It is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of 2022 which has been a remarkably busy and successful year for Lusk Athletic Club on all fronts with so many great performances in Track and Field events, in road and cross-country races by so many of our adult and juvenile athletes.Lusk Athletic Club had a phenomenal 50 club members complete the Dublin Marathon on Sunday 30th October with no less than 4 athletes breaking the 3-hour barrier. Across the pond another 3 club members completed the New York marathon on the 6thof November in very unseasonal temperatures (22 Celsius).Well done to Alex Bell, Dan Cronin and Fiachra Beirne. Great credit is due to all the coaches and athletes who diligently followed a 20-week marathon programme from June onwards. Congratulations to Cara McNally on a great run to finish in the top 10 of the Under 19 race at the Dublin Junior cross country championships which took place at Citywest golf course in November and to our Fit 4 Life group who graduated by completing the Donabate Parkrun 5K in November with great support from their coaches and club members who either ran the 5K with them or volunteered at the event.Thanks to the club committee and club members who put a huge amount of work into setting up the OTC which will be of massive benefit to all club athletes training over the winter months. Strength and conditioning every Friday evening open to all. The Lusk Athletic Club Christmas Party and awards night took place in the Man O War Gastro Pub on Saturday 3rd December and was another great club occasion. Well done to all who helped to organise this event and to all the award winners for 2022.

There was great excitement for members of the local Fingal Old IRA Commemorative Society 1916-1921 last week. The Society won a Special Achievement Award at the Underground Independent Film Festival which is in its thirteenth year on the International circuit. The Award was presented to the well known Deputy Mayor of Fingal County Council Cathal Boland at the Awards Ceremony held in Dun Laoghaire recently. Cathal directed the forty-five-minute long Dramamentary of an event which occurred in Ballyboughal in April 1921. Cathal based the film called “Who shot Sergeant Kirwan” on newspaper accounts of the event and the witness statements now stored in the Military History Archives along with the stories told by the relatives involved on the day. Many play the roles of their Grandparents in this Award-Winning film. It was a first and unique experience for the Director, Cast and Production team. Cathal said when receiving the Award that it was a great community event which drew people in and got them engaged. He added that while the Award was made to him the achievement was only possible by the collaborative work of the whole team. He said much of the credit must go to Eric Campbell who filmed, edited, and provided the special effects and his wife who composed the soundtrack. There were no professional actors involved and indeed this was a first also for Cathal. The Society has another film lined up and Cathal says they will go into production early next year.

Our Christmas lights were turned on the other day and we marked the occasion for the community with some hot drinks served by Top Shop and festive carols sung by the Lusk Choir. Many thanks to all who helped put the lights up, to Conrad and staff at Top Shop, to the Choir and to those of you who came to enjoy the moment with us.Did you know that Lusk has a new sports club? The Lusk Ravens basketball club is now in operation out of the Lusk National School Hall and has a weekly academy for 5th and 6th class primary school children as well as ladies’ and men’s training sessions. Check out their Facebook page for more details. This is sure to be a great addition to already very sporting community. Well done to all involved in getting it off the ground.It’s not just basketball that’s available as an extracurricular activity in and around Lusk. Lusk has art classes, an athletics club catering for all track, field, road & off road disciplines, dance classes, a football club, a GAA club, the ICA, various martial arts classes (Boxing, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Kickboxing & Taekwando), pilates classes, beavers, scouts and girl guides, yoga classes, walking groups and many more. If you’d like to know more about any of them or would like to set up a new Chess, Cards or even Tiddlywinks club or have a query on Adult Education and the likes then please contact us and we will help to direct you. Now that the dark evenings are upon us it’s important to have something to keep us active and in touch with others.As always, we are on the lookout for new members of Lusk Action Group. If you have drive, enthusiasm, care about the future of our town and have some time to spare, please consider joining us. You can email us on luskactiongroup@gmail.com.

