On Wednesday 25th September a trip to the Guide Dog Centre in Cork was organised by Tom O’Neill who was joined by a group of local Balbriggan/North Co Dublin volunteers along with some of Tom’s and his son Eoin’s friends. The group travelled to Cork and back with Irish Rail who were most helpful to all but gave additional help to those on the trip who needed the extra support.
The headquarters pulled out all the stops! Chris Bennet of the fundraising department met the volunteers and friends off the bus when they arrived, he was accompanied by Tim O’Mahony, C.E.O and Mary Terry from the office staff. Sinead and her kitchen team laid on a lovely lunch and two local volunteers, Dermot and Tom broke the group up into two separate groups and showed everybody every part of the centre. It was a joy and also a lonesome moment to see Breege’s bus again.
The volunteers got to see the work involved for the students in training their new guide dogs as Sam the guide dog trainer demonstrated to the group. The feedback on the train home was that it was a wonderful trip. The staff were amazing and what a fantastic facility. A great day was had by all and we would like to thank the Headquarters for being so welcoming and showing us around.
As Christmas time approaches, you might want to keep a lookout for our merchandise stand over the next couple of weeks as we will be out and about. Keep an eye on our social media accounts for details on where we are going to be set up. We will have car raffle tickets available for €5, with the chance to win a Citroën C4 Plus Hybrid. Our 2025 calendars and Christmas cards will also be available.
Our Balbriggan/North County Dublin branch also held a coffee morning on 22nd of October in the Senior Citizen Hall in Balbriggan. Our raffle last year was a huge success at the event, and this year was no different! We gave away some fantastic spot prizes and a great morning was had by all.
You can contact Balbriggan/North County Dublin Branch of Irish Guide Dogs by phone/text 0857663107, email: GuideDogsBalbriggan@gmail.com or find us on Facebook at Balbriggan Branch of Guide Dogs.
Four properties in Balbriggan were chose to feature in this year’s Irish Architecture Foundation’s Open House Dublin in October. Balbriggan was at the centre of the festival, with four architecturally acclaimed venues in the locality among those throwing open their doors to the public. Among them was The Lark, the country’s newest, most innovative, entertainment venue.
The Lark is this year’s winner of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland Public Choice Award - voted the public’s favourite building.
The other featured venues in Balbriggan were Ardgillan Castle; High Street Balbriggan and Open Studios.
Meanwhile, UCD architecture students recently visited Balbriggan to view the progress and plans of the Our Balbriggan Rejuvenation Programme.
The transformational project is aimed at creating a high-quality public amenity and premier visitor destination to revitalise Ireland’s youngest town.
The €50million 2019-2030 Our Balbriggan Rejuvenation Programme aims to create a more attractive, connected place where people want to live, work, visit and do business.
Key milestones have been reached as work continues at pace on the transformational €15million Balbriggan Quay Street and Harbour project.
The students also learned of works planned for the former RNLI Boathouse, the transformation of 6a-14 Bridge Street and a creative hub at 2-4 Dublin Street.
The ambitious vision contained in the Our Balbriggan Rejuvenation Programme was the result of an historic community engagement in 2019 which saw more than 25% of residents outline their preferences for the future of the town Dr David Begg, chair of the Our Balbriggan Leadership Group, said the visit was tangible evidence of the positive impacts of the Our Balbriggan Rejuvenation Programme.
“Its purpose was to bring to life the Our Balbriggan Rejuvenation Programme,” he said.
“There was both a visual learning experience with follow up presentations on how the ambitious socio-economic and architectural rejuvenation of Balbriggan has been shaped by the community and brought to life by Fingal County Council.”
Author and podcast host Georgie Crawford has teamed up with Specsavers Balbriggan to encourage budding authors to enter their nationwide short story competition.
The competition launched to help celebrate Specsavers’ sponsorship of the Junior and Senior Children’s Book of the Year categories at the An Post Irish Book Awards 2024.
As an author and a mum to two young children, Georgie is encouraging children to get involved in the competition.
“Parents and guardians, I urge you to encourage your children to dive in – you’ll be amazed by what they create. And who knows, they might just surprise themselves (and their school!) with a win,” she said.
The winner of the junior and senior category of the Specsavers short story competition will win €500 for their school library along with all the titles shortlisted in the Specsavers Irish Children’s Book of the Year categories at the An Post Irish Book Awards 2024.
