Congratulations are in order for all the JKS Ireland students who completed their belt grading examination at the National Grading including those who took the Black Belt Dan grade under the watchful eye of Kagawa Shihan. All of these karateka were dedicated in their training to achieve their new grades through tough examinations. Regular training continues weekly in Applewood Community Centre. All classes are enjoying being back to a regular schedule after the long Easter break in April. The next event for members is the 3rd JKS Inter Club Competition which will be held in Tyrrelstown in June. We hope to have some medal winners on the day. We take new members (Children, Young People & Adults) all through the year. Contact Dermot on 087-8073885 for details on how to join. Contact us on Facebook: JKS Swords Karate Club or on Instagram: @jks_swords_karate_club. Congratulations are in order for all the JKS Ireland students who completed their belt grading examination at the National Grading including those who took the Black Belt Dan grade under the watchful eye of Kagawa Shihan. All of these karateka were dedicated in their training to achieve their new grades through tough examinations. We are delighted that JKS Swords has two new Shodan. Well done to Sophia Guildea and Amelia Miller on passing their test recently.

Congratulations to our U12A Girls Team, who secured the @metropolitangirls League Title recently. It has been a fantastic season so far and it’s not over yet! The girls are a newly formed team, this is their first year together and are led by both of their captains Lucy Flood & Lottie Brogan. The girls have really accomplished a lot in a short space of time. The absolutely wonderful highlights of the season include reaching the final 16 in the SFAI Cup, reaching the Final of the SFAI Regional Cup and of course winning the league and securing promotion to the Premier League next year. This involved a great commitment from all the girls and their parents who gave fantastic support and of course their coaches who really gave 100%. There are great things to come for this group of talented girls. Congratulations once again. The club is very proud of you all!

St Colmcilles GFC Summer Camp will run from Monday the 10th of July to Friday 14th. Times from 10am to 1pm.Open to children aged 4 years to 12 years. Payment can be made in the clubhouse or through the Clubforce website member.clubforce.com/memberships_cart_m.asp?LL_ID=3540 or Call 0876819540 for more information.

Fingallians boys and girls have brought more silverware to the club recently. The U/15 Boys won the Div 3 Football Féile Final v Ballymun Kickams. Meanwhile not to be outdone the girls also brought honour to our club. This time as they competed for their county at provincial level. The Fingallians u16 Girls were instrumental in Dublin coming from behind to beat Kildare to win the Leinster U16 Football Championship. Well done Dayna, Ruby, Kirsten and Gemma. Who now have an All Ireland semi final to look forward to.

Huge turnout at the official launch of Swords Memory Cafe. Forget me nots choir sang wonderfully for our guests and volunteers. Gorgeous renditions of old-time classics. A wonderful and emotional morning for all lucky enough to be there. Thanks so much to the lovely wildemeadowflowers for the beautiful bouquets and also to bainnebeo for the milk today. Once again Deirdre brought her beautiful baking. Thanks so much to the army of volunteers from Fingallians GAA club, Carechoice and our very own community who give of their time one morning a month for a wonderful community initiative.

One Voice Singers - Swords, the new community singing group based in St Colmcille’s GAA started back recently . New members are welcome to come down and sing! The group welcomes adults of all nationalities, bringing people together with a special emphasis on community integration, diversity, and respect. It’s a great chance to meet new people and learn new songs, promising to be plenty of laughs, entertaining and above all fun. If you would like to sing your heart out, please register online at eventbrite.com/e/one-town-one-voice-singers-swords-tickets-486869137697 or come along to St. Colmcille’s GAA in Swords on each Tuesday at 7.30pm. For more information contact Jacinta at community@fingal.ie The One Voice Singers are supported by Fingal Community Development Office and the One Town One Voice initiative. More information at onetownonevoice.ie.

We were privileged to host the head of JKS Worldwide, Kagawa Shihan 9 th Dan JKS,recently for a training seminar. Over 10 hours, Kagawa Shihan gave masterful karate instruction in kihon, kata and kumite. Over 100 JKS members from across Ireland attended Applewood Community Centre to take part. The attendees ranged in age from 6 to over 60 years and Kagawa Shihan was mindful to cater to everyone who was training. We hope to have him visit next year again. It is great to offer our students the opportunity to train which such a high calibre karateka. Congratulations are in order for all the JKS Ireland students who completed their belt grading examination at the National Grading including those who took the Black Belt Dan grade under the watchful eye of Kagawa Shihan. All of these karateka were dedicated in their training to achieve their new grades through tough examinations. Regular training continues weekly in Applewood Community Centre. All classes are enjoying being back to a regular schedule after the long Easter break in April. The next event for members is the 3 rd JKS Inter Club Competition which will be held in Tyrrelstown in June. We hope to have some medal winners on the day. We take new members (Children, Young People & Adults) all through the year. Contact Dermot on 087-8073885 for details on how to join. Contact us on Facebook: JKS Swords Karate Club or on Instagram: @jks_swords_karate_club

By Ken Duffy

It’s that time of the year again when Swords Tidy Towns are very busy putting together their 2023 submission for the National Tidy Towns competition. The submission team which is led by our Sectary Teresa Cosgrave are in the process of putting their different sections together, this is by no means an easy task. When each member of the team completes their section, they forward it on to Teresa for final proofing. It is Teresa’s job to put what she has been sent into an acceptable winning submission which we hope will produce a Gold Medal this year, or at least another Silver Medal. I would like to extend a massive thank you to our hard-working submission team who do so much are: Teresa Cosgrave, Grace Dunne, Rose Brennan, Ramune Kuzminiene, Melanie Van Der Linde, Noel Cosgrave, George Mongey and Billy Mc Clean.We would ask the public to be very vigilant litter wise especially during the months of June, July and August as this is when the judging takes place, no specific dates are given as to when they will visit our town so we must be constantly be on our toes. Swords has been under attack of late by indiscriminate tagging, one individual appears to have no respect for anyone’s work, who goes by the tag name ASTA, if anyone knows who this individual is, please ask them to stop what they are doing. Swords Tidy Towns volunteers give up their free time each week to make Swords a better place for us all to live, while some individuals give up their free time to make Swords a worse place for us all to live. Any help with the resolving this matter would be sincerely and gratefully appreciated by our hard-working tidy towns volunteers. If you would like to get involved with the Tidy Towns team just turn up on the day and introduce yourself, we meet each Saturday in the Colourtrend car park opposite the Garda Station, look forward to seeing you there. You can also make contact by email at swordstidytowns@gmail.com or by calling Ken on 0866008313.

Swords Meals on Wheels were recently delighted to receive an extremely generous donation of €1000.00 from Swords Lions. We do have a long and excellent relationship with Swords Lions and appreciate this help. This will go a long way to cover our ongoing day to day expenses and allow us to concentrate on our core activity to meet increasing demand for our services in the greater Swords area. We remain fully committed to ensuring that no one has to pay for our services, donations like this allow us to maintain this commitment.