Tom O’Neill of our Branch recently met the CEO of the Gaelic Players Association, Tom Parsons. The two Toms are Mayo men and get on very well. The G.P.A this year have put €10,000 into the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind as sponsorship with more to come! The Two Toms were in the G.P.A corporate box in Croke Park in July for the football quarter finals. Feericks Hotel of Rathowen are the sponsors of the Mayo shirt Tom O’Neill is wearing and that hotel is a great supporter of the Guide Dogs through having a large collection dog on the premises. Our Balbriggan / North County Dublin Branch of Guide Dogs would like to thank John Feerick, owner of the Feerick Hotel and another Mayo man for his support as well as the Gaelic Players Association to the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind.

The Balbriggan / North County Dublin Branch of Guide Dogs attended Skerries Mills market on the 16th of August, with more details to follow in our next article. Our Branch will also be having it’s coffee morning in the Senior Citizens Hall in Balbriggan on 23rd September where cakes and coffees will be had and a raffle to win a hamper, come along and see our volunteers! If you are doing a tidy up and find something you no longer want, that could make a spot prize or help to fill a hamper, why not pass it on to our Balbriggan / North County Dublin Branch of Guide Dogs who can use it to go towards raising funds for our branch. You can get in touch on the details below. Another way you can help us is if you have any old coins or stamps that are no longer in circulation. Annually our branch puts out this request, ‘If you have any used postage stamps or coins which are no longer in circulation, please give them to us. We will turn them into Euros and lodge them to the guide dogs account.’ We receive coins from all over the world and old postage stamps. In our guide dog boxes and large collection dogs we find coins from all over the world and from Europe that are no longer legal currency since the Euro came into place. We get paper notes of all sorts of denominations, coins and used stamps from our branch volunteers and friends.

You can contact Balbriggan/North County Dublin Branch of Irish Guide Dogs by phone/text 0857663107, email: GuideDogsBalbriggan@gmail.com or find us on Facebook at Balbriggan Branch of Guide Dogs.