As part of International Women’s Week the Women’s KickFit groups came together in a game at Gannon Park Malahide Utd recently which saw teams from Malahide Utd V Howth Celtic competing in a Women’s KickFit Game on Sunday 5th March. There was plenty of skills on show on the day. The KF programme is to bring women together from 18+ who don’t play on a team and want the fun and craic in an non-competitive way and use the programme as a social event and maybe get involved in their local club.

The following is a run report from two of our visitors on a Saturday recently: “Long before we were ‘runners’ Claire and I had a lovely break in Malahide and often talked about returning. It is a beautiful location and the people are so friendly. Fast forward 6 years and we are both now parkrun addicts and love visiting events throughout the UK and further afield, so when we knew we would be flying to Dublin for the weekend our first thought was Malahide parkrun !This Saturday was also my 200th parkrun and whilst this may not be an ‘official’ parkrun milestone it is definitely a good enough reason to celebrate with a few pints of the black stuff. So the parkrun day arrived and we were very lucky with the weather. Rain and wind was forecast but it held off for the duration of the run. After arriving early (as is our way) we met Martha the run director and a few more of the volunteers before a small warm up and then we were off. We both loved the course and were both happy with our times. And the breakfast at Avoca cafe in the castle topped it off perfectly (don’t forget to show your barcode for a 10% discount).We would like to thank Martha and the team of volunteers, without whom the event would not take place. There were 251 participants today of which 29 were first timers at Malahide including 11 running their very first parkrun. We hope you all enjoyed your run and have now realised that your Saturday mornings will never be the same again. Congratulations - to the 14 runners who recorded course PBs including Alasdair BROWN who was the first runner home in a time of 17:12. First lady home was Niamh MARKHAM in a time of 17:41. Well done both fantastic running.There were plenty of milestone achievements to applaud including: Maciek MICHALOWSKI, Caitríona FINLAY, Dave WOODS, Ian BRENNAN (25 parkruns) & Michelle GRIMES (50 parkruns). Also worthy of mention Finnbarr O’BRIEN who has completed 400 parkruns. Until the next time we come back thank you Malahide parkrun.” David George (A3162129) Claire George (A1777261) - Cardiff parkrun

by Malahide Historical Society

We have heard stories that a local dialect could be heard spoken around Malahide as recently as the 1940s. Here is a most interesting extract of an article from Fingal County Council on the subject.
‘Fingal consists of most of the northernmost five: Balrothery East; Balrothery West; Nethercross; Castleknock Blanchardstown Coolock.Before describing this history, it is important to clarify that the linguistic situation in North Co. Dublin was complicated by the presence of a third language besides Irish and English: Fingallian. Fingallian was a poorly documented local descendant of Middle English, and appears to have originated in the very earliest English spoken by Anglo-Norman settlers in Co. Dublin; in this and other respects it was substantially identical to the Forth and Bargy dialect spoken in the south of Wexford. Despite pressure at first from Irish (from which, like the dialect of Forth and Bargy, it borrowed a number of words; see below), Fingallian survived as a curious, precarious linguistic island in North Co. Dublin until the mid-nineteenth century, when it eventually succumbed to local English. Unfortunately we have so little information on Fingallian that we do not know exactly how far its area of use extended or how this area then contracted. Its name and existing texts suggest it was spoken north of the city in the 1600s and 1700s; its influence is certainly detectable in the nineteenth century English of Oldtown, Co. Dublin, recounted in Patrick Archer’s Humours of Shanwalla (1906) here; remnants of it are perhaps also just noticeable in the twentieth century English of Swords, Lusk, Rush, Skerries, Naul et al. Irish loanwords in Fingallian are of particular interest to us; they must have been borrowed directly from the local Irish dialect then spoken in North Co. Dublin. (We have no direct information on whether or not Fingallian speakers also knew Irish; but given the extensive nature of borrowings from Irish - which mirror the pervasive English we find in the Irish of today - a situation where Fingallian was a minority language surrounded by and under pressure from Irish, and where the two languages were used indifferently by bilingual speakers, seems most likely.)’

Well done to everyone involved at the annual Master Mariner Competition, sponsored by the Irish Institute of Master Mariners.We are enormously proud of our young sea scouts who had an amazing weekend with the Irish Naval Service, National Maritime College of Ireland NMCI RNLI Crosshaven Lifeboat Station Irish Sailing Irish Coast Guard and all the external examiners.What an incredible opportunity to connect with Irelands professional maritime community and consider a career at sea. The next generation of Irelands Master Mariners is looking very bright indeed! An incredible weekend experience for the 22 competitors from across the Country competing in the annual Master Mariner Competition proudly sponsored by the Irish Institute of Master Mariners.The level of nautical skills shown by all competitors was outstanding. Everyone should be very very proud of what they have achieved:
Venture Scouts - Capt.Desmond Fortune ‘Founders Award’ - (1st)- Cormac Eason (267pts) - 9th Port Malahide Sea Scouts - (2nd) - Dan Clohessy (246pts) - 9th Port Malahide Sea Scouts
3rd - Adam Kavanagh (244pts) - 12th Ballykelly Scouts Rover Scouts

Capt.Cian Timmons Memorial Award - (1st) - Óran Ó hIrile (248pts) - 9th Port Malahide Sea Scouts - (2nd) - Evan Banable (235pts) - 9th Port Malahide Sea Scouts - 3rd - Darragh Ryan (213pts) - 1st Wexford New Ross Sea Scouts

Practical Skills - Eoghan Lavelle Cox’ns Award - Dan Clohessy - 9th Port Malahide Sea Scouts.
Congratulations to all those who took part and to their mentors.