The Lusk Guild day and time for future monthly meetings has changed. The monthly meeting will now take place on the first Tuesday of the month in Lusk Scout Den from 3.30pm until 5.30pm. In addition to our monthly meetings we also have a range of activities for ladies who like to keep fit. Mon, Tue and Thurs – Tai Chi -Tuesday 11.00 - 12.00 – Chair Yoga - Tuesday 11.30 - 12.30 - Exercises in the Hub /when weather is bad we do exercises in the old church. - Saturday 11am – meet Rush South Beach car park for sea swimming. This is just a small selection of our activities so join us for some fun as new members are always welcome. You can also contact us through our Facebook page. The Lusk ICA Guild is busy preparing for our Christmas Market which takes place on Sunday 4th of December in Lusk Scout Den from 11am to 4pm. We are very happy to welcome back Antoinette with her selection of Christmas Crafts and novelties, Cistín Chic who have a range of festive Homewares, Jacinta with her handmade cards for all occasions , and Linda with her range of jewellery.A warm welcome also to our new stall holders who have a wide variety of crafts and gifts. Doris who has a selection of Embroidered tableware, Jennifer with her knitted hats. From Me To You with a range of Christmas crafts, Linda with her Macramè Fairy’s and Mushroom light sticks, Kate with her Christmas crafts, Milk Bath with their range of Self care and gift products, and Sarah with her woolly knits. No ICA event would be complete without delicious home baking, preserves and chutneys , there will be lots to choose from.. Make sure to pick up tickets for our fabulous raffle and you can also pick up a cup of tea or coffee while you hrowse the stalls.Santa will be joining us at noon so all the boys and girls can let him know how good they have been all year and tell him what they would like. For any further information please contact us through our Facebook page. Caroline O’Malley PRO

In the National Tidy Towns 2022, Lusk finished 4th place in their category just missing out on the bronze award. Overall points increased to 334 from last year in Category E. One of the comments from the judges was “Congratulations to the committee and volunteers in Lusk for a great performance in this year’s tidy towns competition. Keep up the good work and we look forward to seeing your lovely town again in 2023” Also the annual mass held in St MacCullins Church Lusk on the 6th November 2022 for the deceased who are buried at Balrothery Union cemetery. A gathering was held afterwards in Murray’s pub Lusk with Councillor Brian Dennehy and Councillor Rob O’Donoghue speaking about the workhouse times. A sign has been erected on the site and thanks to Nina Flynn and supporters for their help over the years. Also a warm thank you to the Murray family.”

Lusk Heritage Group are delighted to make available a wonderful new collection of short stories entitled Tales of Gaels and Bales, written by Lusk’s very own Jim Monks, the treasurer and founder member of Lusk Heritage Group. These twenty three amazing short stories were years in the writing, some were recorded and preserved on audio by Jim Hawkins from Swords, while more of them were gathering dust on Jim Monk’s cluttered bookshelves at home. Aidan Arnold, Chairman of the Lusk Heritage Group and a good friend of Jim’s for the last fifty years, finally realised their potential as a treasure trove of local Fingallian folklore. He set about pulling the stories together into a single volume. He searched out and met a young Bulgarian girl called Yoana Topalska, living in Rush, working in Skerries and studying art, who produced 14 stunning illustrations for the book. Aidan, in cooperation with Lusk Heritage Group, has now published this beautiful little book which he feels deserves pride of place on every bookshelf in Ireland. The stories look back at much more than our history.You’ll meet the Dunne family from the Nevitt. In 1848, at the height of the Famine, Paddy and Sarah and John, Pat and Sally, went over the road, down the hill of the Nevitt, on their way to the North Wall of Dublin and a voyage to a foreign country. Jump forward 100 years to Paddy Farrell, a man totally at peace with himself, warm outside from the good log fire in the pub, warm inside from three bottles of ale, but World War 11 was about to change all that. Paddy’s only son Boot Farrell who deserves a book all to himself. Join Boot on his hilarious first visit to Skerries where everything that can possibly go wrong does go wrong. You never know where you’ll find yourself or who you’ll meet between the pages of Jim’s Tales of Gaels and Bales. You could be in Lusk, Rush, Skerries, Ballyboghill, Balbriggan, London, Santiago or New York, but everywhere you’ll find yourself in the company of real people, genuine laughter and simple human kindness. Tales of Gaels and Bales is available now to buy in local outlets. It will make a perfect stocking filler and Christmas present for anyone interested in Lusk, in Fingal or just curled up on the sofa enjoying a good book and a laugh.

