We had a busy month with regular training taking place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays along with a fundraising Bag Pack, competing in the Piltown Open Championships in Clonmel and Squad training with JKS Ireland. Our fundraising Bag Pack took place in Dunne’s/JCs in Swords. The purpose of the fundraiser was to raise funds for our students who are going to Japan in July to compete in the JKS World Karate Championships. We had two teams who volunteered for this fundraiser, and they spent Friday evening and all-day Saturday packing groceries for the customers of Dunne’s/JCs. We would like to thank the customers who supported us so magnificently in this fund raiser as we raised over €2000 for our students going to Japan. We hosted JKS Ireland Squad training in Applewood Community Centre this month. Our focus is getting our students ready to compete on the world stage at the World Championships and we covered Kihon, Kata and Kumite as well pushing hard on our general fitness levels. We travelled to Clonmel to compete in the annual Piltown Open Karate Championships. It was a long day as this is an extremely popular competition, but our Squad did very well taking home a number of prizes on the day. Danny, Lola, and Sophia each took third place in Kata while Sophia also took home third place in her kumite section. This is great preparation for the World Championships and our next competition is in early July, a week before we travel. We hosted JKS Ireland Brown & Black Belt training, as well as JKS Ireland Squad training in preparation for the World Championships. Finally, Ava Kane was presented with her Shodan (1 st Black Belt) Diploma and Darragh O’Sullivan was presented with his Nidan (2nd Black Belt) Diploma this month. 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

Currently the club are seeking an experienced person for the role of Bar Manager. There is an excellent package for the right applicant. We are seeking an energetic, enthusiastic Bar Manager. Please call Marian 0876819540 or email. We are also building teams at present. if you are interested in getting involved in playing Gaelic football, come along for a really fun filled football hour every Thursday and also Saturday. Finally, congratulations to Mary who came in to collect her winnings from our club lottery. She was joined by family and friends on the evening. Happy spending Mary and folks please remember our lottery finances our club and your support is most welcome.

iSecure Swords Thunder took on St Paul’s Killarney on Saturday 13th April as both teams returned to National Basketball Arena or the Div1 League Trophy Final and took home the Trophy. With a Tip Off at 5.45pm there was nothing between the teams at the end of the third quarter with the scoreboard reading 16 -16. The end-to-end plays continued and there still remained parity at the end of the second quarter at 34- 34. After half time the Thunder girls upped their game and went ahead for the first time in the game which left the third quarter scoreline at 54-47. St Pauls fought hard to even the scoring but the Thunder wre not to be bested on the day and came away 69 -63 winners as the new Division 1 Trophy winners. Congratulations to the team and their coaches and mentors.

There was a great turn out recently and so much work done, what a fantastic group of volunteers, you are all a credit to your community. FCC had a cameraman following us today making a short video of our work in the community. The group adjourned to the Old Schoolhouse for refreshments where they got well looked after by Willie and his wonderful crew. Later in the afternoon some of Swords Tidy Towns members had a cool drink to finish off a long day. Well, done to everyone and look out for that video!

Swords Women’s Shed mission is to unite & empower women within the community through creative craft & socialisation. What a gorgeous spring morning it was recently when Swords Women’s Shed at Swords Men’s Shed joined together for activities. It was an amazing walk and then back to the shed for chats and light refreshments. Congratulations to Grainne with her 10pin bowling and she even picked herself up a medal in the process very well done. And lastly extremely well done to both Swords Women’s Shed and Swords Men’s Shed who raised a whopping €1,120 which will be lodged into Aoibheann’s Pink Tie Charity. Very well done to the committee for organising an amazing event.

Ball Busters women’s football club was formed by Amanda Bracken and Tanya Christie, two friends from Lusk with a passion to play competitive football without the restrictions of playing on an actual team. Two mammies that still wanted the buzz of winning a game but having the craic at the same time. One afternoon after chatting through one of their many notions they decided to start up Ball Busters, a social indoor soccer group, and so it began, February 2023, the beginning of something special. On night one, we thought we would have loads of girls but 6 turned up, we thought all we had to do was organise it and people would show but that was not the case. Through hours of hard work and dedication, we have built a WhatsApp group of over 80 ladies, we rent 3 out of the 5 astros in the Soccer Dome in Santry, with upwards of 40 ladies coming each week. We organise outings, have nights away, we have been to Wexford to play Courtown Hibs and have just come back from Bangor where we played 2 teams and won both matches, we have also done a bungee fitness class, we are very much a social group. We have built something that the ladies look forward to each week and keep coming back. For women in sports week, we will have 60+ ladies in the Dome, who all came together for the same reason, play ball, and have fun. We have built a very supportive environment for everyone, all levels are welcome, if you miss a goal no one is going to shout at you. We are so lucky with the mixture of girls we have, they are such a lovely bunch, there is never a cross word between any of us. It has given us all an outlet, something we can do for ourselves. So why not come and join us. Fancy getting fit, having fun, getting back into football, or trying something new? Then Ball Busters is right up your street. We play every Tuesday in the Soccer Dome in Santry 8-9pm. We have now also added an outdoor session every Monday night 8-9pm in the hope that we will get some fine evenings to enjoy having a kick about outside but hey this is Ireland!

