Malahide Lions Club were delighted to host a Christmas party for over 100 of our Seniors Citizens in the Grand Hotel Malahide at the weekend. What a fabulous day was had by all. Many thanks to the following: Grand Hotel Malahide for top class service and food. Musician Peter Finnigan who had our guests singing and dancing all afternoon. Mary Grimes Irish Dancers for outstanding performances. Shiel family Londis Yellow Walls Road for donation of the wine. To all local businesses, family and friends who donated raffle prizes. A special thanks to the main sponsors of our guests tables whose support and generosity ensured a successful event: Mc Cabes Pharmacy Yellow Walls Road - Cathrina Murphy Fingal Community Development Office - Irish College of English - Deirdre Rochford- Supervalu Malahide - David Kennedy - Councillor Jimmy Guerin - Mischief Malahide - Trish Murtagh- Malahide Credit Union .Of course, the event would not have been possible without the sterling work carried out by Mrs .Jo Morris, who has been serving the community in many ways for “more years the we care to remember! Community spirit at its best.

We’re finding a lot of people are deciding not to replace their cars these days and are going to experiment with Go Cars, public transport and cycling. It can suit some people and it saves a great deal of money. See below - message from Minister O’Brien, for some good news on Cycle routes, I believe the Malahide Active Travel can be congratulated for the idea.

Dear Resident,
I hope that this finds you well. Cllr Eoghan O’Brien and I have been actively engaging with Malahide Portmarnock Educate Together Secondary school, Gaelscoil an Duinnínigh and local residents for over year now to secure safer pedestrian and cycle access to our local schools. You will have seen recently significant improvements to the entrance to the schools from the Feltrim Road which is very welcome and I’d like to commend Fingal for their work on this and in particular the students who worked with us to secure these improvements.

Recently Eoghan and I have received the very significant news that planning permission has been granted for a new path from Waterside to the schools. We have both met with the Minister for Education Norma Foley about this and I’m pleased to tell you that they will commence work on this really important link in the near future.

This path from Waterside will greatly improve safety for students and residents from the Swords Road area, linking them not only to the schools but onwards to the shops and commercial centre in Kinsealy.
Kind Regards,
Darragh

A New Year, a fresh start, a new challenge or fulfil a New Year’s resolution. At Junsa we help all our students to try and fulfil their Taekwondo aspirations and for anyone wishing to try Taekwondo we’ll do the same for you. With our grading behind us January is the planning month for upcoming tournaments at home and abroad, and we are arranging training sessions with other clubs and seminars to attend. If you are interested in joining us, please contact Stuart on 087 7775202 or on Facebook Junsa Taekwondo. Junsa would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and we are looking forward to the new Taekwondo season ahead.

Happy New Year to all club members and welcome back to training. New members are welcomed. 2023 was a hugely successful year for our growing club. There were many fantastic achievements across all age groups from Cross Country to Marathons and Track & Field. Congratulations to all our athletes who trained so hard throughout the year. Huge thanks to our club coaches, officers and volunteers for their commitment without which none of this success would be possible. We look forward to further success in 2024 with lots of fun along the way.

In the realm of sport, the birth of a new club is an exciting time and such is the case as Lusk Ravens Basketball embarks on its inaugural season. Six new teams will complete their first ever season in Dublin leagues this year, Men’s senior team, Women’s senior team, Masters team, Boys under 14, Girls under 14, Boys under 13 in addition to an academy catering for younger players. An extraordinary amount of work has gotten the club to this point and we are delighted to be able to provide Basketball to our community. Thank you to all the coaches and volunteers who have made this happen. We would like to thank Lusk National School for hosting the club. Basketball is an expensive sport and none of these teams would be possible without our sponsors: Murray’s Pub - David Mulcahy Engineering - The Top Shop - North County Fitness - KP Windows -Ciuin Wellness - Showbiz Academy - Aidan Cullen Home Renovations - M.R Concrete - Apollo Electrical and Film Equipment Hire Ireland. Thank you so much for your support which is deeply appreciated. Go Ravens Go!

As we say goodbye 2023 it is worthwhile looking back at progress made in the town during the year. There were a number of highlights on the Council side of things. After much turmoil and debate the new Fingal Development Plan came into effect in the Spring. Despite a number of motions that would seek to massively expand the town, with no benefit to social infrastructure for the people of Lusk, I was able to lead the charge in defeating all of these motions and leaving the zoning map as it had been in the previous Development Plan. I couldn’t have done this without the tenacity of our great community organisations in the town coming together to oppose these motions. Following on from this, I was able to advocate for Lusk to be chosen for the Town Centre First Scheme and we have now established the Pillar Groups from community organisations in the town. We will receive the new Town Centre First Plan in January of 2024 and can use this a map for the provision of much needed additional infrastructure for Lusk, which will be guided by Lusk organisations for Lusk people. The Town Plan will allow us to apply for funding streams to deliver a number of projects outlined in the document. It was also great to see the handover of the lands to the north of the Lusk Sports Hub. This land, now that it is in charge of FCC will allow us to finally develop out the long-promised sporting facilities that the Lusk Sports Group have been working diligently towards for many years and I look forward to 2024 to champion this project.
Finally, I would like to pay tribute to our wonderful Community Organisations in the town, based on their hard work and dedication to the town that makes me optimistic for delivering for Lusk in 2024.

