The long evenings aren’t far away and all of teams have been training hard since the start of the year in anticipation of the return of football, hurling and camogie matches. Best of luck to all our teams as they set out on their 2023 season. All support is welcome at our fixtures. Details on dates, venues and times of home fixtures can be viewed on our website at roundtowerslusk.ie

Club Planning Programme – Following on from our 2013-2018 and 2018-2023 strategies, we have formally entered into the GAA’s Club Planning Programme. This programme has aided over 1,000 clubs since its inception in 2008 to develop strategic plans. Our strategic plan will set out our hopes, ambitions and challenges on and off the pitch for the next five years.. Nursery – Come down and join us for fun, games, hurling, camogie and football at our nursery for 4- 7 year old boys and girls every Saturday from 11am to noon. Registration is from 10.45am. LGFA –Ladies Gaelic Football team including picture taken in an amazing event in Cahir in Co Tipperary. All new players are welcome to join the many juvenile and adult teams in our Ladies Gaelic Football Section - U8, U10, U12, U13, U14, U16, Minor, Adult Ladies (First Team and Second Team). Our Gaelic4Mothers & Others initiative sees women playing Ladies Gaelic Football in a fun, non- competitive and social environment. If you or someone you know is interested in playing this year, please call into the clubhouse any evening or drop us an email roundtowerslusk.office@gmail.com. Finally, congratulations to Sarah O’Neill and Bronagh Neary who represented the club at the Dublin Club Stars games in DCU on Sunday 11 February.Lotto – Our Weekly Lotto is edging towards €8,000. This is a crucial fundraiser for the club and if interested you can play our Lotto here on klubfunder.com/Clubs/Round_Towers_Lusk/lotto. The Lotto o draw takes place in the clubhouse at 9pm every Thursday. Many thanks for your continued support for our club - and good luck.
Seachtain na Gaeilge – To celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge Cloigtithe Lusca we will be hosting a Pop-up Gaeltacht each Saturday up to the final day which is the 17th March 2023. This is an excellent opportunity for Lusk to practice the cupla focal in the run-up to the big day! Please do visit our GAA Round Towers Lusk club website. Entertainment – The TAP Bar in GAA club in Lusk has got some fantastic events coming over the month and would be delighted to see you there and enjoy some Live music. - 11th March – Totally 80’s Band – All the best 80’s music starts after 8.30pm - 18th March – Pat Gaffney – Great American Culture -25th March – The Macks – Trad Music- 1st April – Cliché – All of the best music songs. Please visit our club 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.

Lusk Tidy Towns Association wish to say thank you to Fingal County Council for power washing the Square area and for upgrading the flower bed on the Main Street and for erecting a sign for the Balrothery Union Graveyard. It is a comfort to see these improvements working to enhance our community. Thank you to the trainees and staff of EVE Plantmarket for their Annual Litter picking around Lusk. This is very much appreciated by all. Thank you for your support and remember please ‘KEEP LUSK TIDY.’

Our Drama group had great success when they performed A Charming Affair in the Wicklow Drama Festival with one of the cast receiving a Merit Award for her performance as the maid. The group also won Best Costume, the Adjudicator Award and Best ICA sketch. It was a wonderful achievement as it was their first time performing in public. A big thanks to our director Alma Farrell and Mary Hagan for their support and encouragement along the way.

The Lusk Heritage Group are planning what should be an interesting Story Telling evening for Thursday 16th March to celebrate St Patricks weekend. They have a number of people lined up to share stories, poems and reminiscences about the village and its surroundings. So remember the
date is Thursday 16th March, the place is Private Room in Murrays of Lusk and the time is 8.00 pm. You don’t have to be a third generation long standing resident of Lusk to enjoy the evening. Newcomers, visitors and total strangers are all welcome to come together and do what Irish people are famous for, - telling their stories and sharing an evening together. It sounds like the perfect way to start your St Patrick’s weekend celebrations. The heritage group recently came across these two beautiful old pictures of Lusk. They are from the Irish Capuchin Franciscan Archives. The picture with the old car (late 1930s registration) was taken in 1940, while the picture with the woman and two children was taken 15 years later in 1955. The children have been identified as Joe Hickey from Cork and the late David McDonald who lived in Kells. Both of them were brought up together in Lusk and had very happy memories of their childhood there. But can anyone identify the woman in the picture? Its 1955, with her apron and shopping bag, she looks like she was heading to or from Katie Hunts shop and coming from the Jack Browne side when the photo was taken.

