Foróige is so excited to announce our 2021 summer programmes will be launching on the 15th of June until the 20th of August! Our summer programmes are packed with fun and engaging activities for young people of all ages throughout the entire summer. Activities will include sports like basketball, football, outdoor obstacle courses and if you don’t enjoy sports, don’t worry. We will also be hosting a safe space to practice your graffiti skills, painting and artistic abilities. Want to sit back and just enjoy an outdoors movie? We have that too, amongst fishing trips and a nice picnic under the scorching sun. There is a specific focus this year on promoting health and wellbeing and this will be incorporated into all programmes on offer. Our summer programmes are inclusive to all of our projects and each week is dedicated to activities tailored specifically for everyone’s interests.

These free summer programmes will give young people the opportunity to express their creativity and their talents in a natural environment with the support of professional youth workers and hardworking volunteers. Young people will experience competitive games that will help them develop skills like teamwork and communication skills. The summer programme will be open to all the young people who are in a Foróige project or club. There is limited availability for those who are not currently involved with Foróige. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, we must restrict the amount of young people in each programme so we ask that if you are interested in registering interest you do it as soon as possible. You can contact us through our Instagram or Facebook page and we will forward on an expression of interest.For more information, contact Áine McGuinness on 086-7710790 or email aine.mcguinness@foroige.ie

A National SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Wastewater Surveillance Programme, that has been developed by a specialist team, with input from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), HSE, HIU, the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL), UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, and Irish Water,began work in early May.This wastewater surveillance programme will be an important part of the work being undertaken to monitor the prevalence of COVID-19 in communities across Ireland. The programme will measure the level of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater within 68 wastewater catchment areas across the country and will effectively operate as an early warning system for future possible waves of COVID-19 infection.

Professor Wim Meijer, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, Lead Investigator said, “The pilot study, funded by SFI and the Ireland Wales Programme 2014 – 2020 through the European Regional Development Fund, involving three wastewater treatment plants showed a very close correlation between the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 genetic material and the daily number of new COVID-19 cases. This demonstrates the usefulness of wastewater surveillance as a Covid 19 early warning system.”Ireland has over 1,100 public wastewater catchment areas where wastewater is collected and conveyed for treatment, so it would not be practical nor feasible to undertake surveillance in each of these.Consequently, to address this issue, and to ensure the programme captures as broadly as possible the position across the country, 68 wastewater catchment areas, covering each county in Ireland, were identified and selected.In this area they are in Balbriggan , Malahide, Portrane Donabate, and Swords.This will ensure the largest population centres are captured, and a comprehensive national environmental early warning surveillance system will be established.

Adel, a 3½ month old female Golden Labrador guide dog puppy in training, was welcomed into Anne Mulligan’s home on Thursday 6th May. Adel, part of the first litter of 2021, was born on the 29th January. Both her parents are French. Her mother is ‘Never’ and her father is ‘Pacha du Cesecah’. ‘Never’ gave birth to 9 pups, 6 female and 3 male.Sadly 1 male didn’t survive. Adel’s siblings are, Alice, Aska, Anya, April, Andrew, Alfie, and Anna. We will follow Adel’s progress over the next 12 months with interest. When you see Anne and Adel out and about, please be aware that when Adel is wearing her ‘Puppy in Training’ jacket, she should not be distracted or approached. If you have a dog with you, please give them both room to pass without interference. Adel’s daily training with Anne is a vital part of her journey towards becoming a Guide or Assistance Dog. Adel’s first visit to Balbriggan beach with Anne was exciting as she raced around freely enjoying all the new sounds and smells.Anne says, ‘Adel has settled in well and is a happy and an intelligent puppy’.We wish them well together.Yarrow update – Yarrow has progressed onto Advanced Training earlier than expected.He will be with 5 other dogs during his training until August/September. Looking back. In 1984 there was an article entitled ‘Robot Guide Dog’.Called ‘Meldog’, it had wheels instead of legs, sensors instead of eyes and its memory was a map reading computer. Meldog’s inventors were forced to admit ‘A dog has excellent abilities which we cannot imitate by a machine’. That’s why ‘Meldog’ is no more, and why we cherish real dogs like Adel and Yarrow who are selected and trained to become a Guide or Assistance Dog.Would you like to join our volunteers? Contact us by phone/text: 085 7663107 or Follow us on Facebook on guidedogsbalbriggan.

Fingal County Council is delighted to announce an exciting and varied programme for Cruinniú na nÓg which takes place on June 12, 2021. Cruinniú na nÓg, Creative Ireland’s annual day of free creative activity for children and young adults, has gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2018. It is an event that is unique to Ireland and is the flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland’s programme Creative Youth which aims to“give every child practical access to tuition, experience and participation in art, music, drama and coding by 2022”.Working In partnership with the 31 Local Authorities and supported by RTÉ, Creative Ireland works tirelessly to create a day where families and young people can participate in a wide range of fun creative activities that are all free. Fingal County Council’s Cruinniú na nÓg programme has been collaboratively developed by the Creative & Cultural team which is made up of cross departmental representatives with skills in many different areas of expertise. The result of the teams’ hard work is a programme full of events that is guaranteed to arouse curiosity, spark interest and ignite the imagination and most of all encourage the young people across the county to tap in to their creative side and have fun.The programme which has a combination of outdoor, live and recorded virtual events features a Dublin Zoo Webinar, Coding and Podcast Classes, Make and Do workshops, a Bespoke Interactive Radio Piece, a Story Trail set in the beautiful demesne of Ardgillan castle, Hip Hop and Dance classes, Music Tutorials, and young adult interest stories to name but a few, will ensure that Cruinniú na nÓg 2021 is a day filled with happy memories for all of the families, children and young people that get involved.For further information contact Fingal County Council

