The Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival launched on Thursday September 7th in the Brook Pub in Portrane, starring Uilleann Piper Eamonn Galldubh agus a chairde, with members of Comhaltas Leithinis. A large crowd enjoyed some ceol agus craic! On Friday September 8th we hosted Craft Workshops for Adults. “From Mud to Art” saw participants turn clay into ornamental hanging wall-art. Over the weekend, the peninsula was a hive of cultural activity, with Craft Workshops for Children, tours of the Martello Tower, Lego© Workshop, Sing-a-Longs, Yoga sessions, and a festival favourite, PizzaTrad. A huge crowd joined the Tara Céilí Band for some set dancing in the sun! Complimentary pizza was courtesy of DoughBox. The Short Film Festival ran from Monday 11th to Wednesday 13th, with large crowds attending to enjoy some short films and Q&A sessions. The Open Mic returned this year. Participants stood up to the Mic to entertain with music, comedy and more. The lovely Gala Concert in St. Patrick’s Church featured the Young Dublin Symphonia, and talented students of Kim Fallen-Bailey. The second weekend of the festival was busy: Music Workshops for younger children; Mol an Óige, a showcase of some fun-sized talent; Guided tour of Newbridge House; Casino Night with gambling fun and Rat-Pack entertainment; Take a Walk on the Wild Side! with Hans Visser, Bio Diversity Officer of FCC; Short plays from Donabate/Portrane Dramatic Society; September Miscellany featuring the Chinkwell Writers with musical interludes; Art, Photography and Quilting Exhibition; Singalong in the Brook Pub on Sunday afternoon to close the festival. Overall, a very successful and enjoyable 10 days of culture, with something of interest to all cultural tastes and all ages. The organisers are grateful to Fingal County Council for their support, and all the many festival sponsors. Without their generosity, this festival could not happen.

Donabate Portrane Dramatic Society is delighted with the success of its latest productions as part of The Bleeding Pig Festival in September. Every year The Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival provides the dramatic society with a welcoming platform to showcase talent and passion for the performing arts. On Sunday the 16 th September DPDS presented the murder mystery “Books, Crooks and Murder” by Rosemary Whittaker in the Gin Bar, Keeling’s of Donabate. While a notorious reclusive author was presenting her newest book after years of public exile, a murder was committed. The detective who was on the scene needed the help of the audience that played a big role to crack the case! This was an entertaining event that kept the audience guessing until the end. The Brook Pub in Portrane hosted “Little Miss Fresno” by Ara Watson and Mary Gallagher on Sunday 17th September. This short hilarious play saw two anxious mothers in competition while rooting for their precious daughters at a local beauty contest, leaving the audience in stitches of laughter. DPDS is immensely grateful to The Bleeding Pig Cultural festival committee and thankful to the dedicated audience who attended these productions. DPDS is now already working on the upcoming autumn project that will take place in Donabate Parish Hall from the 23rd to the 26th of November 2023. This autumn DPDS will bring on stage two short Irish plays “Bedtime Story!” by Sean O’Casey and “A Galway Girl” by Geraldine Aron. The comedy “Bedtime story” will be directed by the talented and experienced Lisa Buckley, while “A Galway Girl” will see Aengus Gordon and Áine Dillen, taking on the directing role for the very first time with the society. “I first saw ‘A Galway Girl’ ten years ago in the Bewley’s Café Theatre, where I fell in love with this sweet poignant one act Play, by Geraldine Aran. I always wanted Donabate Drama to perform it. I’m delighted for the opportunity to direct and bring it to our audience; I know you will enjoy it as much as I have when I first saw it”, said Aengus. “I’m excited to be embarking on my first directing role with the society. ‘A Galway Girl’ is an honest account of a marriage in the 1950’s from both sides, it tackles the arguments, the struggles and the tenderness”, said Áine. The autumn production will offer a blend of comedy and heartfelt moments and promises to be a captivating and memorable experience for theatre lovers. If you want to become a member or a patron of DPDS do not hesitate to contact any member or us here at donabateportrane.drama@gmail.com. And don’t forget to follow Donabate Portrane Dramatic Society on Facebook and Instagram!

