We are a voluntary group which promotes the Tidy Towns competition and ideals in Balbriggan aiming to enhanGeorge’s Square was looking really well this morning. The flower towers and hanging baskets, provided by FCC, and the window boxes on the courthouse and McGowan’s really add a splash of colour. ce the beauty of our town. So why not get involved in Balbriggan Tidy Towns by joining our works party any Saturday morning @ 11am on Balbriggan beach.

Or why not adopt a patch? Choose a public area which you think you could maintain, tell us about it and we will provide you with some resources and support.Balbriggan is a fabulous, sea-side town, steeped in history and natural beauty; we aim to promote and enhance its charm, making it an even more pleasant place to live and visit. In the national Tidy Towns competition we have increased our score year on year and have won two Endeavour Awards in the last 5 years.

Looking for work? There are currently some Community Employment Vacancies in the Balbriggan Area, including a Kitchen Assistant position at Balbriggan Meals on Wheels. To apply for any of these positions, please check eligibility with DSP Employment Services/Intreo Office; or contact Mary Tormey CE Supervisor 01 8412253. Please do not contact Balbriggan Meals on Wheels directly.

Fingal Libraries annual Summer Stars Reading programme was launched by Mayor of Fingal David Healy & County Librarian Betty Boardman recently in Malahide Library. Summer Stars is an exciting, reading-based programme available free of charge to all children across the country. It will run in all Fingal libraries until 31st of August with the ultimate goal of encouraging reading during the summer holidays. All children are invited to register for the summer reading challenge with rewards and incentives along the way and a grand finale event at the end for all participants.As part of the programme, a range of children’s events will be held online during the summer to suit all interests – including author visits, technology workshops, creative writing, arts and crafts, storytelling, gardening workshops & biodiversity videos.Mayor of Fingal Cllr David Healy praised the Programme saying: “I am delighted to launch the Fingal Libraries Summer Stars Reading Programme which, as well as encouraging reading, has a wonderful and varied list of events to entertain and inspire children throughout the county this summer.” County Librarian, Betty Boardman, commented: “The Summer Stars Reading Programme is a fun way to keep children reading over the school holidays. Library staff have organised a great selection of events to tie in with the Programme which will keep children occupied whatever the weather.” For details of activities and events, please pick up a copy of Fingal Libraries’ summer brochure at your local library or view it online at Fingal Libraries’ website. You can also keep up to date with summer stars’ events by following Fingal Libraries on Facebook and Twitter.

Guide Dog Day and the 100K challenge for the month of May raised a total of €207,127. Students from Loreto in Balbriggan raised €210, students from Skerries Community College did a sponsored dog walk which raised €725. Georgina, Luke & Assistance Dog Milo’s Team raised an incredible €4,470. Luke’s teacher explains ‘Luke is in our ASD Class in Scoil Chormaic CNS, Balbriggan. We have seen the amazing impact that having Milo has had on Luke and his whole family’. The class of six boys were joined by Guide Dog ‘Qeb’ with Tom O’Neill, puppy raisers Adele Halpin with Lola and Anne Mulligan with Adel on their final walk. These 6 inspiring boys raised €1,755. Adele and Lola raised €423. Volunteer Dana Kelly raised €350. Thank you all for your support.

Our ‘Tap to Donate’ machine, is located at the door of Specsavers, Millfield Shopping Centre, Balbriggan. Just tap to donate €3. Simple to use it has raised €650 since February. For cash there are large collecting dogs located at the escalator near Tesco and one in Cuddles Pet Store while others are located in Balbriggan, Skerries, Lusk and Rush. Other technology helping raise funds are our new posters with a QR code on them. QR stands for Quick Response. Just scan the code with the camera on your mobile phone. A payment app will open which shows ‘Make a payment to Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind’. Key in the amount you wish to donate and select your bank, then follow the on screen prompts. Options are AIB business and personal, Bank of Ireland, business and personal, Revolut, Ulster Bank business and personal and Fire. The amount you donate is sent direct to Irish Guide Dogs in Cork. New volunteers are always welcome. We can be contacted by phone or text: 085 7663107 or email us at GuideDogsBalbriggan@gmail.com or follow us on Facebook at Balbriggan.Branch.of.Guide.Dogs

