by Swords Tidy Towns

Once again, Swords Tidy Towns in conjunction with Fingal County Council have entered The Rock Garden on the Rathbeale Road into the Green Flag Community Award for 2021.The Rock Garden has worn many masks over the years, it was the local quarry up until 1940’s when it was closed. After its closure it became the local dump, when the dump closed various shanty type constructions were built there, then it was turned into a playground, this fell into disrepair over the years attracting anti-social behaviour. After a successful enquiry to Fingal County Councils Operations Dept by our Chairman Ken Duffy as to the possibility of turning the vacant space into a community park we put a committee together to draft a plan for the new park headed by Matt Cullen. When our draft plan was completed, we presented it to FCC’s Operations Dept. After tossing around a few ideas at this meeting they offered and we agreed that they draft up a plan using some of our ideas. If you have not seen the Rock Garden yet, pay it a visit and view the result, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Our open day recently for girls born 2012/13 was full of fun and football as we set about making two brand new teams to represent Malahide United. In the coming seasons. Thanks to our coaches and to some of our U16s Team who helped out on the day . We hope you enjoyed yourselves and we see you all agan soon. Malahide United Halloween Football Camp now open for registration. Booking is only available through Clubzap! You’ll get it wherever you get your apps and select Malahide United AFC as your club.

The time has nearly come for us to resume indoor training again. It’s been a very tough year for all indoor sports but the time has come to do what we do best. Even through the restrictions we trained safely and following the guidelines we were able to manage for our members to have fun training and for two of our members to make the Irish national team for the European championships in Estonia.In the pictures you can see what we were at.A huge thank you to everyone who supported the club during the tough times we all had to endure,but the end is in sight.

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!

September was a busy month for our athletes as they returned to school and term time routines. It was a busy time for our committee too, although we won’t return to activities until later in the month when everyone has adjusted to back to school, there is plenty of work being done in the background.Our club is hugely popular and well supported; our only “problem” is that we have a waiting list of young athletes eager to join us. Our plans for expansion include the launch of our athletics club in the coming weeks, we also look forward to offering other sports in future. Expansion into other sports will serve several purposes; to allow our young athletes to graduate and move onto a sport which suits them, to make room for the athletes on our waiting list and give our athletes a chance to take part in competitive sports if they wish.T his year we will be introducing our young athletes to Bocce; this is a game closely related to bowls and boule, which originated in Italy. In parts of Italy It is a very inclusive sport which can be played by people of all ages and skill levels, and you can use just about anything as a bocce court.Over the past few months several of our volunteers have competed the Bocce officials course, and our club athletes took part in the virtual Bocce competitions organised by Special Olympics Ireland both rounds of virtual competitions and all thoroughly enjoyed taking part.Finally we are very proud that we have 5 nominees from our club for the Special Olympics Ireland Volunteer Awards 2021. We are lucky to have the most amazing volunteers at virtual and live sessions and others who work quietly behind the scenes; it is wonderful to see that our members took the time to make the nominations and show how much they appreciate their hard work.

This has been a historic year for us all for a myriad of reasons but a special year for St Pats in that they held 2 Mini All Ireland tournaments. Their rescheduled 2020 one was held in June but the actual 2021 tournament ran from 30 August - 04 September. And like all the best movie promos - this one was bigger and better! With over 400 children taking part in either the GAA or LGFA tournament, it was a tremendous success and allayed the back-to-school woes for a few days at least. The Academy section was for children born 2014 & 2015. The Junior section was for those born 2012 & 2013 while boys and girls born 2010 & 2011 were in the Intermediate Section. The Senior - and most seriously contested section - was for boys and girls born 2007, 2008 & 2009.The winners of the Senior Cup were Armagh in the GAA section: Cian Latham, Colum MacQuaile, Conor Tighe, Dáire Turner, James Casey, James McElhinney, Moses Harley, Sam Kealy & Seamus Moore.The Wexford girls came out on top in the LGFA tournament: Beibhinn Mythen, Ella Higgins, Erin Finn, Lily Hyland, Lily Maher, Lucy Sheridan, Molly McDonald, Sadhbh Finnegan & Tiana Whelan.The tournament is the highlight of the juvenile calendar and this year was no exception. Kudos to all the children who took part - from beginer to experienced, everyone put their heart & soul in to each game. The standard of football on display was impressive.Also impressive was the work of the scores of volunteers whose trojan work made the week run so smoothly. The Club have asked us to thank everyone involved Their social media tagline is #ProudToBePats and seeing how well run their MAI 21 was, you’d be hard-pressed to disagree with that. Maith sibh go leir!

Ballyboughal Pitch & Putt Club are Fingal and East Meath Champions for the second year in a row. The competition held at Ring Common Pitch & Putt Club recently, was closely fought out throughout the Competition and up until the evening of the Final. East Meath opposition, Bellewstown, had a narrow half-point lead coming into the Final, in front of Ballyboughal Team A, with Skerries/Laytown following closely with only a point and half in the difference from the table toppers But it was Ballyboughal with three wins and a draw that rose up the table so unlike previous years in this competition, no play-off was needed.Ballyboughal and Ring Commons had entered two teams into the Competition, allowing for more players to take part and following Covid Guidelines for the Safe Return to Sport. It was Bllyboughal’s Team A that were victorious. Their Captain Jimmy Browne was delighted to accept the trophy from Fingal Mayor Councillor Seána Ó Rodaigh, who gave her support to the competition on the night.“It’s great to have teams from Fingal and East Meath taking part and for the Fingal Sports Office to provide support” said the Mayor “the social aspect of this competition is so important for all participants”. The competition, now in its sixth year, was created by Ballyboughal Stalwart Ronnie Delaney, with the support of the Fingal Sports Development Officer, Caitriona Geraghty. The Fingal & East Meath Pitch Putt Championship was established back in 2015 to promote the game of Pitch & Putt in Fingal.“It has become a permanent fixture in the Fingal Sports Calendar, and this is in no small effort to the great work done by Ronnie Delaney”, said Caitríona Geraghty, Fingal Sports Development Officer” stated “even a Global Pandemic wouldn’t stop him from holding this competition”.

Congratulations to our Swords Celtic 11 Premiers who won the Kells Cup recently. They beat St.Kevins in the last 16 and Cherry Orchard in the Semi Final on their way to victory. Well done boys! Here are a few pics taken on the day of the brillant victory.