2023 saw the Community Council develop and extend its services across its community facilities while also making major strides in Town Centre First planning for our town. Our current activities focus on Health & Wellbeing, Art & Creativity, Biodiversity and Sustainability, Community Networking, Cultural and Historic Events, Education Grinds, Youth Services, Dance, Judo and Martial Arts as well as Corporate Events and Training. The Cottage Community Centre, Saint Macullin’s Centre, the Carnegie Library Community Hall and our newly developed Cultural Centre host this array of activities and we want to thank all our customers for their support and commitment. Activities in our community facilities typically happen 7 days a week. This represents huge commitment and hard work by our staff and volunteer directors who make things happen. Special thanks go to our staff and all our volunteers who deliver when needed. Christmas Tree Lights Ceremony, Halloween, Fingal Inclusion Week, International Women’s Day, Saints & Scholars St. Patrick’s Weekend, St. Brigit’s Day, Africa Day and Culture Night, are just some of the highlight events that the Community Council organised during the year. 2023 saw our Lusk Vision 2030 being updated to create a Town Plan and the establishment of a new Town Team being supported by Community, Enterprise and Public Realm pillars. This new Town Plan will be critically important in driving future investment and development of new facilities for our growing population. The Community Council has developed Phase 2 plans for the Cultural Centre site. The aim is to develop a community campus which will extend from the Cottage Community Centre to Saint Macullin’s Centre and Round Tower complex to the Cultural Centre site. The phase 2 Cultural Centre design includes a multi-purpose performance space and outdoor market courtyard. Moving this project forward to development will be a key 2024 priority. Safety and anti-social issues continue to be a major concern in our community. In 2023 the Community Council applied to a Community Safety Innovation Fund and was successful. This project will look to new ways to address anti-social issues in Lusk.

2023 was another successful year for LSA. We are an Athletics club based on the Donabate/Portrane peninsula, founded in 2011. We now have almost 460 members, over half of those are children and teenagers. Last year our athletes competed in Dublin, Leinster, Schools and National Championships; European U20 Championships; World and European Masters Championships; numerous road races, mountain races, and marathons at home and across the world. We also have a National Record Holder Under 20. Other notable events were a successful road race in May, a Summer Camp in July, and the first sod turned on our future home in August. We are a friendly growing club, run by volunteers. Our members log thousands of kilometres across the peninsula and beyond, at a wide range of paces and there is a big welcome for everyone who likes to keep active. We always welcome new members and volunteers. If you would like to get involved please contact us - details below: For any Adult memberships queries please contact us lambaysportsathletics@gmail.com Little Athletics and Juvenile athletes (from age 7-18) please contact lsajuvenilereg@gmail.com Keep up to date on all the events by following LSA on our social media pages! On Facebook please contact us on .facebook.com/lambaysportsacademy or contact us on Instagram at our Instagram site on instagram.com/lsadonabateportrane/ Twitter twitter.com/LSARunning Please also visit our website lambaysportsathletics.ie/

Leithinis Donabate Portrane CCE held their Annual General Meeting on November 20th. We would like to thank the members who attended and who also volunteered to join the Committee. We are a small branch and are delighted with the extra help. The meeting was also attended by Mary Whelan, outgoing Cathaoirleach of Dublin County Board CCE. Mary was presented with a bouquet of flowers as a thank you for all the guidance and advice she gave us since our very first meeting and over the past few years. We wish Mary the very best of luck. Some of our Junior and Adult Members played at the Annual Christmas Fete in the Educate Together National School on the 26th of November. It was a great opportunity for us to showcase our branch and for our members to play some tunes together. We also played a few tunes at the turning on of the Christmas Tree Lights on Portrane Green. Well Done to all the volunteers involved, the tree looked fantastic. The Dublin ‘Tradfest’ will be held on the 24th to the 28th of January. Some of Ireland’s best traditional musicians will be playing in venues across Dublin including our Parish Hall on the 28th when our very own Donabate Portrane local Gerry O’Connor, Banjo player with the Dublin Legends will be playing in the Parish Hall on the 28th. Our classes are back up and running in January. If you are interested in learning to play a traditional Irish instrument such as the Fiddle, the Tin Whistle .and the Bodhran, Banjo, Flute, Concertina, and Accordion. You can please contact us on line at leithinis@comhaltas.net and we will get back to you.

At the end of November, Gerry and the Plonkers (the Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed music group) played a free lunch-time concert in Donabate Parish Hall. All who attended enjoyed the music, the sambos and the tea. Many thanks to the Parish Hall Committee for sponsoring the wonderful sandwiches from Cate’s Café and to Evaleen, Tatiana, Breda, Kay and Martina, who made and served the tea and coffee. Although between 30 and 40 people attended, we trust these lunch-concerts will become regular events and for bigger audiences next time. Great oaks from little acorns grow. Last month, the Men’s Shed had their once yearly Christmas Dinner in Keeling’s pub. A great night was had by all, a hearty meal followed by a fabulous after-dinner sing-song of all our old favourites, ably led by Peter Cooney, Tony McArdle and Willie Cahill. Although things are relatively quiet at our allotments, our usual weekly activities continue - our exercise classes, croquet, musical jam sessions and our regular Thursday morning get-togethers in Donabate Scouts’ Den. Donabate Portrane Men’s Shed wishes our community and all who have supported us over the past year, a peaceful and healthy New Year. If you’d like to join us, please call our PRO, Jim, on 086-3694316. New members are always welcome.