June bank holiday weekend saw another milestone day for Lusk with public access to the Clonrath Phase 2 section of the Lusk Recreational Hub being made available. Lusk Community Sports Group have been working with Fingal County Council for many years to deliver the transfer of this key green strategic infrastructure for our full community to use and enjoy. These lands are now in the Council’s ownership, with parklands (e.g., biodiversity areas) and associated facilities (e.g., an enclosed children’s playground) now open to the public. Separately, the Council has commissioned assessments of the suitability of the site for development as a Sports Hub. The results of these assessments will inform the (Part 8) planning process for the future development of Lusk Recreational Hub, in tandem with our own master plan for the area – i.e: multi-sport community focussed facilities that can be used all year around.

Details on dates, venues and times of home fixtures can be viewed on our website.
Nursery - ALL NEW MEMBER’S WELCOME!!

In June - 2 special guests dropped by our U10s girls for a chat and some pictures. Our own Lile Tully and Niamh Bush of St. Maurs. GAA , both members of the Leinster winning u16 Dublin team with their latest bit of silverware.The team was delighted to welcome both players down to TAP.

Next up the Dubs will face Cork in the All Ireland semi final on July 5th. The venue is TBC

Round Towers Adult Mens football proudly sponsored by Local Solicitors, Liam Fitzgerald, thank you for your continued support. All home games have a new Barista Bandstand with coffee and refreshments on offer. Please do visit our GAA Round Towers Lusk club website to explore many social events and the O’Neills shop.

Entertainment – The TAP Bar in the GAA club in Lusk has got some fantastic events coming over the monthand would be delighted to see you there and enjoy some Live music. - 1 st July 2023 – The Odd Couple – All the best music starts after 8.30pm. Stay posted on Facebook on upcoming events. Enjoy GAA matches and other sports event with light refreshment on large screen in TAP BAR. Outdoor seating area available. Please visit our website on linktr.ee/roundtowerlusk or call in and check our club bar for a refreshment also open for bookings including family events and parties

The message this month from Lusk Tidy Towns Association is: It’s that time of year again when the National Tidy Towns Judges will be out and about judging our towns and villages. Lusk is no exception and much work is ongoing. Wildflower seeds have been sewn in Trayen Hill and our flower tubs have been filled and attended to despite the dry weather we had been experiencing in June. Insurance is a necessary and considerable cost and also there is a vast amount of expansion in the ongoing work in progress in Lusk. Thank you to Fingal County Council for the beautiful tubs on the square and the ongoing maintenance in the park areas.

The Lusk Recreational Hub Phase 2: Phase two opened to the public in June. The Council has commissioned an assessment of the suitability of the site for further development. The results of these assessments will be used in the planning process for the development of a proposed Rathmore Recreational Sports Hub This will be a significant win for the community as local groups continue to advocate for more social amenities for Lusk which has a population the size of towns such as Mallow in County Cork. LAG would like to acknowledge the Lusk 2020 group and its Chairman Leo McKittrick who are behind this initiative and look forward to at last seeing some progress.

The Forge Estate in Lusk, its playground and associated green spaces: It is anticipated that a small number of outstanding works will be completed by the developer within the next few weeks, in tandem with the completion of the legal taking in Charge Process by Fingal County Council. This has been long overdue and we would urge both parties to ensure this is done as a matter of urgency.

Update on new Restaurant/Bar for Lusk. A bar and restaurant is in the plans for the new town centre however building of this eagerly awaited facility has not yet commenced. The developers, McGarell Reilly’s, have said they are waiting on a tenant to take on the lease before they start. The plans for new public plaza, village green and playground. appear to have been put back by at least five years, we are seeking clarification from them on the progress for this.

New bin at the Bandstand: LAG has been in touch with the council drawing attention to the bin at the Bandstand off St MacCullin’s Church on Chapel Road. The location adjacent to this historic bandstand is inappropriate and we have received many complaints from the community regarding it.

Cllr Rob O’Donoghue has welcomed the opening of the new parkland and playground located at the North of the Lusk Sports Hub. The lands were taken in charge by Fingal County Council in early June and opened to the public. The facility will have an official opening with the Mayor in attendance in the coming weeks. Additionally, the Council have commissioned assessments for the suitability of the site for continued development of the transferred lands as a Sports Hub. The results of these assessments should be available in the near future and will be used to inform the planning process for the development of sporting infrastructure at the Hub.

Cllr O’Donoghue commented, “I warmly greet the transfer of the parklands and playground to the Council. I have visited the site on a number of occasions since it has opened and the playground is consistently in use by children and parents in the area. Now that we have the lands in Council possession, we can really start to look at the development of sporting facilities in the Hub. The clubs and community groups that have come together under the Lusk 2020 committee have been pushing for this handover for some time and I would like to thank them for the innumerable hours they have put in as representatives of their organisations to date. Their discussions and commitment on the 2020 committee will provide not just Lusk but Fingal with state-of-the-art sporting facilities for the coming years”

The weather is getting warmer and the Taekwondo training is heating up too.