The first week in September saw queues for registration and booking of classes that are run by the Active Age for All group. This growing group now has over 230 paid up members for 2023 and it was great to see so many booking for classes. Some classes were filled within a couple of hours and all the free classes are now full. There are some spaces still available in a few classes. If you are interested in joining them, contact us on activeageforall@gmail.com or by text on 086 8806808. Rates will be pro rata as the 12-week term goes on. So, when and where is there availability? Monday: Dance for Fitness– integration of Dance/Pilates. Spanish. Tuesday: French. Yoga. Singing & Music – really good for breathing and lifting the sprits. Wednesday: Art. Tai-Chi. Chair Yoga – really good if getting up and down off the floor is a bit too much and you still want to keep the body subtle. Thursday: Pilates 3. Friday: Yoga. You can register on-line at activeageforall.com. Also, Positive Ageing Week takes place this year from the 1st - 7th October. As our contribution to Positive Ageing Week, AAfA are offering a free Singing/ Choir Class on Tuesday 3rd of October at 11.00 a.m. Everyone welcome. Donabate Sings for All! At this class our regular tutor Muireann will teach several songs which will then be performed at a lunch time session. We will be joined by Peig McManus who will read from her Memoir I’ll Be Good, The Donabate/Portrane Ukulele Group and the Donabate / Portrane Men’s Shed Plonkers - musicians, will entertain us with their music. From this Singing Class - Donabate Sings for All - we hope to offer a free 6-week relaxed fun singing course starting the 18th of October from 6 - 8 p.m. sponsored by Fingal CC Community Dept. and DPCC. All will be welcome - all ages and nationalities. From this class we would hope to start a Community Choir! If you need any information about the 3rd October, please do contact us at activeageforall@gmail.com or just turn up at 11.00 on the 3rd of October.

Peninsula Art would like to say a big Thank you for the support and positive feedback received for our exhibition at the Hand on 26th & 27th August. It was most encouraging and heartening to see so many people viewing and enjoying our Art, and an even bigger thank you to those who purchased! We would also like to thank those in Fingal County Council who looked after us up to and over the two days - Rafe Cossigan, Senior Community Officer for Fingal County Council, Dean Mulligan, Fingal Councillor,, Corina Johnston, Local Labour Representative, and Duncan Smith, Labour TD, and last but not least Ùisce Eireann for use of their railings.

Leithinis Donabate Portrane CCE lessons resumed on the 2nd of October. We would like to welcome back our existing members and extend a warm welcome to our new students. We had a busy summer with some of our members playing at The Bleeding Pig Festival, the St. Pats GAA Mini All Ireland Prize giving. We welcomed Craobh Cluain Tarbh’s Junior Members to Donabate Parish Hall to join our Junior members for a very successful slow session led by Erin. Leithinis Junior members have performed as part of this year’s Mol an Oige concert on Saturday 16th September at Donabate Portrane Community Centre led by Erin. Well done to all our Junior members. A big Go raibh maith aghaibh to Erin and to the parents of our Junior Members for their support to their branch. In addition to our lessons, we run slow sessions in the Parish Hall on every 2nd Friday of the month for our members. This is a great way for our students to practice their tunes with their fellow students. Some of our members play with an experienced group of local musicians in the Brook Pub on the 1st Tuesday of every month at 7.30pm. This session has become very popular across the North County and everyone is welcome to come along and listen.We still have a number of places available in Tin Whistle, Bodhran, Fiddle, Concertina, Accordion, Flute, Guitar and Banjo so if you are interested in joining Leithinis to learn a traditional Irish instrument email us on leithinis@comhaltas.net and we will get back to you.

Area Rep Corina Johnston said recently; “The population of the Donabate Peninsula is projected to grow to approximately 20,000 over the next ten years. The residential zoned land in the Donabate Local Area Plan provides for approximately 4,000 residential units. Last week phase 1 of the Glenveagh Development consisting of 1200 housing units in Ballymastone commenced. This week a revised planning application for 1020 residential units in Corballis was advertised. A previous application for 1365 units on this site was granted permission by FCC and ABP. While the outcome of these applications will see the provision of a Nature Park in Corballis and a Sports Hub at Ballymastone there are no indoor community facilities provided to cater for an additional 3000 residential units.“