Georgie’s top tips for writing a short story:
Believe in your story magic: You have stories bursting inside you, just waiting to be told! Trust your ideas, no matter how big or small, silly or serious. Let your imagination soar and don’t be afraid to explore the unknown corners of your creativity.
Write about what you love: What makes your heart sing? Is it a day at the beach, a video game adventure, a special friendship, or maybe a dream you once had? Turn your passions and real-life experiences into stories that will resonate with readers.
Fuel your imagination: Be a reading explorer! Journey through different kinds of books – funny comics, thrilling mysteries, magical fantasies. Discover what other authors do and ask, “What if?” to spark amazing story ideas of your own.
Make it exciting: Show, don’t tell! Instead of saying “The monster was scary,” describe its slimy scales, razor-sharp teeth, and bloodcurdling roar. Use all five senses to bring your story to life and don’t forget to add a problem or challenge for your character to overcome.
Writing tips: Start small – even a few sentences is a great start! Read your story aloud to yourself to see how it sounds. Don’t be afraid to ask grown-ups, teachers, or friends for feedback. And most importantly, don’t give up! Writing takes practice, but the more you write, the better you’ll become.
Most importantly, have fun! Writing should be an enjoyable adventure! Let your imagination run wild, embrace silliness and surprise, and savour the process of bringing your unique story to life.
To enter Specsavers’ competition simply create a short story, no longer than 500 words, inspired by the carnival picture.
“The carnival had come to town, a buzz of colour and noise. But there was one stall, tucked away in the corner, that was different. It was completely silent, and the sign above it read ‘See Your Dreams - One Euro Only’. I knew what to do…
Closing date for entries is Tuesday 7th January 2025. All entries should be posted to:
Specsavers Short Story Competition, c/o WHPR, 6 Ely Place, Dublin 2.
You can also pick up an entry form at your closest Specsavers store or submit online at www.specsavers.ie/irish-book-awards
Autumn brings with it the return to school and routine after-school activities and Swords Karate Club has been busy as students returned to training after the summer holidays. All classes are working hard and refreshing their karate skills with the ai of improving enough in time for Grading examinations in December.
October promises to be a busy month with visits from two Japanese Instructors. At the beginning of the month, we will host Yamaguchi Sensei 8th Dan JKS for a two-day seminar, while later in the month we will have a visit from Watanabe Sensei for an evening seminar. Both Instructors come with a high pedigree of JKS karate, and both are Instructors in the JKS Honbu Dojo in Japan. We are looking forward to their sessions immensely and will have a short report of both in our next news.
We hosted JKS National Brown & Black Belt training recently and Dermot Sensei covered kihon, kumite and kata in the technical session. Focusing on creating dynamic power with the whole body, the visitors from other JKS Clubs from around Ireland as well as Swords members worked on techniques from the grading syllabus for brown and black belts. Everyone had a great morning training and catching up with each other since Japan.
Our Club is always looking for new members (Children, Young People & Adults). Contact Dermot on 087-8073885 for details on how to join our club. You can also contact us on Facebook: JKS Swords Karate Club or on Instagram: @jks_swords_karate_club
The members of Swords Tidy Towns had a fantastic day at the National Tidy Towns Winners Awards in Abbeyleix recently. We picked up two awards the All Ireland Circular Economy Award and our 6th Silver Medal in a row. We must congratulate Abbeyleix Tidy Towns for organising what was a very enjoyable day out for everyone. A big hello to our shared table guests from Arklow Tidy Towns and Maynooth Tidy Towns.
To celebrate Climate Action Week, Seatown Road Green Team held a Swap Shop Day at Seatown Road Day Service.
This was a partnership project between Seatown Road Green Team and Circular Fashion Ireland and funded by Fingal County Council. Prosper Meath Day Service, Ashbourne, were so kind and gave a lending hand in Seatown Road Swap Shop.
Carrie Ann Moran from Circular Fashion Ireland held a workshop and spoke about the importance of initiatives like swap shops and circular fashion.
