Fine Gael’s new Local Area Representative for Swords, Luke Corkery, has called on Fingal County Council to prioritise the development of the Dublin Airport ‘Pathfinder’ project, which is set to link Swords to Dublin Airport as part of an improved Active Travel network for the town. Luke Corkery said, “The Dublin Airport Pathfinder project is hugely welcome and long overdue; one of 35 nationwide initiatives announced at the end of 2022 by the Department of Transport that are set to be delivered by local authorities. We in Swords need a cycle link to the Airport. This project will be transformative. The Airport is one of our biggest employers here in Swords and the vast majority of those employees commute to work on a daily basis. Many of them live less than 5km away from the Airport and could easily cycle there rather than depend on bus services or cars, but currently the infrastructure is simply not there. It’s quite dangerous to even attempt to cycle near the Airport. A cycle link to Swords will facilitate vastly improved connectivity, and this will be further complimented by the completion of the Airport and Swords routes under the Bus Connects scheme, as well as the eventual completion of Metro Link. The Pathfinder project will save Swords commuters time and money, with no need to wait for a bus or spend a fare. In addition to the obvious health benefits, this is a green initiative that offers an alternative to those who have no option but to drive.There is a huge opportunity here to provide a new option to Airport commuters, and we can’t afford to prolong this project. Now that €200,000 has been allocated to this specific project as part of the NTA’s Active Travel Allocations for 2023, I am calling on Fingal County Council to urgently identify a suitable route and finally develop an Active Travel link between Swords and the Airport. We need joined-up planning here. There is also a need to identify suitable parking spaces, free of charge, at the Airport. They need to be available in bulk, to cater for the expected demand”, he concluded.

As we leave February and migrate to March you can feel and see Spring is definitely in the air. Its that time of year when nature bursts back into life to pleasure our senses. Birds greet us with their wonderful dawn chorus, the evenings get longer, and Swords Tidy Towns spring into action. Projects that have been hibernating in their winter sleep are awoken as our volunteers crack on with our action plan. Swords Tidy Towns will once again participate in the St Patrick Day Parade this year as we have done for many years pre the Pandemic. As is our tradition we will be having a Pub Bucket Collection after the parade, your donations on the day are needed and are very much appreciated. All monies collected on the day will be pumped back into Swords to keep her looking beautiful. Your help, helps us to fund the enormous amount of work put in by our group over the year. Our Quiz Night in Peacocks Rivervalley was very well attended by our supporters making it a great success. The craic was mighty, a wonderful time was had by all. Our Quiz Master and volunteer Noel Cosgrave played a stormer keeping proceedings light hearted with his usual good humour and banter. I would like to take this opportunity to thank local business and individuals for their generous donations which contributed greatly to the success of the evening. New volunteers are always welcome, you can just turn up on the day, we meet each Saturday at 10.30am in the Colourtrend car park opposite Penny’s, hope to see you there.

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 have returned to our regular training session after the Christmas and New Year break.
Our first event of the year was to host JKS Ireland Brown & Black Belt training alongside
Open Squad training. 43 students from all over Ireland trained for 2 hours covering a wealth
of knowledge from Dermot Sensei.We are looking forward to several other competitions and seminars this year and the highlight will be when we host our World Chief Instructor, Kagawa Shihan 9 th Dan JKS, in May for a weekend seminar.Congratulations to Mehert Gebremichael and Faye Devine Riley who have won Student of the Month. Both Merhert and Faye train on a regular basis, participate well in class and arevery interested in learning more karate. Well done both!

We take new members (Children, Young People & Adults) throughout 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

The Club undertook Top sparring recently in Ratoath Golden Gloves club in preparation for the upcoming Dublin and Under 18’s championships.Thank you to Ratoath and East Meath BC for the top rounds.

Every day, every week and for the last 40+ years, Swords Meals on Wheels have been delivering hot meals to whoever needs them in the greater Swords area. Currently the number of meals delivered daily is in the region of 90/95 meals. Each day there are seven individual runs covering all areas of Swords and the immediate locality. We have nearly 60 active volunteer drivers involved who collect and deliver these meals, but not just deliver, they also will ensure everyone is safe and has anything they need. Without these volunteers it would be impossible to provide this essential service. And then you have Joan, organising lists, meals and donations, she starts at 7.30 each morning ensuring that volunteer drivers are available to cover all runs and have latest information on who needs meals and whatever else is required and arises throughout the day and sometimes at weekends. As well as delivering to people in their homes we do also provide meals to some homeless in the area. We were out all over Christmas ensuring everyone who for whatever reason had a hot meal and a visit. A very important part of our ethos is that all meals are free to whoever needs them. Swords Meals on Wheels is possibly the last service of this type countrywide that doesn’t charge and we never will. Nobody in Swords Meals on wheels is paid; all are volunteers and will continue to be. We get terrific support from a number of local factories and facilities in the area and without them and all our brilliant volunteer drivers and supporters we would be unable to continue. We are seeing increasing demand for our service and we do need more local businesses to come on board to support us with excess meals from their canteens. We do foresee our daily numbers increasing to 100+ in the coming year. We were delighted to be chosen in FCC Lord Mayor’s awards last year for our work during the Covid emergency.

