The Executive Committee of Lusk United A.F.C. are delighted to inform you of the great news of our successful application for funding to the 2021 sports equipment grant of Fingal County Council (Sports Office). Lusk United A.F.C. will receive a payment of €2,000 which will partially support the upgrade works to the fencing at our all-weather training area at Station Road, Lusk. The Executive Committee of Lusk United expressed their gratitude to those involved for making this happen and they look forward to working with all stakeholders,particularly Fingal County Council, in delivering these upgrade works over the months ahead. Once again, it has been a busy month for the Lusk United Youth Council, as they continue to work to foster team spirit in our underage players while they are unable to train and play. This month saw the Easter Hunt. Local children firstly enjoyed painting rocks with an Easter theme, then heading out on Easter Sunday, with no doubt a belly full of chocolate, on a hunt for painted rocks. It is so heartening to see the Youth Council go from strength to strength and strive to provide children in our community with such fun activities. Meanwhile, it is all systems go as we prepare for the return to play. Pitches have been fertilised, reshaped and goalposts moved as we make facilities even better for our players and their long awaited return. If anyone wishes to get involved with our club as a volunteer, we would be delighted! The more the merrier as we #workhard and #havefun at Lusk United, aiming to make a better community for all.
At the April Area Committee meeting Cllr Rob O’Donoghue tabled a motion regarding the dangers of future increased traffic along the Station Road ,Lusk, linked to the new housing development and town centre and called for safe crossing points for current and future residents.Cllr O’Donoghue stated that ‘The area will be used by current and new residents accessing the new Lidl which will be constructed post the lifting of Covid restrictions. The increased traffic that this will bring will primarily affect residents of the surrounding estates and nursing home and provision should be made now to ensure the safety of residents accessing the new town centre and our nursing home.’ The response from the Council stated that a number of pedestrian crossings are to be provided, to facilitate access to the new development on Station Road. A zebra crossing will be provided on the Station Road arm of the Remount Roundabout. To the west of the entrance to the Community Centre, a raised table and uncontrolled crossing will be provided to provide access to the new town centre.Cllr O’Donoghue hailed the decision stating that ‘the new town centre will be used not only by residents of Lusk but also of surrounding towns, which will bring revenue into the town and that is welcomed. I am happy to see that the safety of pedestrians is also to be prioritised for residents accessing the new town centre.’
Lusk Tidy Towns recently launched our work programme for 2021. Thank You to the community for collecting litter!. Stay Safe. Pat Kelly (photo by Brian Egan) .
By Brian Arnold
May 2021 is a key month for looking to the future of Fingal and Lusk. The 12th May is the submission date for the first stage of the Fingal Development Plan while the 27th May is the date for submissions on the Fingal Coastal Way. In advance of these dates Lusk Community Council consultants, working on the Lusk Vision 2030, will be giving feedback on what you have told them. We hope that this feedback will help you to frame your submissions for Fingal County Council.We are mid-way through the Lusk Vision 2030, the consultants have completed extensive consultation both online and via virtual workshops. This represents a first for Lusk and the Community Council. The timing is very important as it is helping to frame the submission which will be made to Fingal County Council in advance of the 12th May deadline. We have to emphasise the importance of the Fingal Development Plan which will run to 2029. This document will affect all of our lives, so please take time to thInk about it and make a submission. Your views are what is important. Please do not take other peoples views and reheat them for your submission. Take 15 minutes to think about what you want and sketch out your ideas, write them down and submit via the Fingal County Council consultation portal. Fingal have set out 7 themes to make is easier to connect with and understand the process i.e.1. People & Place , 2. Climate Change,3. Connectivity and movement,4. Employment, economy and Dublin Airport,5. Cultural heritage, 6. Green infrastructure and natural heritage,7. Infrastructure and utilities.Covid 19 has brought so much more information online and Fingal County Council has made great progress in explaining the 7 themes and how you can engage on the new Development Plan via their website . This is important so take your 15 minutes to engage.The level 5 lockdown has prevented the commencement of the construction contract for the Lusk Community Cultural Centre on Church Road. However it is hoped that work will have commenced by the time that you are reading this article. Looking forward over coming months, if thevaccination programme does what we hope it will, we look forward to the reopening of our community facilities in Lusk and Fingal. Fingers crossed. Stay Safe, Suppress The Virus, Protect Each Other.
With the ongoing restrictions LSA members are unable to meet for training. Whilst some of our older training groups continued to follow their training plans on their own, we wanted to do something to unite all our juvenile athletes and coaches. The virtual challenge format provided by Athletics Ireland, with our own Olympic 2021 spin, gave us the ideal platform to do this with our “Three Week Olympic Challenge”. LSA was honoured that the CEO of Sport Ireland, sporting legend John Treacy, Silver medallist in the 1984 Olympic Marathon, took the time to introduce the challenge to our juvenile athletes.The challenge involved our 64 Juvenile members, ranging in age from 7 to 17. The idea was to form eight teams of eight and to mix athletes from different age groups and abilities. A coach and a team “country” was assigned to each team. Over three weeks we assigned three “events” for athletes to do in their own time, and asked parents to send the results to their team coach: Speed Bounce, 60m sprint and 300m time trial.We were very fortunate to be able to set up a temporary “race track” in the local area where athletes could run in their own time and record their results.Team coaches encouraged their eight athletes with advice and tips throughout the three weeks. The challenge was less about the competition and more about getting to know each other across the juvenile section: athletes, coaches and parents. It really delivered on that front and was a very rewarding experience. The many photos and videos we have from the three weeks are testament to that. Thanks to all the team coaches who were fantastic throughout and to the athletes who really embraced the whole spirit.“The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight; the essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.” Olympic Creed. For more information on any of our programmes, or If you have any questions, please email lambaysportsathletics@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook - Search “LSA”.