Malahide Boules welcomes new participants!The recently established Malahide Boules group is keen to publicise the new boules playing surfaces (known as pistes) at Malahide Castle grounds and the organised playing sessions held there each Tuesday @11:00am and Saturday @ 3:00pm. The playing pistes are located next to the Playground area at Malahide Castle grounds and there is plenty of free parking nearby. We welcome anyone to join us, as there are no specific skills necessary to play the game, but rather just a willingness to try it out. If you would like to buy a set of basic boules (set of 3) these can be purchased for example at the Decathlon store, next to IKEA in Ballymun, or online (https://www.decathlon.ie ). If interested, you can contact us through our website //sites.google.com/view/malahide-boules/home or by email malahideboules@gmail.com,

MALAHIDE United have opened up a considerable gap at the top of the UCFL Premier Division after they beat last season’s runner up VEC FC 3-1 in Terenure recently. A Jordan Briggs penalty and a solo effort from Stephen Cleary gave them a comfortable 2-0 lead at the break, while Karl Sheppard added their third late in the game.VEC bagged a consolation in added time but the day belonged to United who at this time of us going to press sit top of the pile on 30 points from 12 games, AGPFC, who lost to Atletico Malahide 1-0, are joint second with 18 points from 11 games, Harding IF FC, who won 5-1 at home to Rialto, who have 10 games played and Shelbourne AFC who have played 11.

Here we have a selectioHere we have a selection of images of the clearing work to create a meadow of wild flowers while also fencing off an area that will accommodate the native Irish Honey Bee hives that have arrived in recent days. This is in conjunction with the expertise of the Fingal Dublin North Beekeepers Association. This species is unique to Ireland and is is thought to have been brought to the Fingal area first by St Mologa. The area which has been cleared is to host a very large number of wild flowers to help the bees flourish as they are believed to be under threat of extinction at present and many other areas in this country are receiving hives to help preserve the species at present.

Recently the feast day of St. Bridget on 1st of February was marked but there is another female saint whose feast day occurred just two days later, on 3rd of February, for whom there is a Malahide connection.St. Werburgh was an early English royal abbess and was revered for ensuring healthy pregnancies. She was the daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia. Born in AD 650, she renounced the world on the death of her father, retreated to a convent in Ely, England and founded monastic houses over which she presided. On her death she was buried in Hanbury, Staffordshire, but her body was later moved to Chester to place it beyond the reach of marauding Danes and St. Werburgh over time became the patroness of Chester and guardian saint of Chester cathedral. Her memory lives on in the cathedral and in representations in stained glass. Chester had, from pre-Norse times, extensive trading connections with Ireland for corn, hides and fish. In 1176 a charter by King Henry II empowered the Chester City Burgesses to continue to trade with Ireland. Henry II had reserved Malahide for himself and granted Richard Talbot tenancy of Malahide provided he pledged to hold Malahide for the English Crown which the family did for 800 years until the last Lord Talbot, Milo died in 1973. Perhaps it was the traders from Chester who were responsible for the devotion to St. Werburgh in Dublin and the Malahide district or perhaps it was the early Normans.. we don’t know. A street and a church named after St. Werburgh are to be found in Dublin city near Christchurch cathedral but here near Malahide, her name is honoured by a holy well on the Gay Brook stream. Local tradition held that the natural spring well had a cure for sore eyes. A tale associated with St. Werburgh says that she brought five wild geese back to life that had been killed by a servant and as a result the emblem of a goose is associated with her and in the windows of Chester cathedral. In old Gaelic the word for goose is Gé, hence Goose Brook or Gay Brook. We have St. Werburgh’s miracle of the five geese to thank for the name. Our thanks to Malahide Historical Society.

John Moore, Deputy Principal

It has been a busy time in St Mary’s. Here are some updates: Theresa Morakinyo the Project Manager at the Baldoyle Family resource was delighted that we raised €1,200 for Baldoyle Meals on Wheels. The money was raised by carol singing in Donaghmede Shopping Centre and holding a Christmas Jumper Day and by the teachers carol singing to the students. Well done also to mini company ‘Christmas Corks’ whose Christmas decorations, made from corks, proved extremely popular. They have donated the vast majority of their profits to the Jack and Jill Foundation. A very impressive sum of €400. Well done Hannah and Brooke! We were also delighted to update our Head Girl and Deputy Head Girl with the Applegreen sponsored Awards Board. Congrats to Elizabeth and Julia, current Head Girl and Deputy Head Girl who now join a really impressive list of former Head Girls.

We are to delighted to announce that we have passed the €100,000 mark following the launch of our SylsFuture fundraising campaign in November! Thanks to the generosity of our first donors and participants in our fundraising events we are well on the way to our target of €750,000! We are on track with the development work and expect to break ground on Phase 2 of the development plan before the summer, starting with the extension of the All-Weather training area at Broomfield.
Please contribute today to help us towards our next milestone and secure the future development of the Broomfield campus.