In a gesture of solidarity with the people and the country of Ukraine, the Ukrainian national flag was raised recently at County Hall, Swords, by the Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Seána O Rodaigh, in the presence of the Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland, Her Excellency Ms Larysa Gerasko.The ceremony was also attended by members of the Ukrainian community in Fingal who had earlier been hosted by the Mayor at a special reception in The Atrium at County Hall. Fingal councillors and Oireachtas members stood in solidarity with them as the flag of Ukraine was raised and the Ukrainian national anthem was sung by those present.The Mayor expressed her solidarity with the Ukrainian community and spoke of those she met earlier, saying: “Many relationships have been fostered today and many of us listened and we will continue to do so.” Ambassador Gerasko thanked the Mayor for inviting her to the ceremony and added: “Ukrainians are facing a dark and terrible time, parts of country are destroyed including hundreds of schools and hospitals in this unjustified and terrible war. We need your support and we are grateful to the Government of Ireland for their huge support and solidarity and to the Irish nation for the many messages of support and offers of accommodation and humanitarian aid.” There was a discussion on the situation in Ukraine at the March monthly meeting of the Council before motions relating to the Russian invasion were unanimously passed. These motions were:“That this Council unreservedly condemns, in the strongest possible terms, Russia’s totally unprovoked and despicable attack on the free and sovereign nation of Ukraine and call on Russia to immediately withdraw and make reparations.” – proposed by Councillors Darragh Butler, Brigid Manton, Tom Kitt, Tony Murphy, Brian Dennehy, Joe Newman, Robert O’Donoghue, Grainne Maguire, Howard Mahony, Pamela Conroy, Daniel Whooley, JK Onwumereh, Ian Carey and Tania Doyle. “That Fingal County Council calls on the Government to ensure sanctions are imposed to end Russian aggression against the Ukraine and that this Council calls for the expulsion of the Russian Ambassador. The Irish Government needs to play its part in forcing a complete withdrawal of Russian military forces from Ukraine. Fingal County Council stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine” – proposed by Councillor Anne Graves. “That this Council condemns the use of violence to achieve political aims, calls on Russia to withdraw from all Ukrainian territory and make full reparation to Ukraine.” – proposed by Councillors Tom O’Leary, Anthony Lavin, Aoibhinn Tormey, Siobhan Shovlin, Punam Rane and Ted Leddy.The Ukrainian flag was also raised at the Council’s offices in Blanchardstown which were lit up in yellow and blue along with Swords Castle in solidary with Ukraine and its people.

As we approach the more clement weather, Swords Tidy Towns are busy preparing for a very busy few months ahead. Plans are already afoot to bring a variety of colour to our beautiful town centre, our members forward planning has always been the key to our success with planting projects. Our executive committee have been meeting regularly via Zoom to plan our strategy for this year and beyond. The contributions of the committee and Swords Tidy Towns members has been invaluable over many years in getting Swords Town and Swords Tidy Towns to where they are today. We have reached out and worked with many other groups in our town to further our commitment to community involvement. The groups we now work with are Swords Woodland Ass, Mens Shed, Peter McVerry Trust, St Michaels House, The National Learning Network, Prosper Fingal, Anew, Youthreach, Crosscare, (FEN) Fingal Ethnic Network. We have also linked up on various projects with local schools, such as Colaiste Choilm, St Finians, Fingal Community College, Swords Community College, Holywell Educate Together, St Colmcilles, Loreto College. We will continue to work with those listed and hopefully add more to that list over the coming years, in our effort to improve Swords Tidy Towns community involvement and assess what its future needs might be. We are blessed to live in such a wonderful community with such generous and friendly people. If you have time to spare each Saturday morning or Wednesday evening, please come join us, we can be contacted via email at swordstidytowns@gmail.com or at 0866008313.

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”

Fingal County Council is delighted to announce that full planning permission has been granted to the R132 Connectivity Project by An Bord Pleanála. Fingal County Council is working in conjunction with the National Transport Authority to improve connectivity for the town of Swords and this includes a renewed focus on safe facilities for pedestrians and cyclists on the R132.The R132 Connectivity Project will improve the connectivity and safety of pedestrians and cyclists moving along, and across, the R132 and enhance facilities for all road users with particular benefits for those choosing sustainable modes of transportation such as bus users, cyclists and pedestrians.Works will focus on the section of the R132 which runs east of Swords Town Centre, from Pinnock Hill to the Estuary Roundabout. A public consultation was launched in November 2020 and, following submissions from the public, detailed designs were submitted for planning permission to An Bord Pleanála in May 2021. On January 20th of this year An Bord Pleanála announced their decision to grant permission for this very important project.The Mayor of Fingal Cllr Seána Ó Rodaigh says the project is key for Swords. ‘This connectivity project will make getting to work, school and the shops by walking and wheeling an easy choice for people in Swords.” The project is comprised of: (A) Carriageway changes from north of Pinnock Hill Roundabout to north of Estuary Roundabout including the establishment of designated bus lanes, cycle lanes and pedestrian walkways along each side of the carriageway, with a new reduced speed limit of 50km/h; (B) Conversion of three existing roundabouts along the R132 (Estuary, Seatown and Malahide Road roundabouts) to signalised intersections with pedestrian and cyclist crossing points; (C) Reconfiguration of the Drynam Road arm of the Malahide Road Roundabout to link directly to Malahide Road as a one-way road; (D) Three new signalised crossing points at:- North of Pinnock Hill Roundabout, - Adjacent to existing Chapel Lane/Ashley Avenue overbridge, and - North of Estuary Roundabout. This will also entail the Installation of turning areas at two separate points along the R132; Those who wish to view plans for the scheme can find them on the Consult Portal at consult.fingal.ie/en/consultation/application-bord-pleanala-fingal-county-council-r132-connectivity-project

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.

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.