Seatown Road Green Team would like to thank and acknowledge Swords Tidy Towns, Swords Woman Shed, Fingal County Council, Best Wear Drogheda, Ashbourne Green Team, Fingal Community College, Circular Fashion Ireland and Carrie Ann Moran for their support and donations
Rush Eco Group
We were delighted to be invited by Fingal County Council as part of Rush Eco Group, to speak at a Dublin-wide Climate Action conference in the Mansion House in September. We got to share the background to setting up the group, discuss the projects which we received €59.5k funding for across the town, and learn from other like-minded people on their drive to sustainability.
Let’s Play Rush
What a fantastic day we had at the Let’s Play Rush free family fun and sports event at Tayluers Point in Rush on August 17th. Well done to all the medal winners. Thank you to Minister Joe O’Brien TD for Dublin Fingal and Cllr Robert O’Donoghue the acting mayor for presenting most of the medals and thank you to the volunteers from Rush Tidy Towns, the 38th Rush Scout Group and Rush Community Council for making the day happen. Finally thank you to Fingal County Council for providing grant funding for this event.
Calendar photos
Calling all budding photographers. You have just a few more weeks to submit your photos for our 2025 Rush Tidy Towns Calendar. We are trying to cover all aspects of Rush from the gorgeous views we have to the sports we play and everything else in between, and in all seasons. To enter your photo(s), please send all shots by e-mail only to dianaodonohue14@gmail.com. Each photographer featured in a month will be invited to a launch event and receive a free calendar. Please bear in mind that that submitted images must be of adequate resolution to print out on A4 size. Good luck and get snapping.
Children at St Catherine’s National School met with staff at Tesco in Rush to launch their collection for the Tesco Community Fund. You can help to raise funds for the school’s new PE equipment by putting your blue tokens in the middle box for St Catherine’s School. The appeal runs for twelve weeks. Thank you to Tesco for their generous support of the school”.
As the school year and the start of meetings in the new Council term are now well underway. Over the summer the Council have tendered for a consultancy team to produce the upcoming Rush Town Centre First Plan, it is hoped that the consultants can be put in place before the end of September and meetings with interested groups in the community can start soon after that.
At the Area Committee, Councillor Rob O’Donoghue spoke in regard to upcoming initiatives he hopes to work on in the coming term in Rush.
The first meeting of the Rush Sports Committee of this Council term to discuss the future sporting facilities north of St Catherines is to take place in September to get a progress report on development of the space for the clubs and community.
O’Donoghue commented, ‘the Town Centre First Plan will involve extensive public consultation asking the people of Rush, how they would like to see the town centre develop, it will be the guidelines for future development of the town, and I hope that as many people as possible will get involved once the process kicks off. I am also excited by the prospect of the provision of grass pitch facilities for the clubs in Rush as part of phase 1 of the Rush Recreational Hub.’
Rush Musical Society Singers made their International Debut last month at the Praha International Music Festival in Prague. The Rush group were among 11 groups from 7 countries to take part in the festival.
Countries represented were; Germany, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Korea, Hungary and Ireland. Many of the groups and orchestras are well established in their own countries and internationally performing music from jazz, sacred music, Mozart, Rossini to modern classics.
RMS Singers first performance at the festival was to a packed house in the main auditorium of the Municipal Library in the International Concert of Friendship on August 30th. RMS Singers sang acapella under Director Colin Sloan and were met with a fantastic reception. Following this RMS Singers were chosen to close the festival with a concert performance on August 31st.
The atmosphere was electric in the packed church of St Salvator just off the main square in Prague as RMS Singers took to the stage. RMS Singers thrilled with vocal arrangements written for the group by Director Colin Sloan. The programme included the music of Freddie Mercury, Beach Boys, Glen Hansard, Rainbow, Bonnie Tyler to the African ‘Calling of the Dawn’ - Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin sung in Swahili. The standing ovations from the audience raised the roof on St Salvator with RMS Singers being praised as the highlight performance of the festival.
From start to finish the trip was a joy for the 35 members who travelled to Prague. There was craic a plenty, the beauty and splendour of Prague, lots of song, on and off stage, beautiful food with a wonderful group of people to share it all with. This was the first but hopefully not the last International Performance by RMS Singers. RMS Singers next concert will be in St Catherine’s School, Rush on 8th November.
RMS Singers new season starts on Monday 16th September. If you want to experience the joy of singing come along to the Strand Bar, Rush Mondays at 8.30pm or Thursdays at 8pm. New Members Welcome.
Contact Details: secretary@rushmusicalsociety.com or call 086-8740713 after business hours for further information