Fingal County Council welcomes the award of €48,600 in new funding for the Cultural Centre project in Lusk. The funding is provided by the Department of Rural and Community Development under the 2021 Town and Village Renewal Scheme Project Development Measure. The funding is aimed at helping communities through the planning and identification of enhancements in public spaces together with an emphasis on supporting remote working options in rural communities. Fingal County Council looks forward to working with Lusk Community Council in the delivery of the project which will benefit the wider community in Lusk and surrounding areas. The funding is provided to conduct preliminary site investigation works and planning studies to facilitate the advancement of a Phase Two Development of the Lusk Cultural Centre project to planning and construction stages. Welcoming the announcement of the new funding by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphries, TD, the Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Seána Ó Rodaigh, said, “I welcome the announcement from the Minister. Funding from the Town and Village Renewal Scheme to help progress worthwhile projects is very helpful in the ongoing enhancement of the public realm in the county.” The Town and Village Renewal Scheme is provided through the Department of Rural and Community Development to promote rural and community development and to support vibrant, inclusive and sustainable communities throughout Ireland.

Well done to our senior Athletic Union League coaches Steven and James, pictured here at the presentation Night for the FAIreland National D License for the AUL Coaches who took part. huge thank you to Permanent TSB and Eddie and Karl who were a massive part of making this course happen. Well done coaches #workhard #havefun.

As the Covid pandemic fades into our history, Europe and the World is facing a new crisis with Russia’s war on Ukraine. The news stories and images of Ukrainians fighting for their country’s independence is a story that Ireland is all too familiar with, however the scale of the Ukrainian crisis is beyond belief. As we welcome many Ukrainians to our country, we still ask ourselves how can we help? On the 12th March Lusk Community Council raised the Ukrainian Flag over its 1916 Memorial as a symbol of friendship between our countries. We were honoured that a recent emigrant from Ukraine, Svitlana Turlo, raised the Ukrainian Flag in Lusk. As a further sign of our shared friendship, we presented Ireland’s Tricolor to Svitlana. In a truly inspirational speech, Svitlana committed to fly Ireland’s national flag in Ukraine, when she gets to return to her home. The relevance of the 1916 Proclamation was aligned with the modern day crisis by Councillor Cathal Boland, when he recited a section of the Proclamation and inter-changed Irish references to Ukrainian references as follows: “ We place the cause of the Ukrainian Republic under the protection of the Most High God. Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Ukrainian nation must, by its valour and discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.”

We recently held our 2 nd AGM and wish to thank everyone who attended. LAG is proud to be a voice for the people of Lusk and will continue to do our best to help shape how Lusk develops for the benefit of us all. After two years of being the main driving force behind the LAG we wish to thank Lynne Barker, who is stepping down as Chair of the group in keeping with our constitution, for all that she has done and the selfless dedication that she has demonstrated for the benefit of our town. Lusk appreciates you and all that you have done on our behalf Lynne. Our new Chairperson will be Colin Browne and Lynne will remain on our committee and continue to be an active part of the group. With our proposed Summer Festival having received approval from Fingal Co Co, we now need help from the community to make it happen. We will need musicians, entertainers, people to help with the multicultural section, people to give a few hours to help marshal the event and financial support (keep an eye on our FB page for further details). Please get in touch if you can help out in any way. Lusk Community Clean-Up Group will be holding their annual Spring Clean week from the 2 nd – 9 th April. All help is always welcome and greatly appreciated. Meeting at The Square at 12:30pm on Saturday 2 nd April. Contact Willie McGee for further information at willie.mcgee73@hotmail.com. As always, we are on the look out 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.

At the Area Operations Meeting Councillor Rob O’Donoghue warmly welcomed the inclusion of funding to be spent on road and active travel 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 other funding streams.’ Works listed under the 2022 Programme of Works include footpath upgrades at Treen Hill and Dun Emer, road resurfacing of Hannah’s Avenue, drainage works on Ministers Road/Hands Lane, lighting on Hands Lane and the installation of additional footpaths through the Orlynn Park Green Space. In addition, over €500k has been earmarked through the Capital Roads Programme for the upgrading of the R132 and as part of the NTA’s Allocation for Active Travel Projects, Ministers Road to Blakes Cross and Kilhedge Lane have had funding allocated for the construction of new protected cycle lanes and Safe Routes to School at Corduff National School. Cllr O’Donoghue stated that ‘detailed design has been carried out on this stretch of cycleway and this design is currently under review by our Active Travel Engineering Team in FCC. I am pleased to see that this project is included on our works programme for delivery later this year.’

