Recently at Junsa Taekwondo we held our annual belt grading and graduation

When you start taekwondo, you start as a white belt and as time progresses and you learn new skills and new Poomsae’s (a set of moves that must be performed as part of your training) that range from basic to advanced. We use the grading system to set our students goals and improve their skills.

The grading is full of many different aspects so that if one individual is not as good at one skill but is better in other aspects, then this can give them a great sense of accomplishment.

Firstly, we would like to congratulate our newly elected TDs, Louise O’Reilly, Grace Boland, and Rob O’Donoghue. A special congratulations to Rob, who has supported and represented our community for the last five years as a councillor. Rob has been an integral part of LAG’s committee since its founding and has been central to Lusk’s progress. His success in the general elections is testament to how hard he works for our community, and we wish him every success at a national level, and look forward to having his continued support. We thank all our outgoing TD’s, especially Joe O’Brien, who gave such support to our community during his time in Dáil Eireann.

Following on from a recent meeting with community, An Garda Siochana, Fingal County Council and Foroige, Lusk Action Group is looking to support the set-up of resident’s associations in all Lusk estates. Just 2 of our 12 estates are active as associations. The benefits are many, including proper representation in Fingal County Council, access to funding for community days or improvements within estates etc and a great structure in which to have informal sports events for kids and teenagers, to name a few. It is a tool to create positive change in your estate, to find solutions to issues and is a place to create friendship and strong community. This will be supported by Fingal County Council and set-up will be made to be as simple as possible. Having properly formed associations is an advantage for FCC and an advantage for the residents and the wider community.

At least 6 people would be needed to form a committee. Ask your neighbours to get involved. Lusk has a wonderful and strong history of volunteerism. It is the thing that sets us above other communities and is what recently won us the prestigious Pride of Place award.

Get in touch with us by email at luskactiongroup@gmail.com

What a busy month the ladies of Lusk ICA had of celebrations fun and hard work.

We joined Lusk Heritage who invited us to their Christmas Card Launch in GAA. We wish all the best to Pat Kelly and thank her for all her hard work over the years.

10 members travelled by train for four nights to Tracy’s Hotel in Waterford for the Christmas cracker celebration.

We had a really enjoyable time together with the lovely food dancing entertainment every night, and we shopped till we dropped during the day. A special thanks to Marie OSullivan for organizing it.

The ladies enjoyed a lovely meal in The La La Restaurant, followed by the fantastic The Ronan Collins Showband Hits show in the Lark Theatre and he came out and met us all after the show.

Then we held our annual Christmas market on Sunday, 1st December in the Lusk Scout Den. It was a great day of hard work, baking making crafts, jams and chutneys hampers.

Our thanks to everyone in the community who supported it, and of course all the children who came see Santa in his magical grotto.

A number of us joined the Senior Citizens and met all our lovely neighbours and friends in the Glenside Hotel for their annual Christmas dinner.

The Lusk ICA Guild meet on the 1st Thursday every month in the Scouts Den at 8.15pm, we would be delighted for new members to come along and join us.

St. Maurs GAA club in Rush has announced Carroll Estates as the headline sponsor for its ball wall and skills area, which is being upgraded to include a 3G surface, new fencing and improved lighting. With over 1,300 members, 40 juvenile teams, 16 adult teams and an All-Stars section for young adults with special needs, the ball wall is a vital resource for every player to sharpen speed, agility, footwork and hand-eye co-ordination.

To celebrate the sponsorship, Roisin Carroll, director of Carroll Estates visited the club on Sat 7 December to unveil the new wall ball mural commissioned from local artist Sheena Joyce and Darragh Mulryan of Darragh Signs.

Club treasurer Peter Monks said “The Carroll Estates sponsorship is key for St Maurs as it will enable us to fund the upgrade of our vital ball wall area, and we aim to have the project completed by summer 2025. This forms the last infrastructure phase in our development plan, ‘Create the Future’, which was launched in 2018 and sets the club on a good path towards our centenary in 2028.”