At the November Council meeting Cllr Rob O’Donoghue welcomed the implementation of the Safer Routes to Schools programme at the junction of R127 bypass and Raheny Lane.The Safe Routes to School Programme was developed in Partnership with the NTA and Green-School in 2020 as a response to the need to support schools to increase walking and cycling to school. The programme aims to improve safety at the school gate by providing ‘front of school’ treatments to alleviate vehicle congestion, improve walking and cycling access for students and increase the number of students who cycle to school by expanding the volume of cycling parking. The Lusk site is one of the first schools chosen for works in Fingal under the programme. As part of the Safer Routes to School Programme for Rush & Lusk Educate Together School, the Active Travel Unit in FCC included within the design the inclusion of an additional crossing point of the R127 to serve both the bus stop, the schools via the pedestrian bridge and the Sports Hub in Rathmore Park. Earlier this month, the contractor commenced works on the site, to install the necessary pipes to carry a power supply to the new signalised traffic lights, located close to the Lusk Sports Hub entrance. On 26th of November upgrade works were carried out at the junction to build it out, with existing kerb lines to reduce traffic turning speeds and provide a safer crossing point for vulnerable road users.Cllr O’Donoghue thanked the Council Management and school principles in RALET and LCC for their progressive thinking on the matter stating, ‘The new lights will provide a safe crossing point for parents and childing using the schools and Sports Hub facilities. The School Principles have really led the way in facilitating both a safer transit for local students to the schools and with the recently installed pedestrian gates between the Hub and the schools, there is better connectivity between these important community facilities.’

October has been a very busy time at the club, between new members starting, international tournaments in Riga and the Korean Ambassadors Cup in Baldoyle.

Juana recently took part in a high level tournament in Riga Latvia where Robbie took to the mats after 3 years and made it to the quarter finals in his first time in the senior division.

We also took part the following weekend at the Korean Ambassadors cup here in Dublin, where we took home a medal for every player we entered.Have a look at what Junsa was up in October and November.

Lusk Athletic Club is immensely proud of our 50 plus athletes who completed the Dublin Marathon on Sunday 30th October. All the training sessions and races over many months was rewarded with great performances on the big day. Special thanks are due to our dedicated marathon training group coaches, Dwain, Mark, Una, Kathy and Annette for all their hard work in setting weekly training schedules and helping their club mates to achieve their goals. Thank You to our club members who acted as volunteers on marathon day and gave great support to all the runners.As well as the Dublin Marathon, Lusk AC athletes have run in the Chicago Marathon, Fastlane 3/4 Marathon, The Dublin 5K Road race championships, the East of Ireland races in Lusk and we were delighted to host the first Dublin Juvenile cross country league races in Lusk on what was a gloriously sunny day, one to be remembered. We were also privileged to have Irish Olympic marathon runner, Mick Clohisey come to Lusk to put on a great training session and offer advice to our marathon runners.Thank you to all our dedicated coaches, assistants, committee and club members who continually work so hard to help improve our adult and juvenile athletes, our facilities and equipment and the new indoor arena for winter training. 2022 seems to have flown by and it is almost time for the Lusk AC Christmas party night which is taking place in the Man O War Pub on Saturday 3rd December. Please contact Emma Przymusinska for your ticket asap.New members are always welcome at Lusk Athletic Club and we cater for a wide variety of track and field events as well as road and cross country running. Training takes place every Tuesday and Thursday from 6.55pm at the Hub on Rathmore Road.

It may only be the start of our season but we have had a very busy few weeks here at Lusk United AFC. We had the privilege of hosting two events within two weeks which raised a total of over €21,000 for charity. First up was the opening of Collie Maher Park. Last February we sadly lost our dear friend Collie Maher. Collie was an amazing club volunteer who not only managed and coached our U17s boys but was involved in fixtures, facilities, fundraising and supporting other coaches with his advice and guidance. In honour of Collie we decided to rename our Station Road pitches - Collie Maher Park. A dedication ceremony, featuring the brilliant Black Raven Pipe Band, was attended by people from all across the community who were entertained with a ‘Legends Match’ as Lusk United took on Whitehall Celtic /St. Kevin’s.Plenty of familiar faces dusted off their boots and got stuck in!

Phenomenal work from all involved in making this day happen including organising a fundraising raffle which raised over €11,500 for St. Francis Hospice Dublin. Thanks to all those who contributed and to all the business who donated fabulous raffle prizes. Next up were our ladies… To launch Breast Cancer Awareness month our Kick Fit ladies organised a charity match against Malahide United at Rathmore Road. With 1 in 9 women affected by breast cancer in their lifetime it was a great opportunity to raise funds for this worthy cause. We had a wonderful, fun filled family day which included a cake sale and a raffle. There was a great atmosphere and buzz around the club on the day and our U8 girls team even had the chance to show case their skills to supporters at half time. An amazing total of €9,590 was raised – well done! We are so proud of our club, all its members and the whole Lusk community. The Images with this article are courtesy of Paul Maguire for which we are very grateful.