It is lovely to welcome spring and we would like to say a huge thank you to Lusk Community Cleaning Group for their continued hard work to get our town looking well. They are always looking for new members and it is a great little community to get involved with, so get in touch with us and we’ll send you their direction! After long campaigning for it, we were delighted to finally see the installation of bollards and changes to the road and footpath at Rush and Lusk Educate Together and Lusk Community College, under the “Safe Routes to School” funding by Fingal County Council. We would like to thank our committee member Cllr Rob O’Donoghue for all his representation regarding this. The continued power cuts have plagued us all over the last year and a half. Over this time, we have engaged with all our public representatives on this matter, and we have received very unsatisfactory responses from ESB Networks. We have logged our official complaint, which is the first step we need to officially take. We would urge everyone to email esbnetworks.complaints@esb.ie and from there we will escalate this issue as far as we need to in order to have this issue fully and permanently resolved.We are planning our 2023 Lusk Summer Festival! After the huge success of last year’s event, we are really excited to get this up and running again. It is a massive undertaking and we have a great organising committee but we really need new members to help spread the workload. So please consider joining us. It’s hard work for a couple of months but great fun and so worthwhile! Put the date in your diary! Saturday 24th June. We will be having our Annual General Meeting on Monday 6th March in Lusk National School (stage). All are welcome to attend. We are looking for new members. We welcome people of all nationalities –our young people, older people, women and men. We are proud to have a diverse committee. So if you have vision and enthusiasm or if you have a particular skill set that may be useful (or even if you don’t!) please get in touch with us. We are proud of our achievements and the change that we have been a catalyst to over the last three years. It takes committed people to make that happen. But there is so much more to do. We wish you all a very happy St Patrick’s Day! Enjoy the Celebrations!

At the Area Operations Meeting Councillor Rob O’Donoghue warmly welcomed the inclusion of funding to be spent on roads, footpaths and parks infrastructure in the coming calendar year in the Lusk area. He commented, ‘I am delighted with that the works that have been included and will be pushing for other areas in the town that need attention to be considered for upgrade through future works programmes and other funding streams.’ Works listed under the 2023 Programme of Works include footpath upgrades at Orlynn Park, road resurfacing at Chapel Green, further drainage works on Hands Lane, a signalised pedestrian crossing at the Dublin Road Roundabout, the installation of additional footpaths through the Orlynn Park and Chapel Farm Green Spaces, access from Ministers Park to Hands Lane as well as tree planting/pollinator planting as per the biodiversity town plan. Last month also brought to conclusion the drafting of the Development Plan 2023 – 2029 which will come into effect in early March. Cllr O’Donoghue stated ‘following a large volume of work from Community Organisations in Lusk to prevent unchecked re-zonings of land at the last round of the Development Plan, Lusk will get to develop sustainably over the course of the forthcoming Development Plan. I look forward to pushing initiatives such as the Lusk 2030 Vision in the remainder of this Council term.’

Recently Junsa Taekwondo held there bi annual club grading. The club gradings are the highlight of our calendar. The grading is where our students get to display their skills, of technical ability, sparring skills, knowledge of Taekwondo, fitness and the traditional aspects of Taekwondo. Each grading is to progress our students and between each one the students learn new aspects of Taekwondo plus new skills and moves. It’s all about progression and building confidence and self esteem at Junsa. Please take a look at these photographs of our recent gradings. A very happy new year to all our students, supports and our Taekwondo friends around the world. Junsa Taekwondo is always accepting new students both experienced and completely beginners of all ages. Please contact Master Stuart Russell or follow us on Facebook @ Junsa Taekwondo

Lusk AC had an actioned packed start to the New Year with multiple events taking place in early January. The annual Tom Brennan 5k kicked off the year on 1st January and then a week later it was over to Abbotstown for the first round of the National Indoor League. It was with great pride that the club entered two teams at this event for the first time since reforming in 2009. There were PB performances from Ross Moore, Max Lara and Daniel O’Brien and no doubt the whole team gained valuable experience from the event. A few miles away in St Anne’s park, Raheny another 23 club members were taking part in the Dublin Master’s Cross Country. Weather conditions were ideal although cross country is never easy and our athletes all performed admirably, fighting for every place. The weekend of Jan 13th & 14th was also full of action starting with Matt Bush taking part in the attritional Art O’Neill challenge which involved 60km of road and open mountain starting in Dublin Castle and finishing in Glenmalure, Wicklow. As Matt was completing his overnight challenge, 5 of the club were starting a half marathon in Donadea Forest. We also had athletes competing well again in the National Indoor arena at the Junior & U23 championship as well as club members officiating. We would like to welcome all of our new members to the club and for those of you who haven’t taken that step yet it’s not too late. We have a Fit4Life forever group which will continue all year with opportunities to achieve many goals. As always it will be fun, easy running designed for complete beginners or those returning to fitness. We also have a Fit4Youth group aimed at teenagers. Both groups train at 7pm on Tuesday & Thursday at The Hub, Rathmore Road. Register at Luskathleticclub.ie. Finally, the Lusk 4 mile takes place on Sunday 5th March. Don’t forget to sign up or volunteer.

(FOR THOSE WHO BOUGHT A CALENDAR)
It has come to our attention that there are three printing errors in the Rush Tidy Towns calendar.
Good Friday should read Friday the 7th of April, not Friday the 14th, Easter Monday should read Monday the 10th.of April, not Monday the 17th and, October Bank Holiday should read Monday the 30th of October, not Tuesday the 31st of October. Sincere apologies for these misprints and we hope this doesn’t inconvenience anybody. Meanwhile the hard work of keeping the Rush community tidy continued recently. RTT are delighted to see the new big belly bins finally arriving in Rush this week. There will be 14 in total and we will also get bins at the new locations which are on popular walking routes. These are higher capacity so should cope with a lot more litter which will be great for weekends and the summer period in particular. Thank you Fingal County Council. Also as ever the wonderful volunteers have been out litter picking in recent days and a great job done at the entrance to Tesco by them as these pictures show.