By Ken Duffy

We trust everyone had a joyous festive season as we look forward to the new year ahead. The Swords Tidy Towns team took a well-earned Christmas break, we had a very enjoyable night at our Xmas Party in Peacocks, pictures were posted on our Facebook page. Yep, the crew worked very hard all through 2022 and have come back rejuvenated after spending Xmas with family and friends. Our team will continue on the hard work this year in an effort to retain our National Silver Medal status, hopefully it turns to gold. You, the residents of Swords can play a big part in helping us to achieve this by disposing of your litter responsibly, which we know most do. Another way to help is by educating family and friends as to the benefits to both physical and mental health a colourful clean Swords can be to all. When our planters are full of colour and life, and our streets are clear of graffiti and litter, it’s a wonderful place to take a leisurely stroll and smell the aroma of coffee wafting from our many wonderful cafes and bars, Swords Tidy Towns are always very welcoming to all new volunteers, if you have been contemplating doing some volunteering work this year, please drop us a line. You can always contact us on our email address at swordstidytowns@gmail.com or by phoning Ken on 0866008313. STT is a very diverse multicultural group, we even won a national award for our inclusiveness, an award of which we are all very proud. Oh and please support our fundraiser upstairs in Peacocks , River Valley on Feb 9 at 7.30pm

Contractors have moved on site recently to commence the next phase in Fingal County Council’s development of the Swords Cultural Quarter, the refurbishment of the Carnegie Free Library on North Street. The Council have appointed Kelbuild Ltd as main contractors to carry out the refurbishment and conservation works at the building including the construction of a new two-storey extension to the side of the building to facilitate new services and improve universal access. The works are expected to be completed by the end of this year. The project is within the Swords Cultural Quarter and will provide workspaces and a creative hub with flexibility for a range of community and arts activities including rehearsal and performance uses. The works to Carnegie Free Library will cost €1.5m and is being partially funded through a grant issued under the European Regional Development Fund for the Swords Cultural Quarter. The Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Howard Mahony, said: “The Swords Cultural Quarter is a flagship project for Fingal County Council and it is great to see work on part of it commence. When complete the Carnegie Free Library project will bring vibrancy and urban regeneration not only to North Street but also to the surrounding urban centre of Swords and will complement the other works planned for this area.” The original Carnegie Free Library building dates from 1908 and is owned by Fingal County Council and recorded as a Protected Structure. Councillors approved planning for the project in September 2021.The Local Studies and Archives section of Fingal County Council’s Libraries Department, which was located in the Carnegie Free Library, has already been relocated to an adjacent building on North Street.

One Voice Singers - Swords, the new community singing group based in St Colmcille’s GAA are starting back on January 10th from 7.30pm-9pm. 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 Tuesday 10th January 2023 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.

Looking back at 2022, we had a busy and almost normal year at Swords Karate Club since the Covid Pandemic hit. We hosted members of JKS Ireland from all over Ireland at the National Brown & Black Belt training sessions in April, May, September & November. We also hosted National Squad training sessions. Several members of the club were presented with their Dan grade certificates from Japan: Conor Kinsella, Szymon Kupiec, Brian Horgan and Conor Glennon received their 1st Dan certificates, while Mark Girvin received his 2nd Dan certificate and Vincent Clarke received his 4th Dan certificate. Members of the club attended 3 competitions, topping the medal table in both JKS Inter-Club competitions in June and Oct and we did well also in the Kanazawa Cup in November in Tallaght. We had several seminars for members this year. In the Spring, members attended the Online International Seminar from Japan. In June we hosted Makita Sensei from Japan and Jesper Sensei from Denmark for our Spring/Summer Seminars. These were the first in person seminars with visiting instructors since the pandemic began. In October we hosted Kagawa Shihan 9th Dan JKS. We were privileged to have JKS Ireland members from around the country join us in this world class seminar. We held two club gradings , in early July and mid-December, where club members showed off what they have been studying during the year and all members who took the grading examinations progressed to their next belt. Perhaps the biggest event this year was moving after 11 years from Seatown Business Campus to Applewood Community Centre as our new home. We have settled well with regular training sessions on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. We are looking forward to 2023 with all the regular training, special seminars and training sessions and competitions it will bring. We take new members (Children, Young People & Adults) throughout 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