Continuing our promotion of the Sustainable Development Goals SDG is “Good Health & Well-Being”. It is well known that volunteering is good for people’s mental health, and the feeling of satisfaction associated with being part of a group of volunteers who have achieved a combined goal is very gratifying. In Rush Tidy Towns we have a wonderful group of volunteers who do a huge amount of work for the benefit of our town. You too can get involved by sending your phone number to tidytownsrush@gmail.com and we can add you to the volunteer WhatsApp group.
Rush Tidy Towns also run the Let’s Play Rush initiative in conjunction with Fingal County Council, Rush Scouts & Rush Community Council. This involves putting on a series of free play events for families in Rush at Easter, Summer and Halloween. This encourages people to get involved in the community in addition to being active.
You can always join our committee in 2025 as well, see flyer for details. This allows you to play an active role in the community and having a voice on the things that matter.
OLIO is a free app connecting neighbours with each other, and volunteers with local businesses, so that surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. OLIO have continued their work locally collecting surplus food from Tesco Rush and uploading onto the OLIO App and through the App many people have contributed to preventing so much food from being wasted by requesting the items they like. Thank you to all the App users for continuously supporting OLIO throughout the year. The stats on what has been achieved locally in Rush are contained below. Why not download the App yourself and begin saving food from going to waste? Check the app every Thursday at 20:30 to see what is available to collect in Rush!
As part of Fingal County Council’s Town Centre First Initiatives in Rush, we are currently inviting residents, community groups, businesses, and other stakeholders within the town to take part in the attached online survey to have their say on the benefits of living in Rush, and how the town could potentially be improved. This short online survey is now open for completion until Friday 03 January 2025.
Town Centre First is a government initiative which aims to create town centres that function as viable, vibrant, and attractive locations for people to live, work and visit, while also functioning as the service, social, cultural and recreational hub for the local community. Town Centre First recognises that every town is unique. It lays the foundation for each town to develop, at a local level, their own plan led path forward. This initiative will build upon the Urban Framework plan of 2018, in order to build a town which functions for all of its users and residents.
Please visit https://arcg.is/0nPuva0 or scan the QR code in the accompanying picture.
At the recent general election took place on the 29th of November, the Dublin Fingal West Constituency returned three T.D’s, Deputy Louise O’Reilly (Sinn Fein), Cllr Rob O’Donoghue (Labour) and Grace Boland (Fine Gael), with all three candidates passing the quota of 7,530 votes.
Deputy O’Donoghue received a 16.7% of the first preference vote, the highest percentage for his Party in the Country and was deemed elected on the sixth count.
Speaking on his securing of the second of the three seats Deputy O’Donoghue stated, ‘It has been the most draining campaign that I have ever been on and I am thrilled with the results. I would like to thank everyone who helped me during this campaign, from canvassers, leafetlers, posterers and for the amount of time that my team of volunteers gave up to help me over the last two to three months, without their support we would not have taken a seat and I will be forever grateful to each and every person who helped me, it doesn’t matter if it was one day or the entire campaign, it would not have been possible without the team.
‘I would also like to thank everyone in the constituency that came out on the day to vote for me. It has been a privilege to serve as the Councillor for the Rush-Lusk Local Electoral Area for the last seven years and I appreciate the trust that has been placed in me by the people of Fingal West to represent them at national level. I will do my best for the constituency in the coming
Rush Free Stuff
Unwanted Christmas presents? Having a clear out? Then why not join our 5,000+ members who use the “Rush Free Stuff” Facebook group. In this group you can offer or ask for ANYTHING as long as it is free. This is a sustainable way of getting rid of unwanted items around the house or avoiding buying new unnecessarily. Check it out today.
Christmas Jumper Swap and Repair Café
Thank you to everybody who attended our Christmas themed clothes repair cafe and Christmas jumper swap event in Rush Community Centre in November. Special thanks to Paula Lopez and Anna Maguire who along with our committee ensured we had plenty of happy customers. Another great example of the circular economy in action in Rush.
