The official opening of the recently upgraded Park Road in Rush has taken place with the Deputy Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Robert O’Donoghue, unveiling a commemorative plaque to mark the occasion.Among those in attendance were local councillors, Cllr Brian Dennehy and Cllr Cathal Boland; Fingal County Council Chief Executive, AnnMarie Farrelly; Senior Engineer Paul Carroll; members of the Council’s Project Team and representatives of the main contractor Total Highway Maintenance Ltd, engineering consultant O’Connor Sutton Cronin Associates, St Maur’s GAA Club and Gaelscoil Ros Eo. The €1.7m project, which was completed earlier this year after 11 months of construction, involved approximately 470 metres of full road widening and reconstruction with fully segregated cycling and pedestrian infrastructure with toucan crossing. It also facilitated the upgrading of watermain, storm and foul sewer infrastructure. The Deputy Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Robert O’Donoghue, said: “The upgrading of the Park Road was a major objective for councillors in the Rush-Lusk Local Electoral Area because of the need to improve access to St Maur’s GAA Club and Gaelscoil Ros Eo and it has made a big difference since it was opened to traffic.” Senior Engineer Paul Carroll said: “The upgrading of the Park Road forms an integral part of the Kenure Local Area Plan and will enable continued delivery of the LAP including improved access to adjacent housing and school development lands.”

The Lusk Heritage Group investigates the Boundary stones of the Remount Farm. They have located the majority of these stones, some were found in ditches and gardens in the locality of the Remount Farm. The stones have the War Department WD inscribed in the early 1900’s and were placed there in the absence of fences to accommodate the free movement of horses during their training for use in the first world war.

We in Lusk Action Group feel very strongly about the protection of nature, biodiversity and environment and we are engaging with Fingal County Council and other community groups to find ways of encouraging this. We saw recently how poor the hedgerow legislation really is and have been in contact with Minister Joe O’Brien regarding this. The Green Party have secured a commitment to fully review and reform the legislation so that it does actually protect our precious hedgerows, and that this protection is not subject to the morals of individual builders or developers. The builders of Fingal’s affordable housing scheme on Kilhedge Lane have agreed to postpone the removal of the hedgerow until after August. We have begun engagement with FCC regarding the building of an enclosed Multi-Use Games Area for our young people, including basketball court. Realistically, this will take a couple of years to deliver as funding for this will not become available until next January. We would like to sincerely thank John Fitzgerald of Foroige, who recently moved post to Blanchardstown, for all his amazing work with young people in Lusk over the last number of years and for his support and help since our forming. John has been a huge asset to our area and his energy and dedication never wavered. We wish him every success. Our loss is Blanchardstown’s gain. It is great to see work on Katie Hunt’s cottage, “Lusk Community Cultural Centre” well underway! This will be a wonderful amenity for Lusk in the future. Congratulations to Lusk Community Council for delivering this. We are enjoying the lovely flower tubs filled recently by Lusk Tidy Towns and the large flower tubs in the square which were done by FCC. Thank You! And the monthly community litter picks seem to be making a huge difference. Thanks to Willie McGee for all his hard work. We are encouraging everyone to “Adopt a Patch”, keeping an area near where you live tidy and clean. Email balswooparea@fingal.ie or environment@fingal.ie to get your litter picking pack. Enjoy your Summer! All in LAG .

As the first public consultation on the Fingal Development Plan 2023 – 2029 has now come to a conclusion, I would like to highlight some issues that I will be asking for the community of Lusk support in the coming months.Having reviewed the submissions pertaining to Lusk, I am disappointed to have read a number of submissions that are advocating for the expansion of the town boundaries to facilitate the rampant development of our town.We face submissions which seek to extend the boundary in the direction of Rush, which would whittle away the green belt between our towns and see a surge of additional traffic on our roads. Twinned with this we have a further submission for a large swathe of land adjacent to Chapel Farm. I will state again, that there are currently sufficient lands zoned to met the needs for sustainable development for the next ten years. The focus for this Development Plan for Lusk needs to be having the town settle and to have infrastructure and amenities brought into the town to service our young and growing community, not focussed on additional residential zonings. I will be calling on the people of Lusk to support me in this endeavour and asking the whole community to make submissions to this end when the second public consultation on the Development Plan opens in Spring 2022.