Thank you, Rush - over €20,000 raised so far for the Irish Cancer Society, with the Ladies Lunch happening at the end of May we are confident that we will Rush can donate €30,000.00 this year. The Swimmers on Christmas day raised over €3000 and with the Daff Day total of over €17,000, this has given us a figure so far of €20,000 a huge testament to the generosity of the people of Rush. Huge thanks to everyone who came out to volunteer and to donate on Daff Day, we had a lovely sunny day, and the streets of Rush were turned yellow. Street sales, coffee morning, raffle, merchandise, and Michelle’s fun run to finish off the day’s activities. Thanks to all our wonderful cake bakers, local businesses who supported the Coffee morning, people who donated prizes and to everyone who helped on the day. We had a huge turnout at the swim on Saturday morning and thanks to everyone who braved the cold to raise awareness and funds for ICS. St Joseph’s Secondary School Transition year students were fantastic, their enthusiasm and sense of community was evident during the day. They collected outside local shops, ran the coffee morning, sold merchandise, and helped Maise with her raffle. Well done to each one of them for their help. Rush Daff Day Committee are working with Fingal Co Co to have a ‘Yellow Bench’ along the seafront at the South Beach. This bench will have a QR code on it, people can use this code to get support and advise directly from the Irish Cancer Society website. Anyone with new ideas as to now we can raise money on the day, get in contact through our Facebook page Rush Daffodil Fundraising Committee, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Visitors to Rush Community Centre on April 2nd would have been forgiven for thinking they had been temporarily transported to the island of Sodor in the Irish Sea, the fictional home of ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ and friends, as the Centre was host to an incredible exhibition of railway tracks and toys. The event was the idea of Rush ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ enthusiast and expert Barry Moore. Barry approached the Community Council with the idea of building a huge interconnecting display of his formidable collection of Thomas toys as an exhibition for the people of Rush and also to raise awareness of National Autism Day. As Rush Community Council Chairperson Brian Doherty explained, “When Barry came to us and suggested that he do something for the community and also raise awareness of National Autism Day, we were only too happy to help. It’s been wonderful to host Barry’s exhibition on ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ and hear all about Thomas’ history and the different types of track and train which Barry told visitors to the exhibition. It’s inspiring that someone of Barry’s age is so passionate about something, is so knowledgeable and wants to give something back to the community of Rush.” Barry’s mum Leanne Moore, said “It was such a great day. I couldn’t believe the turn out as it was packed the whole time.” To thank Barry for his efforts, Barry was presented with a new track to add to his collection.

Rush Tourism in partnership with Rush Community Council have managed to collect many copies of Rush Community news. The paper was started in 1975 and is now a printed history of events and people in Rush over the last 40 years. Did you win the Swimming Gala in 1983???? Did you score a goal for Rush Athletic in 1990??? Did your granny attend the Seniors Christmas party??? All these amazing memories are within the pages of Rush Community News. We are planning to bind the copies together and put them into Rush Library, Rush Community Council and Fingal Archives for future generations. We are missing some copies and need your help to complete the collection.

Do you have copies from any of these years: 1976, 1977, 1978, – 1991, 1993, 1994, -1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.

Little Free Library -Rush
Rush Tidy Town is delighted to announce the launch of our Little Free Library. This is located just below St. Joseph’s School on Convent Lane. Take a book or leave a book. This is the latest initiative in our mission to promote the circular economy and addresses several of the sustainable development goals. Big thanks to Diana, Ken and Paula for pulling this together. It now appears on the official little free library map on google. Make sure you make use of this amazing new addition to the town next time you go to South Beach.

Tayto Crisp Packets
Following on from our find of a 50-year-old Tayto crisp bag in August 2021 which news story went viral, in the last two weeks during a beach clean and lobster fishing expedition, Paula and Ben have found two more antique bags in the sand and rocks on the South Beach. One with a 4P price tag from circa 1971 and one costing 7P from 1978. An aluminium lined crisp bag can take up to 100 years to disintegrate so this shows the importance of making sure we dispose of our rubbish correctly.