highest standards including our full body CPR, Airway and Trauma manikin. If you want to know more please contact: St John Ambulance Ireland, 29 Upper Leeson Streeet, Dublin 4, Ireland | Tel: (0)1 668 8077.
The Swords Cultural Quarter has taken a major step forward with the appointment of the integrated design team which will be led by award-winning architects O’Donnell and Tuomey.The announcement was made recently at a meeting of Fingal County Council by County Architect Fionnuala May when she gave councillors an update on the project.With the design team now in place, the project, which was launched in 2016, will now proceed at pace with the Council intending to initiate a Part 8 planning public consultation process in May 2022. The project is expected to go to tender in April 2023 with construction works scheduled to commence in Quarter 3 of 2023. The Civic and Cultural Centre will be the first part of the project to be constructed and is expected to take 24 months to complete.The Swords Cultural Quarter will be located in the civic heart of Fingal’s County Town and will be a major new public and civic space with the new Civic and Cultural Centre and a Hub Building sitting alongside the existing Fingal County Council Offices and historic Swords Castle at the junction of North Street and Seatown Road.The Civic and Cultural Centre will be at the core of the Swords Cultural Quarter and will include a library space, performance venue and arts venue with a number of support facilities that can be utilised for artistic, cultural and community needs.The Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Seána Ó Rodaigh, said: “This is great news for Swords and Fingal as this is a flagship project for the county. The objective of the Swords Cultural Quarter project is to energise this area of Swords in order to make a balanced town that provides places, buildings and spaces for both cultural and economic activity for all its citizens and to create a new sense of place.” Established in 1988, O’Donnell and Tuomey is an award-winning architectural practice led by Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey, with studios based in Dublin, Cork and London. They have received over 120 national and international awards for their completed buildings.
Malahide Cricket Club is a historic club situated in the seaside town of Malahide, right on the idyllic grounds of Malahide Castle. Formed in 1861, the club now boasts 2 playing pitches, one of which serves as the International ground for our national team Cricket Ireland, a comfortable and cosy clubhouse and bar open 7 days a week which is available for event hire.This family and friendly oriented club has teams suitable for all ages, with 5 men’s teams playing in Division 2 through to Division 13, 2 women’s teams who play in Division 1 and 2, 8 boy’s teams from Under 11 to Under 17, 4 girls teams from Under 11 to Under 17 and a Taverners/ Social team. We also run an Easter Camp and two Summer Camps for girls and boys aged between 6 – 13 years of age. Details for these can be found on our website.The ground hosts club games, inter-provincial games and various international fixtures drawing large crowds and social activities, the largest being in 2013 when approximately 10,000 people were in attendance for the Ireland vs England one day international.Malahide Cricket Club is a welcoming environment open to new memberships all year round (including family and overseas memberships). We are easy to find, just a stone’s throw away from Malahide Train Station and Village, easily accessible by Dublin Bus, and only 10 minutes away from Dublin Airport. You can contact us by phone on 087-4190148 or email us at shaker676@gmail.com
Bravo Zulu to Néala Troop Ventures Kate, Niamh and Laura for being the very first crew to complete our Lighthouse Challenge! Clocking nearly 100 nautical miles the girls charted and sailed to each of our local lighthouses (Rockabill, Lambay, Howth, Bailey, Poolbeg, Kish) working together as a team, planning their expedition, managing their boat and navigating our coastal waters to complete a safe and successful passage. A fantastic display of teamwork and seamanship under various conditions. Well done girls.
By John Moore, Deputy Principal
Our Sixth Years had been great during the Covid lock downs in both 5th Year and 6th Year
To mark how well they did, we did a special Yearbook for them which we distributed only last week. We produced it late so that we could include their very special End of Year Graduation Ceremony. With the help of the Senior Prefects and a collosal amount of work, we managed to produce a top class year yearbook which of course, they thoroughly deserved. Attached is the actual yearbook, back page with all their names which as lists form some shapes – not all can see and the cover includes Vodafone -We are absolutely delighted to be Vodafone’s WiFi Centre of Excellence Pilot School for the rollout of their smart connect programme for the coming years.
While some of the covid restrictions are still in place , at Junsa we are still training outdoors while we have this fantastic weather. Our more experienced players are in preparation for international competition in August, if our travel restrictions allow it. At Junsa Taekwondo we always try to develop our students to their fullest potential, weather it’s Kyrougi ( fighting competition) Poomsae competition ( sets of Taekwondo moves which are judged in tournaments) or develop them into referees , coaches or train just for fun. There is something for everyone in Junsa Taekwondo.Junsa is always taking on new members young and old or past students are always welcome. Don’t hesitate to contact Master Stuart Russell on 087 7775202 or follow us on Facebook @ JunsaTaekwondo.
It was brilliant to see many of our athletes in competition action as the events came thick and fast across July. Between Dublin Graded meetings, Dublin Juvenile Championships and Leinster Athletics Track & Field Championships there was an opportunity for everyone to take part in their chosen events. There was a large medal haul for our athletes and it was clear to see the long lay off from competition has been put to good use. Thanks to our coaches and volunteers for there fantastic work and well done to all athletes who took part. The club also held a competition for U8 to U11 members on a very wet but fun night at the Hub
At Lusk United our players are central to all we do, so we thought we would let them have their say. We sent our trusty reporter off to a training session to ask some hard hitting questions. Meet our fantastic Under 10 boys.
Why do you like playing for Lusk United? The range of answers we got all centred around one key point… fun. This delighted us as our club ethos is work hard & have fun. Describe your team in one word. Interestingly we didn’t have a word repeated! Good, fantastic, great, class, amazing, best, professional, loud, brilliant and happiness all featured. Positive and reaffirming words. What makes a coach a good coach? A great question as what adults feel is a good coach perhaps doesn’t equate with what children feel. Our U10 boys felt a good coach makes football fun, explains well and is supportive. A coach who listens and helps with good training sessions. One who will tell you the truth, listen to the players and help out. A good coach is someone who tells you and teaches you what you need to improve. Each players’ response focused on having fun, identifying areas for improvement and learning how to improve, proving just how focused and tuned in these boys are. Now that we have peaked your interest, why not tune into our Facebook page to see more from our U 10 boys… Hear about the hardest game they ever played, their favourite footballer and their best memory at Lusk United so far. Meanwhile they will continue to try perfect the Rainbow flick, around the world, shooting on target and defending. Well done Under 10’s we loved hearing from you.
In other news we are delighted to see the completed remedial works to our ball stop nets at Rathmore Road. These works were partially funded by the Fingal County Council Sustainability Competition 2020 and the 2020 Community Enhancement Programme from the Depart of Rural and Community Development, Fingal County Council and the Local Community Development Committee The Executive Committee of Lusk United A.F.C. wish to thank those involved for making this happen.