At Junsa we recently took part in all Dublin tournament held in Baldoyle and run by our national governing body Taekwondo Ireland. We are also looking forward to the 2nd Lusk Festival and preparations are under way for some of our students to take part in international competitions abroad.Contact Master Stuart on 087 7775202 or follow us on Facebook @ Junsa Taekwondo for more details on training times and class locations.

As the days get longer training in daylight is always more pleasant than in darkness. The races and events are coming thick and fast as summer approaches. The graded meetings are a great way for our athletes to test themselves and experience the thrill of competition. Well done to all who have taken part so far. Congratulations to all our juvenile members who have participated in League 1 & 2 of the Dublin Juvenile Outdoor Leagues. There is one league left in June and we would encourage parents to bring their children along. It’s a great day.

Basketball has finally come to Lusk with the establishment of the Lusk Ravens Basketball Club. Playing out of Lusk National School they currently have two men’s teams, a ladies team and two Academy classes for 5th and 6th class students.

The Lusk Ravens ladies team had the honour of playing the Ravens first ever game against a very experienced Division 3 team - Glasnevin Basketball. In what was a tight game the Ravens lost by only two points in a score of 48-50. Sharon O’Toole made history by scoring the Ravens first ever point and going on to play a storming game of Basketball. Coaches Brian Clerkin and Gavin O’Neill were delighted with the teams performance as was Director of Coaching Bob Hartigan.

The men’s second team recently got off the mark when they proudly welcomed a Killester Special Olympics team in a friendly. Coaches Ty Henry, Jeff Errington and Matteo Deidda were delighted to get a tough game under their belts and much needed game time for the players.

Not to be outdone the boys Academy teams travelled to take on St Kevin’s Knights.

Although in its early stages of formation the club has made huge strides in a short space of time and will aim to enter some teams for next season leagues. They have a website luskravens.com and a YouTube channel. The Club are looking for sponsorship from local business, interested parties should contact the club to receive a sponsorship pack. They would also like to hear from any coaches or ex-players in the community who like to come on board and help get this wonderful new club off the ground. ‘Go Ravens Go’

In March of this year Lusk Ladies Shed launched in the newly renovated Lusk Community Cultural Centre. The goal of Lusk Ladies Shed is to reduce the sense of isolation and increase connections with others in the local community. This non profit initiative was spear-headed by Frances Byrne as she had a wish to have a safe place for women to come find support and to develop a sense of involvement and belonging in the community. The group welcomes all women regardless of age, background or interests and there is always tea, coffee, chats and some fun for everyone. The groups are run on a Tuesday morning between 10am and 12 noon and a Wednesday evening between 7pm and 9pm in Lusk Community Cultural Centre. For more information you can find Lusk Ladies Shed and Lusk Community Cultural Centre on Facebook. Lusk Community Cultural Centre is at Church Road, Lusk, Co Dublin K45CP40.

by Dr Tom McCloughlin, DCU Water Institute

Ask one of the “blow-ins” if there are any rivers in Lusk, and their first answer would probably be no unless they were familiar with Chapelfarm or the north end of the ring road. But all settlements need a water supply! In Chapelfarm you have a short stream that rises on the hill out a little on Quickpenny Road. It winds its way under the housing estate and meanders through the farmland between Chapelfarm and the Carriage House. After that it goes under the main road under a strong bridge and then drops down to Rogerstown Estuary near the Birdwatch Ireland hide joining the Ballyboughal River proper. Unfortunately, this stream does pick up a fair amount of domestic run-off in Lusk and a lot of chemicals end up in the water so we need to be careful that our drains don’t empty into that stream making it stink and killing the life in it.

The other stream which originates way up in Palmerstown and twists its way downhill in two channels - one heading through the Commons while the other comes alongside the ring road after being re-channelled in the early 2000s. The Commons branch passes through Horestown and Rathartan through to Whitestown Mill near Rush. The lower branch pass alongside the ringroad, below Kingstown, then drops down to Effelstown through to Whitestown Mill joining the other channel and the mill-races out to the estuary at the bottom of Spout Lane.

You might be excused for thinking nothing lives in those streams but you’d be wrong since there are a lot of stickleback fish, freshwater shrimp, water slaters, bloodworms, and small shellfish though little of the high-quality pollution sensitive creatures that would indicate a clean stream. You can only see these by actually getting in the stream, though I wouldn’t recommend it unless in full PPE as the stream has a very soft bottom and you sink quite a bit in places, there’s been quite a bit of dumping too, which this writer has at times taken to extracting with thanks to Fingal CoCo for collecting the piles of junk and rubbish I’ve left for them. Pressures on the stream from pump-ing water out of the stream to spread on farmland, disturbance to the channel and again domestic run-off all conspire to kill what is there but the one we can all work on is to stop drains going di-rectly into the stream.Everything has a consequence, they say, and these streams affect Rog-erstown Estuary, the Irish Sea and all that they bring us.