It was a fabulous day for Lusk AC at the Irish Life Health Masters Championships at Morton Stadium on Sunday 5th September. There were medals galore across track and field events with great excitement in the relays. Congratulations to all who participated as well as the club coaches and volunteers. Well done also to Ian Cortina who took on the 58km challenge of the Kerry Way UltraLite finishing in 11 hours 58 minutes. Wishing the very best of luck to all our distance runners who are taking on Marathons in October. First up is the Belfast City Marathon on Sunday 3rd October and then the Virtual Dublin Marathon on the bank holiday weekend. You’ve done the training miles so now enjoy the race.

Our Under 19 ladies hosted Ashbourne United F.C. in the Lees Brothers Cup Final at Rathmore Road recently. After a strong start Ashbourne scored on a counter attack and a very tight struggle continued. Ashbourne scored from a corner and went in 2-0 at half time. A really brave effort saw Lusk dominate the second half and Anna Murphy struck the cross bar with a cracking shot. Ashbourne pinched a third and then Anna scored a deserved goal that set up a frantic last 5 minutes. Lusk gave everything but it was just not to be and the match finished 3-1 to Ashbourne. Hailey Clark was our player of the match.The ladies would like to thank everyone who turned out on the night. The huge crowd and the support shown was really appreciated. The hospitality provided by the club post match to both teams was fantastic.Congratulations to Ashbourne on their win but credit to our ladies for showing great heart and commitment. As always, thanks to Graham and Tom for all their hard work.

Cara McNally represented Ireland once again in the Irish Schools International Team which competed in Derbyshire England late last month.Cara is pictured here on her way to winning the Girl’s 1500 metre Steeplechase during the Irish Life Health Tailteann Schools’ Inter-provincial Games at Morton Stadium on Saturday 11th of September. Congratulations Cara!

Lusk Community Council has been working with Fingal County Council over recent months to deliver super fast Free Public WiFi zones at The Green open space and The Square / Church Road/ Main Street/ Station Road. The WiFi technology has been installed on the Carnegie Library Community Hall and the Cottage Community Centre. The project is part of an EU funded initiative to extend free public access to WiFi in our towns and villages. It is an important part of the Fingal County Council Digital Strategy which aims to make Fingal the place of choice to live, work, visit and do business in Ireland. Free public Wi-Fi will be a huge asset to residents, visitors and businesses in Lusk, Fingal and other towns and villages.This digital iniative is in line with the Lusk Vision 2030 recommendations for the creation of new public realm spaces in Lusk to meet the changing needs of our community. Lusk Community Council is delighted to be part of this progressive digital project for the town and will be seeking to extend the scope to other locations over time. Accessing the Free WiFi is simple, click on WIFI4EU in your settings menu of your digital device and follow the access instructions.

We have begun a lovely project for the community this month. Over the next year, we will be developing a biodiversity garden, with the support of Fingal County Council and with the guidance of multi award winning gardener, Barry Kavanagh, who is famed for his wild gardens. The site, beside the Round Tower, already has some diversity, as most unused areas have. However, we will be enhancing the area using native plants and flowers and creating an even more diverse area for our wildlife. Fingal County Council are very interested in the project and are making a short film of its progress, as an example of best practice. This will be used on their website and social media. We are relying on ourselves and the goodwill of the community to do this work, so if you are a keen gardener or have an interest in biodiversity and you don’t mind a bit of hard work, please get in touch! We are hoping that within a year, we will have developed this enough to complete it with seating areas and a bin so that it can be enjoyed by the whole community. We opened up an online fundraiser for the Christmas lights last month which was a huge success. We have also secured funding from FCC, so we will be able to add to our lights from last year and bring even more sparkle to our lovely Lusk! We set up an organising committee for “Lusk Summer Festival 2022” and have begun the early stages of planning for this. We are hoping to make this a yearly event, held in June, for the whole community, young and old. Watch this space! If you would like to get involved in this, contact us at luskactiongroup@gmail.com or you can call on 0863017842. We would like to congratulate Lusk Community Council on the delivery of the “Lusk Vision 2030” document and plan. We look forward to being able to assist in the implementation of this plan over the coming years.