Johnston added; “The need for this facility is even more critical today as according to the census (2022) 41% of the population of the peninsula (11783) are under 30 while 31% are under 19 years of age. The Local Area Plan includes the following objectives for such a facility: -Objective 6.3 To support the provision of a community facility on lands at Ballymastone -Objective 6.12 Support the provision of a community/cultural/exhibition and performing Arts centre for Donabate- Portrane and encourage the development of multi -functional community buildings which are not used exclusively by any one group.
The Civic Centre should include: • a performing theatre with a fully equipped stage, seating for 100 people, Workshop/studio space Meeting/education rooms, Café ,Youth Centre, Sensory Room, a dedicated area with historical facts about the area on permanent display and an Outdoor Children’s play area amongst other facilities. Johnston added;”The FCC Tilberry site located off the Corballis Road would seem to be an ideal location among other sites to meet this criteria. Johnston concluded; “In assessing the merit of this multi-purpose Civic Centre let us envisage what Donabate would be like in 10 years’ time with 3000 additional houses with little additional indoor community facilities for the growing population with all suitable strategic land built upon. This would be a disaster. Surely we must learn from the mistakes of the past. Duncan and I intend to campaign vigorously for such an important facility.”

Recently, a record was broken in the UEFA Champions League by a young girl from Ireland. Former Glebe North Player Hannah Healy played for Shelbourne Football Club in their Champions League game in Lithuania vs Glasgow City. At the age 15 and 262 days, Hannah Healy is the youngest ever player at the UEFA Champions League, women and men. Hannah played for Glebe North Football Club for nearly 7 years. After some time in the academy, at age 8 she joined the Under 10 Girls teams to compete in the MGL and start an unbelievable winning streak with the Under 11 Premier League & cup, Under 12 League and Cup, the under 13 League, and trophies from various tournament, regional and national level. The Pandemic stopped a potential U14 League & Cup winning with only a couple of games remaining while leading the table and a Cup final never played…Hannah joined Shelbourne after a season with Bohemians, reaching different achievements and awards, national and international recognitions. We at Glebe North FC are all so proud of Hannah’s achievement more than ever before! Well done Hannah.

Congratulations to Balbriggan Cricket Club’s victorious 2nd Team after their recent win which sealed the League Title. It was a team effort on the day, Shak Ir was the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 15 off his 4 overs, Skipper Samad took 3 and there was 1 each for Syed Haris and the evergreen Duane Harper to bowl out Phoenix for 84. With the bat, after a little early wobble, Cian Rooney and Bilal Iqbal batted superbly to bring us within a few runs of the target, Cian with an excellent 43 and 32 for Bilal. Fittingly it was the skipper who hit the winning boundary to settle the contest. Skipper Samad’s side have been unbeaten in the league all summer and sealed the title recently at home in The Jack Harper MCG. It’s 2 promotions in 2 years for this team and they are now up to the 2nd XI Premier League, the highest league a 2nd team can compete at in Leinster. Congratula-tions again to all the players and mentors.

Cllr Brendan Ryan, Labour Party, is calling for Fingal County Council to reopen its council offices in the Town Hall, Balbriggan. Cllr Ryan said; “the closing of Fingal County Council offices in Town Hall, Balbriggan, has had a devastating impact on the people of the town with no direct local access to council services, particularly housing services, which are located in Blanchardstown.” Ryan continued;” Given there is no direct public transport route to Blanchardstown for the people of Balbriggan it is a challenging commute to access these services. I submitted the following question to a recent council meeting on this issue: “To ask the Chief Executive if consideration can be given to reviewing any formal decision made in the past to close the Council Offices at Balbriggan Town Hall, depriving the people of Balbriggan of local access to Council services, particularly housing services which are located at Blanchardstown, as this is a challenging commute by public transport?”

This is the Council’s reply: “The Customer Care Unit is the subject of on-going review and evaluation in relation to improving and enhancing performance and customer satisfaction. A more in-depth review is currently being considered regarding the services being provided in our buildings. Members will be kept informed regarding the outcome of this review in due course.” Ryan concluded; “I am pleased that Fingal County Council are considering an in-depth review of services provided and believe this review should be carried out without delay. Re-opening the Balbriggan offices has got to be included in the review and I can only conclude from the reply that it will be. Given the population increase in Balbriggan I believe it is imperative that the council reopen its offices in Balbriggan, and I will continue to pursue this much needed service for the people of Balbriggan vigorously. “

Balbriggan Men’s team won the Beachy Cup making it three in a row in the North East Blitz Competition, on Sunday. Balbriggan beat Navan, Ashbourne, lost to Ratoath and drew with Boyne. Ciaran Hannigan, a former youth player with the club, made his senior debut along with our new overseas player Jamie Kinninmont. Well done to them both.

The Seniors went to Spain in recent weeks on tour where they played Gernika Rugby Club. Meanwhile please remember -Training continues every Tuesday and Thursday at 7.30pm.