It also marks the beginning of an eight-year partnership between the club and the company. To support the amazing work of the staff and volunteers at St. Maurs, Carroll Estates will be providing a ‘Local Hero of the Month’ prize of a €100 One4all voucher to a deserving winner picked by the club in January 2025.
Carroll Estates, which is celebrating 50 years in business, will be building homes in the Rush area over the next eight years. Roisin Carroll, director of Carroll Estates, said, “We are delighted to partner with St. Maurs GAA, a cornerstone of the Rush and Loughshinny communities, as they continue to inspire and empower people of all ages through sport. Supporting the development of the ball wall and skills area aligns with our commitment to fostering community growth and well-being.

The club, which was founded in 1928, has doubled in size over the past ten years as its local catchment area of Rush and Loughshinny continues to grow and also provides playing facilities for five local schools. Recent achievements for the club in 2024 include winning the Dublin Men’s Under 21 Football Championship, ladies football played at Division 1 level, and becoming the crowned champions in the Camogie Intermediate 2 category.

The club was recently honoured at a ceremony in Croke Park on Saturday 9 November 2024 as one of 90 Green Clubs across Ireland taking sustainability action for the club and community.

We would like to wish all club members a very happy and successful New Year. 2024 was another fabulous one for the club with record membership levels and fantastic performances in all races and competitions. Well done to all our athletes and a huge thank you to our hard-working coaches and committee members.

Membership for 2025 is now open and we ask all existing members to please renew as soon as possible. New members are very welcome. The increasingly popular Lusk 4 mile road race is only two months away so register before it sells out. Some of our athletes travelled overseas for December marathons in Valencia and Turin. There was also a Lusk AC parkrun takeover where our latest Fit4Life group completed their graduation 5k runs. The races will be coming thick and fast from January onwards so talk to your coach for a training plan to suit your needs.

The Leithinis CCE played traditional Irish music at the tree lighting ceremony in Portrane on Sunday 8th December. We were delighted to have so many members and friends playing trad together. Though the conditions were challenging with biting winds and freezing temperatures, the hot chocolates and mulled wine provided by the Brook Pub warmed us all up nicely. The music and songs continued afterwards in the Brook where we thawed out and had a chance to warm up.

Leithinis CCE run traditional music lessons in DPETNS on Monday nights with a new term commencing mid-January. Keep an eye on our website for enrolment dates and further details. www.leithinis.com. We cater for juniors, and seniors of all levels. I would advise anyone who is interested to get in contact with us through the website and we’d be delighted to assist.

We run a trad session for our members on Monday evenings at DPETNS as well as Friday slow sessions in the parish hall 2 Fridays each month. There’s always plenty going on and playing together is a great way to learn new tunes, improve technique and enjoy music in a very relaxed and sociable setting.

The final slow session of this year, Friday 13th December was held in Keeling’s Pub. It was a festive and sociable gathering and a culmination of all the practice and learning throughout the year.

The news that additional services on the 33D line from Portrane to Dublin City Centre are to be provided by Dublin Bus has been warmly welcomed by Cllr Corina Johnston. Johnston said; “Duncan Smith TD and I have been campaigning for the last few years for additional 33D direct bus services from Portrane to the City Centre. Duncan raised this with the CEO of Dublin Bus at numerous Joint Oireachtas Transport Committee meetings and We have been also raising this matter on an ongoing basis with the NTA (National Transport Authority).”

“Over the last number of months in conjunction with regular bus users of this service I carried out a passenger capacity survey which highlighted 20-25 passengers standing on this bus service on a regular basis. This information was collated and provided to the NTA and Dublin Bus. As a result, Dublin Bus carried out a feasibility study which fully justified our case for additional services.” We were subsequently informed by Dublin Bus that they intend to provide additional services in early 2025. Further details will be provided in the coming weeks.”

On Wednesday 20th November 9 members of the AAfA camera club decided to take advantage of their free travel passes, and the extra Enterprise express train times, to go to the Belfast Christmas Market. On arrival in Belfast, after a very comfortable journey, most opted for the open-top bus tour of the city which was interesting, informative and very COLD!