At the beginning of April, Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed was delighted to receive word that Fingal County Council had granted us a second plot at Turvey Allotments. Our first allotment has been the mainstay of our activities over the past year, when other pursuits have been curtailed. We are very grateful to the Council for giving us the opportunity to expand our work at the allotments. The past month has been remarkably busy. We cleared the plot of brambles, weeds and debris; we dug over and rotovated the entire plot, spread manure and erected fencing around the plot. A generous grant from Fingal Camber Community Fund was used to install a greenhouse, which we are using to propagate for planting outside. Anyone interested in joining, please contact Jim on 086-3694316.
By Breda Dockrell and Carolyn Smith
Fingal County Council is currently conducting a public consultation process to select a route for the Fingal Coastal Way; this will close on Thursday 27th May (2021). This is your opportunity to have your say; so don’t miss out. See the details at the end of this article for making a submission. The Fingal Coastal Way is a proposed coastal greenway extending along the northern Fingal coast from Newbridge House to the Meath Border (see Figure 1). It will link with the proposed Broadmeadow Way greenway from Malahide Castle to Newbridge House (which is being undertaken as a separate project) and the Sutton to Malahide Greenway, part of which is already constructed. In principle, this is a very welcome initiative by FCC. Unfortunately, none of the five possible routes identified by the consultants for the Donabate Portrane section of this Fingal “Coastal” Way (see Figure 2) capitalises on the full potential, in terms of recreation, tourism and heritage and business opportunities, of our beautiful peninsula.
Leithinis CCE Donabate Portrane held their Easter Slow Session of Traditional Irish Music and Song and it was a great success. A huge thanks to Erin McGahan and Fintan O’Reilly our Gaeilge and Youth officers who hosted the event. Along with leading the tunes they ran a quiz for the juniors which was a huge hit. Easter eggs were then delivered to all juniors who partook.We would like to thank Fingal County Council for the substantial grant under the Covid Round 2 fund for our 2nd gazebo. While it may be difficult to meet indoors, we hope that in the near future to meet outdoors for a pop up session in the gazebos as soon as restrictions lift. A special thanks to Rafe Costigan our FCC Community Officer for all the assistance he offers. We are continuing to hold classes over zoom which are going very well. In September we hope to add the concertina to our list of instruments offered. Our next slow session for members is on Friday the 7th May.Check out our Facebook page Comhaltas Leithinis Donabate Portrane for updates and information.
We love celebrations and treats in DPSO Club. Under “normal” circumstances we would have hosted a Christmas party for our athletes Santa was so disappointed at not being able to visit this year that he made contact with us and drafted our volunteers to help in delivering (in a socially distanced way of course) a small gift and treat to every athlete. It was great to see the joy on the faces of the athletes and a real boost for our volunteers.Valentines Day gave us another opportunity to send some love to our athletes; and we even got help from An Garda Siochána in delivering our treats. We even made it into the news! Our latest deliveries were on behalf of the Easter Bunny with every athlete receiving a gift and Easter Egg. We are so grateful to the generous donations from our supporters which make all this possible.Our #saturdaysmiles zoom sessions are still going strong, and the success has come to the attention of Special Olympics nationally and worldwide. We recently welcomed Mary Davis, the CEO of Special Olympics International to one of our sessions.On top of all this, twelve of our amazing athletes took part in Special Olympics Ireland virtual challenges. This Dynamic Dozen represented our club in three of the competitions offered; Athletics, Football and Motor Activities.Our athletes are delighted with their medals. Robbie Keane and Jacqui Hurley spoke at the virtual Award ceremony about how wonderful all of the participating athletes are; of course we already know that!
Corina Johnston, Labour Party local area representative is deeply concerned at the implications of the recent decision of the Progessive Credit Union to close their office in Donabate and is calling for a continued Credit Union presence on the peninsula.Johnston said: “The announcement that the Donabate office of the Progressive Credit Union is to close on 1st July 2021 has come as a major shock to its members and the wider community, especially as it seems that they were unaware that such an option was under consideration. This decision will have a serious impact especially on senior members who do not transact their business online and will now have to travel to their nearest office in Rivervalley, Swords, which has no direct bus service from the peninsula.” Johnston continued: “Donabate Credit Union was founded in 1968 and operated from various offices until their iconic Ballisk House was built and officially opened by President Mary Robinson in January 1996. The Credit Union has played an important role in the lives of its members and their families over the years.As a result of this decision, there will be no Credit Union presence in Donabate for the first time in 53 years. This is surprising given that Fingal County Council has designated Donabate as a growth area, with its population due to increase to over 20,000 over the next 10 years. Apart from the Post Office, the Credit Union remains the only financial institution within the parish.” Johnston concluded: “ While it seems from the replies received by Duncan Smith TD and I that the board intend to implement their decision, which will result in the closure of the office and the sale of Ballisk House, which was built as a result of the loans and shares of the members of the Donabate Credit Union over the years, I believe that it is in the interest of the members and the future growth of the Credit Union movement that a physical presence be maintained in Donabate especially with so many families moving into the area who would normally avail of the services of the Credit Union. In our correspondence with the Board of Directors we have urged them to take on board the views of the members and wider community by maintaining a physical presence on the peninsula”