This was the first game back for the Under 11B’s after the Christmas break in tough windy and wet conditions recently. Both teams agreed to play 9 a side which suited our passing game on a bigger pitch. We played with the wind in first half and played some great passing football, stretching the opposition, letting the ball do the work. We took to lead 10mins in with a great passage of play 1 touch football down the right which was finished by Max. Their keeper was great form, with Senan clipping the crossbar and a free kick just going wide. The team adapted in the 2nd half playing into a strong wind. We made 5 changes and the players coming on did really well. Big shout out to Oscar on making debut on the left side of midfield. Terenure put us under spells of pressure in the 2nd half. The team soaked this up with strong leadership from Leo (GK) & Alex (CB). A great counter attacking move down the left was sweetly finished by Daniel M. It was end to end from last quarter, both teams playing good football, until Leon won the ball at the edge of their box, found space followed by the top corner (George Best would have proud). We finished strong with the final result 0-3 win to Swords. Players of the week were Leon & Senan. All the hard work in training in January and early February showed on the pitch. A big thank you to coaches Eugene, Tom, Anthony & John not forgetting Anita for the kits!! A great start to the 2nd half of the season!! Training continues on Tuesday night!!!
Recently we at Fingallians were delighted to welcome David Keeling to the club to launch our new partnership with Keelings Fruit. As two well known organisations in Swords we will be coming together to drive a new initiative to highlight the importance of nutrition on the physical and mental wellbeing of all our club members, their families and friends. We envisage this partnership will enable us to continue to grow and promote a healthy lifestyle across the local community through the participation in our Gaelic Games and other social activities. In addition, we are hoping this partnership will also help to improve nutritional and health wellbeing with various new ventures on the horizon through our Health & Wellbeing section.
By Ken Duffy
Swords Tidy Towns will be partaking in the 2022 Swords St Patrick’s Day Parade after a two-year Pandemic absence. I must say it feels good to get back to some kind of normal and have fun and frolics with the group.The theme of the parade this year is recognising the contribution of front-line workers, this is a fantastic tribute to them and what they did under extreme and dangerous conditions.Swords Tidy Towns will, in our own diminutive way, reflect our appreciation to front-line workers in our presentation on the day. We will also be having a Street and Pub Bucket Collection at the end of the parade; this is the first time in over two years that we have been able to raise funds. I would ask the public to be as supportive as their budgets will allow, all funds raised are ploughed back into the community keeping Swords looking beautiful.As always new members are very welcome into the group, if you have an inkling to get involved Contact Ken 0866008313 or email us at swordstidytowns@irishmediagroup
Well done to our U9 Boys who played in their first ever 7v7 blitz recently. They reached the Final of The Shield narrowly loosing out to Beechwood FC after some extremely competitive games against Belvedere, Templeouge Utd, St. Kevin’s Boys and Leicester Celtic. Huge thanks to Crumlin Utd for hosting a fantastic event.