Rush Tidy Towns AGM
Rush Tidy Towns AGM will be held in January in the Community Centre, please check our Facebook page for the date and more details.
Rogerstown Birdwatching
We had a nice crowd at our Rush Tidy Towns Birdwatching event one December morning at Rogerstown. Thank you to Linda Mellon from the Fingal Branch of BirdWatch Ireland for the expert guidance.
Our Foróige young people who took part in a community spirit award. They undertook this project wanting to raise money for SVP. They created their brand which promotes sustainability and self-care while also raising awareness for the work SVP do in the community. They made homemade soy wax candles out of refurbished jars and teacups from SVP. they raised almost €140 for SVP and we can’t thank the community of Rush enough for supporting them on the day!
We’d like to say a huge thank you to Jim and Jean Doyne and their team of helpers (with a special mention to Harriet Byrne for all her wonderful baking), and also to all the staff and patrons of The Harbour Bar in Rush.
For over 20 years now, they have held a fundraiser for a Christmas hamper raffle, selling tickets in The Harbour Bar and all around Rush. They recently visited us at the lifeboat station with friends and family and presented us with a cheque for €2,330. Incredible support for their local lifeboat.
A big thank you to St. Maurs. GAA for their very generous donation towards this years Christmas Lights. There’s still time to donate, every little helps
We were delighted to be able to present copies of the Rush Bygone Days book to 38th Rush Scout Group and Rush Senior Citizens Nifty Over 50 at their inclusion
Music and song were in the air on Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th November at The Lark, in Balbriggan, as many local school choirs performed in the Fingal Festival of Schools’ Voices. Schools from Lusk, Rush, Loughshinny and Balbriggan were joined by the The Lark’s own resident school The Irish Institute of Music & Song who played traditional Irish music on the harp.
The festival has its originated in 2017 as St. Catherine’s Choral Festival in Rush, so it was fitting that on Tuesday 5th November both the St Catherine’s School Choir and the Ukulele Orchestra performed several songs at the venue. During the evening the audience heard renditions of many popular songs by acts as The Rolling Stones, Coldplay and the Pixies. Additionally, two schools performed songs by Oasis – no doubt reflecting the recent revival in interest since the announcement of their reunion tour. The good news was that two different songs were chosen, Live Forever and Wonderwall!
Rush Musical Society Concert at St Catherine’s National School
Later the same week, with barely time to rest their voices, the St Catherine’s School Choir and Ukulele Orchestra performed again on Friday 8th November in the St Catherine’s School Hall with The Rush Musical Society. The audience were delighted with performances by all three groups, including songs from the 1970s, 80s and 90s performed by the Rush Musical Society.
The highlight of the evening was the collaborative performance when the adults’ and children’s voices joined forces to perform Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Vaults of Heaven.
Let’s Play Halloween
Despite the weather, we had a large turnout at our Let’s Play Rush Spooktacular event today in Kenure Park. Thank you to all the performers and volunteers who made a huge effort to make the event a success. Thank you to Fingal County Council and Creative Ireland for the funding and thank you to the Mayor of Fingal Brian McDonagh for paying us a visit. Special thanks to the 38th Rush Scout Group who allowed us use all of the facilities in the scout den for the day.
Rush Tidy Town Calendar 2025
Our Rush Tidy Towns 2025 Calendar has gone to print. Congratulations and thank you to all the photographers whose photos will feature on one of the 12 months. We will be announcing a launch day very soon, from which time the calendars should be on sale in several shops around the town. The price stays at €10 and it makes a great Christmas present. Please remember this is an important annual fundraiser for Rush Tidy Towns. We would also like to sincerely thank four local sponsors for contributing to the printing costs, they are Bird of Paradise, P&N Butterly, Kilbush Nurseries & WBD Farm Machinery.
Volunteer Work
Some of the jobs done around the town recently by volunteers and resident groups. Sheena painted the fence at the Old Mill opposite Spout Road and Paul led a team in Golden Ridge and did a great job edging. Well done all