Over the past 2 months Foróige Balbriggan have focused their work on the pinewood and Castlelands area of the town. This piece of work has been funded by Fingal County Council as a response to the high levels of mental health issues young people are experiencing due to Covid -19. It has been documented that young people who have been involved in youth work throughout the pandemic have been coping better. Youth work interventions have been lacking in the pinewood and Castlelands area of the town. Foróige have therefore increased their presence in these areas where services were previously lacking.In order to establish Foróige in the community and to ensure all young people were being reached outreach was initially the focus of the project. 2 youth workers from Foróige took to the streets of Pinewood and Castlelands and walked around to find young people who were interested and wanted to join and any young person who could use Foróige for any additional support. They also made sure every young person they came across knew what Foróige was and what we do. 2 Foróige Junior clubs were established with 8 young people in each and 2 volunteer from the area also. The group set out on taking part in arts and crafts, adventure activities, played some competitive sports and made buckets of slime! Our young people have always been at the centre of what we do so they ask, we provide! We currently still have spaces for our Pinewood Summer Programmes, (Junior for 10-12) and senior cafe (13-16 and 16-18). Throughout summer we will be building a community action piece, spray painting, obstacle courses and many more activities. If you would like to register your young person we advise you do so as soon as possible by contacting Aine McGuinness at aine.mcguinness@foroige.ie .

Fingal County Council has urged local residents and stakeholders to get involved in the Sustainable Swords placemaking project which is focused on the regeneration and compact, sustainable development of the town.The ambition of Sustainable Swords is to provide a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of new development and spaces, as well as the protection and enhancement of existing assets in order to achieve better quality places as the physical setting for life in Swords.Two surveys have now opened as part of the consultation process and local residents, businesses and interested stakeholders are urged to get involved.More details on the project and the surveys can be found at www.fingal.ie/sustainableswords or alternatively on consult.fingal.ie/en/surveys.(nb: not accessible through this medium). The aim of Sustainable Swords is to identify a co-ordinated range of ‘pipeline’ projects for which future funding can be sought.Key objectives are to:Enhance the identity of the town centre through the: development of Swords Civic Centre and Cultural Centre; the on-going implementation of the conservation plan for Swords Castle; and the delivery of an enhanced accessible child-friendly public realm including new public nodes in Swords Town Centre.Facilitate the creation of a new street /pedestrian walkway fronting the river walk to the west of Main Street opening up these ‘backlands’ and support co-ordinated infill development on key strategic sites along Main Street and North Street.Promote core recreational and amenity spaces, utilising in particular Ward River Valley Park, Swords Cultural Quarter including Town Park, Ward River Walk west of Main Street area.Explore the potential of establishing a Swords Business Improvement District (BID).Expand upon the recommendations in the Swords section of the South Fingal Transport Study and develop a multi-modal transport strategy for Swords.Measures to enable regeneration of lands within the study area to ensure rejuvenation of the town centre and to enable activation of land for compact development.Establish a prioritised, programmed and impactful package of measures and projects.The Sustainable Swords strategy, which will include detail on a range of transformational projects, will be published in early 2022 so take part in the surveys now!

Fingallians GAA club in Swords was honoured with the recent news that the new GAA president Larry Mc Carthy has invited two club members to sit on the Association’s National Committees. Former Dublin Senior player Sinéad Ní Fhionnagáin was invited to be a member of the GAA Association’s Coiste Náisiúnta na Gaeilge (National Irish language committee). This committee is responsible for the implementation of the GAA’s Irish language policies across the 2,200+ GAA clubs across the world. The promotion of the Irish language is central to all GAA activities.Lifelong Fingallians man Liam Ó Culbáird was invited to take a role on the Association’s Coiste Náisiúnta Scór (National Scór Committee). Scór is the annual competition, organised in a similar manner to the All-Ireland football and hurling finals, that involves areas of Irish culture other than ball games. The Scór competitions involve céilí dancing, set dancing, recitation, drama, traditional music, ballads and table quiz. Liam said “It is an honour to be invited onto the National Committee. We will be endeavouring to raise the profile of the Scór competitions. Work needs to be done in Dublin but the competitions are popular across many regions of the country. In the last few years we have had clubs participating from New York and New Jersey. This is very encouraging.”Fingallians GAA Chairperson Colin Foley commented “The Irish language and the Scór competitions have been an area of strength within our club for a long time. This is due in no short measure to the efforts of Sinéad, Liam and may others. As a club we take great pride in our achievements. Fingallians GAA are honoured that two of our members have been invited to play a central role in the administration of the Association from Croke Park. Guímid gach rath ar Liam agus Sinéad. We know they are hard workers and I’m sure that is why they were chosen.”