After having lunch, and thawing out, in a nice warm cafe we ventured across the road to the market which had a distinctly continental air with a great variety of stalls, plenty of shopping and photo opportunities. We finished the day with a visit to one of Belfast’s oldest and best-preserved Victorian pubs, the Crown, a lovely spot. After another comfortable journey we arrived back in Donabate at 6.15pm with all happy and planning a lot more rail excursions.

Tuesday 10th December was the date for Active Age for Alls’ annual Christmas Carol fund raiser for St Francis Hospice to help to support the wonderful work that they do. It was very well attended and all enjoyed refreshments of home bakes, tea, coffee and non-alcoholic mulled wine. We were serenaded by the AAfA singing group led by Ed Mallarky, enjoyed a number from Willie Cahill and some rousing renditions from the marvellous Bright Sparks crèche children.

Many thanks to all the local businesses and individuals who donated items for the raffle, there were over 50 so the draw took quite a while; we managed to raise over €1,000 so well done to all !

Dates for the Diary (2025): January 6th & 7th: online registration for AAfA members; 8th & 9th Jan – walk in membership and registration in DPCC; Friday Jan 17th: AGM; Monday Jan 20th: Classes commence for the Spring term.

In October, we did a great walk from Greystones to Bray on a beautiful day when we went up to The Cross at Bray Head. We finished up in the Heritage Hotel for some great food!

In November, we did a flat easy route through St Anne’s Park down to the coastal walk and along the NEW Green Way along the Docks at the East Point Business Park. We finished up in The Yacht in Clontarf which is self-service but still great food!

Both walks were all by train & bus - active travel at its best!

In 2025 there are three walks organised which are all short to medium length and easy in terms of difficulty a fairly good level of fitness is still required!

January 18th - Clontarf - NEW Greenway Docks Walk - 6/8km - Train
February 1st - City Walk - La Féile Brįd - 6/8km - Train
March 8th - Walk Short part of the Pilgrim Way in Armagh & Visit Navan Fort - 6/8km - Car
If you are interested in walking please contact Carolyn 087 9284307

As part of the lead up to Tradfest 2025, the Parish Hall will host Céilí House for RTE 1. In early January, an hour-long programme of Céilí House - the best of Traditional Irish Music & Song - will take place in the Parish Hall. It will, as always, be presented by the renowned presenter and musical talent Kieran Hanrahan. This is an honour not just for the Parish Hall but our village that Céilí House will take place in our local community.

During ‘Tradfest’ which takes place from Wednesday 22nd - Sunday 26th January 2025. in Fingal (Dublin City & South County Dublin)

There will be a number of events & gigs in Fingal - Donabate Community Centre will have the famous ‘Stocktons Wing’ on Friday 24th January - which should be a great gig. Kieran Hanrahan equally famous brother Michael is a member of the band and will be playing that night!

We are honoured & delighted that the two brothers will be in our parish promoting Traditional Irish Music and thank Martin Harte CEO of Tradfest and FCC Events team for bringing them here!

Thanks to FCC yet again and our Community Officer - Rafe Costigan - for supporting and assisting with the refurbishment of the Parish Hall, especially the acoustic panels which allow for eg music events and dramas to take place.

Look up the Tradfest website now to see what is on - especially in the Fingal area.

With regard to music! Gerry & the Plonkers will be performing again in the Parish Hall from 12-2pm on three Wednesdays in 2025: Wed 22nd Jan; Wed 12th Feb and Wed 12th March.

There will be Dancin & Singin - and lots of great music All adults in the parish are invited for two hours of fun! Refreshments served at 12noon then it’s up and dancin!

Music Makers
Will be back in January with Noel Dowling & Sean Collins leading the way. Keep an eye on Facebook & email Noel musicmakersph@gmail.com for further info. Thank you to all who have donated instruments so far! Adults over 18’s this is your chance to play your instrument with like minded people mad about music

The Parish Hall thank you for your patience with the maintenance work & refurbishment that is taking place at the beginning of January - this is necessary to keep the Parish Hall in good order for your use.

The daily programme is continuing to fill & fill and there are very few slots left for further information please contact the Parish Office on 01-8434574.

Finally, we wish all who live in our community a very, very Happy & Healthy New Year.