Recently Leithinis had a trial run at setting up their new gazebos. They did a small, socially distanced, sanitised event - adhering to all Covid guidelines - with a few members. It was the first time people had played together in over a year, so while a bit rusty they rattled of the trad tunes! We want to sincerely thank Fingal County Council for grant aiding our comhaltas group to buy two gazebos. FCC showed great vision in supporting this venture which permits events to take place safely outdoors as soon as lifting of restrictions allow. We hope to be able to allow some other groups, on certain special occasions, to be able to use them also on site at the Parish Hall. We are indebted to Donabate Parish Hall Committee also for their vision, in allowing us to put them up at this location and to hold events of this cultural nature. Keep playing your Irish Traditional tunes and we look forward to good times in the future; as Covid Restrictions abate to many good Gigs in our Gazebos! For further information contact E-mail us to eithinis@comhaltas.net- query to Secretary Jim O Donohoe. Further information re the Autumn programme in the August edition.

St Pats were delighted to chosen recently to feature in the LGFA County Board’s ‘Club Focus’ series. Pats have grown from a small North Dublin football club set up in 1924 to a 950+ member club covering Ladies Football, Camogie, Gaelic Football & Hurling operating on the ‘One Club’ model sharing Clubhouse and pitches. They are active in the primary and secondary schools where their players enjoy the best of Club & School coaching & fixtures. A Ladies team was begun in 2000 but unfortunately due to emigration, the team folded. LGFA was resurrected later in the 2000s with two juvenile teams A task force was set up to increase the number of LGFA teams with the aim of having a team every 2 years. Injections of fresh blood into the section over the last few years have seen the Club far exceed this goal. Their social media hashtag is #ProudToBePats and they now proudly boast LGFA teams at almost every year. LGFA is the fastest growing section of the Club! They’ve also increased their female representation on the Club Executive and committees; female player representation on player committees now accepted as standard. Their referees all learn LGFA, Football & Hurling rules ensuring that future players are aware of all sections of this growing club. Despite the restrictions, 2020 was a successful year for LGFA in the Club. Their Adult squad – mentored by Aidan Coppinger & Adrian Brophy – only missed out progressing to their Championship Semi Final on goal difference. They went on to beat a strong Kickhams side in the Shield Final. The minors in Division 4, U16s in Division 3 and U14s in Division 3 all fought their way through to their Championship Semi Finals before the season came to a shuddering halt.Their teams are delighted to be back training and that the season has begun for Cup, League and the Championship. The future is the Club is bright – the future is Green & Black! If you live in Donabate/Portrane and you’d like to get involved in LGFA – juvenile or adult – or G4M&O, just contact them at info@stpatsgaa.com. (NB: not accessible through this medium). Similarly if you’d like to get involved with GAA, just drop them a line as new members are always welcome in all ages and codes. Ní neart go cur le cheile.

The Mayor of Fingal Cllr. Seána Ó Rodaigh was delighted to make a presentation to St Patrick’s Boys National School Donabate this morning as winners of The Battle of the Book 2021. Fingal County Librarian Betty Boardman and author Brian Gallagher were also on hand to meet the winning class and their teacher Sarah Donohoe. The Battle of the Book is an annual competition run by Fingal Libraries. The programme is designed to encourage the children to read and gain confidence, to discuss a common book providing a shared experience of reading and to ignite a reading for life culture.Every year 6 schools in Fingal receive 30 copies of a book by a well know author, this year’s book was “Pawns” by Brian Gallagher to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of the Sack of Balbriggan. The other schools that took part this year were Pope John Paul II National School, St. Oliver Plunkett School, St Patricks Boys National School, Castaheany Educate Together, Sacred Heart National School and St. Mary’s National School.