At the September Operations Meeting Councillor Rob O’Donoghue warmly welcomed the update on the over €350k in funding to be spent on road infrastructure in the current calendar year in Lusk. He commented, ‘In a year that has been challenging for the delivery of projects within the Programme of Works due to covid-19 restrictions, I am happy that the works that have been included in the Programme are being moved on and some of which have been delivered. I will be pushing for the delivery of all works listed under the current programme and be pressing for the inclusion of other areas in the town that need attention for 2022 Works Plan including the upgrading of the surfacing of the R132 as you leave Lusk from the Ministers Road .’ A breakdown of the Updated Programme of Works for Lusk can be seen below:
Thorigne Fouliard Lane - €55k - Surface Dressing & Macadam Overlay – Contractor to commence works September.
Treen Hill - €36k - Road Reconstruction - Contractor to commence works September.
Dun Emer/Ministers Road - €68,000 - Road Reconstruction – To be surveyed and tendered in the coming weeks.
St MacCullins Close - €31k - Road Reconstruction – Tendering closes in September.
Lusk to County Garden R127 - €40k - Footpath Kerbing – To be surveyed then opened to tender.
Lusk By-pass at Sports Hub - €65k - Pedestrian Crossing – Works completed.
Ministers Road on approach to Dun Emer Estate from the R132 junction -€4k – VAS Speed Reader – Contractor onsite in September.
Chapel Green Open Space - €15k - Replace Concrete path that links to and surrounds the Bandstand – Works planned for October.
Orlynn Park Tennis Courts - €8k - Replace Fencing surrounding existing tennis courts– Works planned for October.

What an amazing achievement for our club, 3 young athletes selected to represent Ireland at the Under 21s and Cadet European Championships In Estonia. Robbie will fight in Under 21s while Nicole and Tosia will fight In the cadets. Our thanks to everyone for sticking with us over the hard times of Covid and everything is starting to look a bit brighter. Junsa is always welcoming new members , so if you want to train for fitness, fun or become an aspiring athlete you are welcome to try your hand or should I say foot ! at our great martial art and sport.

The club were delighted to hold a Half Marathon for members during August. Starting with a lap of the Hub, the route took in Quickpenny, Hedgestown and Wimbletown before returning to the Hub via the ring road. There was a nice mixture of experienced athletes who were running as part of their Marathon training plans and newer members who in some cases were completing their first Half Marathon. Well done to all who took part or helped out with organising or water drops. All groups are scheduled to return to training in early September. Places for new members are available by contacting us through our facebook page or email to Luskathleticclub.ie

Our highly successful Cúl Camps 2021 took place in Thomas Ashe Park recently with 125 children aged between 6 and 12 years taking part.The children had an eventful week, with the weather on our side thankfully. A big thank you to all our coaches for ensuring everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable week playing camogie, hurling, football and a couple of spontaneous waterfights!! It was great to see all our young members back playing and training with their friends once again after a difficult year.Our Online Lotto draw takes place live on Facebook every Thursday at 9.00pm. Tickets can be purchased online at www.klubfunder.com.The lotto is an important fundraiser for the club and we appreciate all the support.

After 2 years as Lusk Utd Chairman, Ciaran Russell, stood down from his position at the recent AGM in July. Ciaran has been involved in the club for most of his life as a player, coach and committee member. Indeed, Ciaran has spent the best part of a decade on the committee in various roles always giving 100% commitment and bringing a rare skill set that will be a great loss to the committee and the club. The impact Ciaran made as Chairman should not be underrated and he leaves the club in good stead as we come through one of the toughest periods in the club’s and the country’s history. Ciaran has overseen the first club survey, the development of a club strategy, a restructuring of the committee and a very successful girls only academy at which Ciaran was a coach.The Russell name is synonymous with Lusk and with Lusk Utd; Ciaran’s contribution will go a long way to cementing his name in the history of the club and we as a club would like to thank him for all his efforts. We wish him the best for the future, and we hope to see Ciaran back on the sidelines at games or even on the training pitches again in the future. We are also now recruiting for our U16 Girls, U 19 Girls, U 14 boys and U 19 Boys teams and we are delighted to have received an allocation of €25,453 towrds clb machinery under the Sports Capital Grant