St Colmcilles is your local GAA Club, offering Gaelic Football to the community of Swords. We have fully trained coaches, who are all garda vetted and ready and waiting for the coming season.Based just on Glen Ellan Rd, close to Applewood Village, Millers Glen and Glen Ellan area, we are close by for everyone.We offer Gaelic Football to children aged 4 years +. Also junior football for men and Gaelic for Mothers and Others. Our Club Lotto Jackpot resumed online (clubforce.com) Monday, January 17th. 2022. If you or any member of your family are interested in joining the club then call Marian 0876819540. We also want to notify you that Training recommenced for the juvenile players over 6 yrs on Saturday 22nd January at 10.30am and continues each and every Saturday. Follow us on Facebook for further updates “Naomh Colmcille CLG”
As we enter 2022 the hard working team of Swords Tidy Towns will carry on doing what they do best, keeping our town looking the best it can, and that is no easy task mind you. Unfortunately, there are individuals who continue on a daily basis to litter and deface our beautiful town with a total disregard for others. These are the mask discarders who litter the length and breadth of Swords, the litterers who daily throw their rubbish onto our streets, there is no excuse for this, bin it, or take it home. Irresponsible dog owners, who don’t clean up after their pets with total disregard for people’s health and safety. Then there are those dog owners who bag their pet’s poo and throw it into the nearest bush or worse hang it on whatever is nearest to them. What is the point in you doing this guys it is a disgusting and unsightly habit. If there is no bin nearby, again please take your dog poo to the nearest bin or take it home with you, your dog’s poo is your responsibility nobody else’s. When pet owners take responsibility as do the vast majority of them, it benefits the whole community and makes our work that much easier.We would ask local Residents Associations to consider adopting a patch in their area and plant it up with species that are wild life friendly. We would be happy to advise any Residents Association wishing to do so, just email us at swordstidytowns@gmail.com.Swords Tidy Towns has been successful in the last four National Tidy Towns competitions winning a silver medal on each occasion, we are in the large urban area category. This is testament to all the hard work and dedication that has been put in over many years by the group. This success didn’t happen overnight, it has been a long slog since being designated a litter black spot in 2004, coming in bottom of the table in that years IBAL report.If you see our members when you are out and about say hello, they enjoy a chat, it’s nice to know that people notice and appreciate their hard work.We have many outstanding projects in the pipeline for completion this year, hopefully we will get them finished. We are always looking for new volunteers to help in our efforts, hopefully one day we will win that elusive gold medal, we think Swords deserves one don’t you.
Congratulations to our 3rd Ladies junior team who won the league today ..first year playing together and have won league and championship a lovely mix of young girls and a few Gaelic for Mothers taking the step up .. well done in 2021 to all the players , coaches and management.
The Inter Hurlers also finished off a hugely successful season with a fantastic game against Castleknock which went to extra time and penalties in front of a great home crowd. Congratulations to the players and mentors for a fantastic season of hurling - looking forward to 2022!
A team of Green Schools students from St Finians Community College planted 115 trees beside the Brackenstown Road on Thursday 2nd of December. A huge thank you to the inspirational Orla Farrell from Easy Treesie, Edward Stevenson from the Swords Woodland Association and Councillor Joe Newman. Well done to all for taking care of our future environment. To learn more about Orla’s work @easytreesie @plantfortheplanet_official
By Ken Duffy
2021 was a productive and successful year for Swords Tidy Towns, which in its self is remarkable considering our volunteers had to work through a pandemic to achieve this. Right from the start of the Covid 19 crisis our volunteers wished to continue on working as best they could, by working in pods they were able to achieve this. The crisis actually increased our membership. People who were stuck at home through no fault of their own found they had time on their hands and wanted to do something positive with that time by helping in their community. We have over forty members on our books at present and we are always looking for new members, Swords is a big place and it continues to grow. We linked up in 2021 with numerous Swords groups who wished to contribute by doing litter picking or planting around the town for us. These included the National Learning Network, Youthreach, McVery Trust, St Michaels House, others we have worked with are Prosper Fingal and Anew. Our Chairman sits on the board of directors of both the Fingal Leader Partnership and the Valley Project. We started and completed our Frontline Workers Commemorative Garden opposite the fire brigade station. We have planted flower beds and rockeries down River Mall and along the river towards the Old Schoolhouse. We completed a beautiful wild life mural funded by a grant from Fingal County Council on Brackenstown Rd at the lane entrance to the park. We linked up with the Swords Woodland Association and Fingal County Council on a project to plant 3000 trees. We agreed to take on 23 TY students from Fingal and Swords Community Colleges each Saturday for 20 weeks to help them achieve their Gaisca Medal Awards. Our Rock Garden on the Rathbeale Road a collaboration with Fingal County Council won another International Green Flag Award. We were finalists in this year’s Pakman National Awards, we won a Silver Medal in the National Tidy Towns Competition making that four in a row. A very good year.All of this, everything achieved, is down to the continuing hard work of our members, their love of their town and their ambition to make Swords the best it can be, roll on 2022.
Congratulations to the Fingallians Hurlers and Mentors on beating Erins Isle to win the Dublin Go Ahead Intermediate Hurling Championship recently with a scoreline of 1-18 to 0-10 points. It was an absolutely fantastic display of hurling throughout the game and it goes to show that all the hard work and early morning training sessions have paid off.