The Joe Duffy nursery will return on May 8th at 10am, with the 2015 group on the all weather and the 2016 + 2017 group on the main pitch. You can purchase your nursery membership now. The Joe Duffy sponsored Nursery & Academy is on every Saturday at Fingallians GAA Pitch. The nursery (children born 2016 and 2015) starts at 10am on the main pitch with the academy (children born 2014) starting at 10:30am on the astropitch. Please note we have protocols in place and registration must be completed before arrival on Saturday. Restrictions apply and please update your covid health questionnaire before each session. If you are interested in getting involved in coaching, admin or if you have any queries contact GPO Brian Jordan 0873372495.

Swords Tidy Town members have been keeping themselves very busy during this current lockdown. We set up a WhatsApp group so our members could communicate with each other and plan which areas they would be working to keep within the lockdown guidelines. They have gone out in all kinds of weather, to litter pick, to plant and weed, to remove graffiti, nothing was going to stop our enthusiastic group from taking pride in their town. We have asked our members when out to take pictures and forward them to us for posting on our Facebook page which has become very popular with the residence of Swords.Community spirit is alive and thriving, we are getting membership enquiries from all over the town every week, it’s a testament to all the hard work over many years put in by our group. Unfortunately, due to Covid we have been unable to fund raise as we once did. No Quiz Nights, no Bucket Collections on St Patrick’s Day and Halloween, no Supermarket Bag Packing etc, as a result our funds have been somewhat depleted.If anyone was of a mind to make a donation to us, we would very much appreciate it of course. Contact Ken Duffy 0866008313. We would like to thank Fingal County Council for all their help and support through these very difficult times, its not easy we know, we look forward to better days ahead. For those who have made donations to Swords Tidy Towns we thank you, you know who you are. Finally, a big thank you to our supporters who talk with us and congratulate us on our work when we are out and about, your encouragement means a lot to the volunteers. The National Tidy Towns Competition was not held last year, it is back for 2021 and our competition committee are hard at work putting together this year’s submission. It is no easy task compiling and stitching together all the different treads of information for each category, it’s like weaving a delicate tapestry bringing it together. We have succeeded in winning a Silver Medal with our last three entries, we hope and aspire to go one step further this year, to achieve a Gold Medal, wish us luck.

Men’s Shed Radio Bringing You the Best in Musical Entertainment, Information & Special Features fom Various Men’s Sheds. Quality Music from Various Genres including 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, Country, Folk, Ballads, Irish & More.. Also Shed “Spotlight Feature” Showcasing & Highlighting Various Men’s Shed’s Talents..We aim to Bring You Entertainment & Information, While providing some Company to You During these Difficult times. We Hope to Provide a Service to All Men’s Shed Members, Friends, Families & Supporters in the Community of Shedders & Beyond. Men’s Shed Radio is a Non- Profit Project and Community Based with the Interests of All Listeners taken into Consideration. Men’s Shed Radio will not Promote or Endorse any Anti Social Behaviour, Racism, Bullying or Partake in any such issues. Men’s Shed Radio Supports Community & Men’s Sheds Positive Projects & Stories. Men’s Mental Health is also a huge issue which we are very proud to support. Listen in every Monday.

It is with great sadness that we recently learned of the passing of Paddy Craddock ,may he rest in peace. A member of the first Malahide United FC Club team that was formed in 1946, Paddy played through the ‘40s and ‘50s for Malahide and was a committed committee member for many years. He blazed a trail to allow the club to become what we have today. He was a strong part of the development of the club. When the first team’s home pitch was at that time on the Yellow Walls Road called The Marshes, we then moved to a pitch in St Margareth’s Road. How times have changed. The club is indebted to his continuous commitment and support to the club at all times, a great supporter on match days and always looking for the club’s result. A wonderful long life that sadly has come to an end. A legend in his lifetime Ard Dheis De Go Raibh a Anam.

While still we are still training online and keeping our skills up to date, we are looking forward to the restrictions easing and beginning to train safely outside.It will be the first time since Christmas that we have trained together face to face.Here is just a few photos of our guys training online and one or two from the past. We hope everyone is keeping safe and hope to see you all soon.

Well done to our members and their families who took on a 24 hour relay challenge in April from Friday 3pm to Saturday 3pm in aid of Daffodil Day. There were 48 half hour slots to fill across the 24 hours and none were left blank. The weather was kind although those hardy enough to fill the slots in the early hours of Saturday morning had to endure sub zero temperatures. Thanks to the organisers. Donations kindly accepted to Daffodil Day 2021.
A reminder to parents to renew their children’s registration now that Juvenile training has resumed. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for full return to training details.A big thank you to our coaches & mentors for sending weekly training plans to keep us motivated while in lockdown. Good luck to everyone preparing for the Portmarnock 5k / 5 mile and the Drogheda 10k that take place in May. Don’t forget to register. Our photos all show those taking part in the Lusk AC 24 hour relay for Daffodil day.