The Peninsula Pacers first walk in a very long time, due to Covid Restrictions, took place in early June on a glorious summers day. We walked through the Portrane Hospital Grounds down the Ladies Walk along the Cliff Walk to the Tower. At Portrane Green we stopped to rest on the new Bleeper Bikees so when we need a quicker way home we can hop on a bike! We ended at the Brook Pub - where we had cool drinks, ice cream & coffees and pizzas & pastas to round off a lovely day. Our next walk will be on Thursday 15th July and we intend maybe having 2 routes - a longer harder walk and a shorter easier walk to facilitate all levels of walkers. For further information please contact: Carolyn on 087 9284307 or Breda on 086 8693243.

Congratulations to Third Year students who were in attendance live and via Teams at the Third Year Awards ceremony recently.It has been a difficult time for all students, however our Third Year students adapted to online learning not once, but twice over the course of their Junior Cycle studies. We are very proud of them for how they have managed their learning and for the knowledge and skills they have shown. Ms Leahy and Mr Creevey both spoke to the group and praised them for all they had achieved over the course of their Junior Cycle and wished them every success as they moved into Transition Year and 5th Year.Awards were presented to students in subjects, a school spirit award, Student of the Year and Academic Awards.All students then got the opportunity to play some sport or relax with their classmates before being treated to Scrumdiddly’s ice-cream! Congratulations to Third Year students. We hope you have a wonderful summer and look forward to seeing you back in the new term!

This years award winners were - English: Maksymilian Okuniewicz - Irish: Dara Heffernan - Maths: Laoise Howe - History: Hubert Wolanin - Geography: Caoimhe Murphy - Tech Graphics: Abigail Shevlin - French: Odhrán O’Connor - Spanish: Ava Pender - Business Studies: Eimear Davey - Home Economics: Lía Bracken - Art: Moya Bishop - Technology: Oscar Donohue - PE: Kyle Cumisky - Sport Award: Lauren Van Druemel, Aliyatt Badmus - School Spirit Award: Finn Donovan, Darragh Brogan, Katie May, Emma Walsh, Jasmin Egan. - Student of the Year Nominees: Aliyatt Badmus, Ruby Corcoran, Ella Nolan, Niamh Gaffney, Moya Bishop - Academic Achievement Nominees: Sophie O’Neill, Jamie Whelan, Odhran O’Connor, Hubert Wolanin, Ava Pender - Academic Achievement Award: Hubert Wolanin, Ava Pender - Student of the Year: Aliyatt Badmus.

When the Leaving Cert Class of 2021 began their Senior Cycle journey in September 2019, they could not have known how the following two school years were going to transpire.

Navigating online learning from March to May 2020 and again from January to March 2021 has without doubt proved challenging.However, the Donabate Community College Leaving Cert Class of 2021 have acquitted themselves admirably. They have developed their resilience, self-reliance, communication skills, all the while covering the Leaving Cert curriculum and looking out for their families and each other. Thus, it is with a great sense of pride we arranged this year’s Leaving Cert Graduation.While we could not carry out our normal ceremony, Sixth Year Year Head Ms Curran ensured no stone was left unturned to make this year’s Graduation special for this year’s graduates.While the year group remained in their classes, they tuned into speeches via Microsoft Teams from Mr Doyle, Mr Creevey, Ms Curran, Mr Henchy and 6th Year student Jessica Dolan. Students were also treated to a video of their memories, before collecting their graduation medal and a specially commissioned booklet. A huge congratulations to Jessica Dolan who spoke on behalf of students and reminded them that perseverance and determination are everything. On behalf of students, Jessica also thanked Mr Creevey, Mrs Flynn, Mr Doyle and the staff at Donabate Community College for their constant support and kindness. Many thanks to Chairperson of the Board of Management, Mr Adrian Henchy who congratulated the students on their achievements and wished them every success no matter where life takes them next. A big thank you to past students Jake O’Toole and Jodie Clinton from ‘The Balloon Basket’ for the wonderful balloon decorations and Megan Hogan of milisbymegan for the beautiful cupcakes each student received.We congratulate each member of this year’s Leaving Cert Class and wish them well as they move on to the next stage of their lives.