Swords Tidy Towns was formed in 2005 as a result of Swords being designated the dirtiest of 30 towns in Ireland in the 2004 Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) report. We have come a long way since then, this is due mainly to all the trojan hard work put in by our Tidy Towns volunteers over the past sixteen years with the support of Fingal County Council. The hard work of the many volunteers over the years was rewarded in 2017, 2018 and 2019 with a national Silver Medal, the competition was not held in 2020 due to Covid. Our group has worked very hard this past year under very difficult circumstances prepping and preparing for this year’s National Tidy Towns Competition, all eyes are firmly focussed on achieving a Gold Medal this year (fingers crossed). Due to the inconsiderate behaviour of certain individuals, our work has been made unnecessarily harder and is a cause of much annoyance within local communities. Inconsiderate behavioural attitudes: Dog Fowling: Not cleaning up after your dog poos, no bin is no excuse. Bagged Poo: The discarding of bagged dog poo into the undergrowth is worse than not bagging it at all, it takes much longer to biodegrade and is very unsightly to others. Masks: These have become the bain of our life, they are strewn everywhere, there is no excuse whatsoever for this kind of behaviour, use a bin or take them home. Fly Tipping: The dumping of household waste in isolated country lanes and even into ditches, is environmental vandalism pure and simple. Graffiti: This has become another pandemic within a pandemic which uses up a lot of our time and resources, please refrain. Picnics: Rubbish left by people after a picnic on a sunny day has become a major problem, please bring a bag and take your rubbish home with you. Again, no bins available is never a good excuse for polluting an area. Nature is a very fragile thing, whether we accept it or not, we are her custodians.

We are delighted to announce that we will be re-opening for browsing and lending from the morning of Monday the 10thof May. We really look forward to welcoming you all back to the library.For those of you who don’t wish to come back into the physical library just yet, we will have a returns box outside the main door.

With the Government and NPHET urging people to “Think Safe, Think Outdoors” over the coming months, Fingal County Council has revealed its plans for an Outdoor Summer.At a recent meeting of the Council, Councillors were given a presentation which detailed how, from the June Bank Holiday Weekend, the public will be able to safely access the public realm in some of the county’s major towns.Councillors were also briefed on the supports being put in place to facilitate Outdoor Dining with areas in Swords, Blanchardstown, Skerries and Malahide, which have clusters of dining businesses, identified as locations that would benefit from special activation measures to support the hospitality sector.This will see New Street in Malahide being pedestrianised from June 6 and a walkway being introduced on Harbour Road in Skerries as part of a redesign of how people move through the area. Outdoor dining areas are also being established on Main Street, Swords, and Main Street, Blanchardstown.

Public Information Leaflets outlining the measures for Swords, Skerries and Malahide will be distributed to all households in those areas from tomorrow (Tuesday) with residents being asked to complete a survey on the proposals at consult.fingal.ie (not accessible through this medium) as part of a non-statutory public consultation that is open until May 21.Outdoor Dining will also be facilitated in other parts of those towns as well as in other towns and villages across the county, such as Balbriggan and Howth, through the issuing of licences, grants for outdoor dining furniture and a Parklet Partners scheme. Further information is available on the web at fingal.ie/outdoordiningsupports.ie (not accessible through this medium) The public realm measures will also include additional litter bins, public toilets and public benches as well as additional staff resources in key areas of the county and changes to the county’s Casual Trading Byelaws.Toilets in libraries in Malahide, Blanchardstown and Balbriggan will also be opened to the public. The Council has installed Changing Places Toilets in Millennium Park, Blanchardstown and is planning to install them at Ardgillan Castle.There will also be additional measures to promote Active Travel with an extension of the Bleeper Bikes scheme and the provision of additional bike parking facilities.