Now that the restrictions are relaxing Junsa Taekwondo is in preparation for the return to competitions . In the coming months our national governing body , Taekwondo Ireland, are organising small tournaments for beginners and intermediate students, for our more advanced students we are beginning to make preparations to travel to the UK and Europe for competitions.

We train in Lusk Scouts Den please contact Master Stuart Russell or follow us on Facebook. Unfortunately both our beginner classes are full at the moment( but there is a waiting list ) and our intermediate and advanced class’s have limited availability, so please don’t delay if you are interested in getting fit, building confidence, and learning new life skills. Our pictures show Junsa’s students in training for their upcoming competitions.

Lusk Athletic Club were awarded the ‘National Development Club of the Year’at the recent Athletics Ireland National awards ceremony on Saturday 4th February. Considering the hundreds of athletic clubs around the country, this is a great accolade for the club and everyone involved with Lusk Athletic Club, adult and juvenile members, coaches, committee, parents, supporters and those that took the decision to reform Lusk Athletic Club back in 2009 and have overseen phenomenal growth since then with club membership reaching an amazing 700 in 2021. Lusk Athletic Club is a club for all – ages – abilities - and events. Well done to our coaches, mentors, volunteers, parents and athletes - this is your award.The first two months of the year have been very successful for the club with both our master’s athletes and our Juvenile athletes competing and winning medals at the National and Dublin Indoor championships at the National Indoor Arena, Abbotstown. We also had a great turnout for the recent Raheny Shamrock 5-Mile race and the Dublin Masters Cross-county races in January. Lusk Athletic Club also rolled out our Fit4Life and Fit4Youth groups in January which are both going very well. Sunday 6th March will see the LUSK 4 Mile race take place at 3pm preceded by Juvenile races from 1.30pm. All are welcome to run, jog or walk the Lusk 4 Mile and you can register at Luskathleticclub.ie or on the My run results website.

At present we have two teams looking for new recruits. Our U13 Boys are looking for new players and we are also delighted to announce that our new U9 Girls are also looking for new players. If you have a child in either of these age categories who wants to play football or Camogie then give us a call, both the young person and all your family will be made most welcome at the club.

By Pat Kelly.

Spring is in the air!. Daffodils are appearing, the birds are tweeting and covid pandemic is almost at bay. This signals the start of The Tidy Towns committee work programme for 2022 with our dedicated team of volunteers cleaning, tidying up, planting shrubs and litter picking. Your support in our many endeavors in Keeping Lusk Tidy is very much appreciated. Lusk is ever changing and growing at a rapid pace due to the various housing developments and expanding population. Lusk Tidy Town Committee has produced many cards and verses by local residents over 30 years and with the popularity of these cards we are producing a book for the Tidy Towns Archives reflecting on a changing Lusk. Thanking you for your continued support and Happy St Patricks Day from Lusk Tidy Towns Committee.

The second phase of meetings for the Fingal Development Plan has took place this January/February for the new Plan 2023 – 2029. Councillors signed off on the new Draft Plan and had the opportunity to submit motions to change the future growth of the towns in Fingal. In the Lusk context Cllr O’Donoghue says he was able to resist attempts by Councillors from outside of the Rush-Lusk Electoral Area who proposed a motion which sought to develop the usage of the lands around the Rush-Lusk train station. Speaking at the meeting Councillor O’Donoghue railed against the whittling away of the green space between Rush and Lusk, ensuing traffic chaos and the potential delivery of unsustainable development proposed by Councillors from outside the area at the location and that passing the motion would be tantamount ‘to changing Rush and Lusk forever and a hell of a legacy to bequeath the towns of Rush and Lusk.’He continued, ‘the Draft Plan will be out for public consultation from the end February until May 2022. This will be the final public consultation and the last chance that people from Lusk will have to get their voices heard. I would urge anyone who has an interest in the future development of the town to make a submission on the new Draft Plan.” In other Council news, the annual Programme of Works will be announced later this month with Cllr O’Donoghue looking for improvements in drainage in Ministers Road area, resurfacing of roads in Lusk, including the R132 and the fixing of footpath infrastructure in the Treen Hill area among other works.