Balbriggan Local V5I2-DEC 2019 by Irish Media Group

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Our Christmas Message to You All in Balbriggan. As you, our readers, prepare to tuck into your turkey roast and/or begin ripping open presents, the staff at Balbriggan Local would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.We really appreciate the support your community especially the support the advertisers have given us over the past 12 months and look forward to your continued support next year. We would also like to thank our wonderful contributors who have made the magazine the success it is. So whether you are a reader, a contributor, or an advertiser, we say thank you and hope you have a happy, safe and enjoyable Christmas. From all the team at Balbriggan Local.

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BALBRIGGAN LOCAL-DECEMBER 2019

Local News

Meals on Wheels announces funding for a minibus

There was great delight at the AGM of Balbriggan Meals on Wheels on Thursday 7th November at the announcement that Progressive Credit Union has very generously donated â‚Ź20,000 towards the purchase of a minibus by the organisation. Brian Howard, Marketing & Development Officer attended the meeting and presented the cheque to Balbriggan Meals on Wheels. It was also announced that a HSE Community and Voluntary Supports Grant has just been

sanctioned for a further â‚Ź 20,000 towards the minibus. This is the culmination of a year of fundraising, including the Monster Raffle held in August. Balbriggan Meals on Wheels now looks forward to purchasing a minibus. This new minibus will enable greater management of the transportation our clients to and from Dinner Club thus expanding the service whilst additionally being able to offer our clients more trips and days out, for example visits to local amenities, shopping

trips, theatre and cinema trips etc. Balbriggan Meals on Wheels was founded in 1975 in order to provide meals for people who were ill, recovering from illness, or for some reason were unable to care for themselves. Balbriggan Meals on Wheels currently provides in the region of 70 - 80 meals per day, with meals delivered to the most vulnerable people in the local community; people who are referred to us by Public Health Nurses and Social Workers.

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BALBRIGGAN LOCAL-DECEMBER 2019

Local News

Proposed New Pedestrian and Cycle Route

The proposed location

Fingal County Council is proposing to provide improved pedestrian and cycling facilities on Hamilton Road and Harry Reynolds Road in Balbriggan. The scheme will improve accessibility and provide a safer environment for walking and cycling. The development of a high quality cycle and pedestrian network is a key objective to make Balbriggan an attractive place to live, work, visit and do business.The scheme will encourage increased levels of physical activity and will offer an attractive, sustainable transport choice within Balbriggan for school children and local commuters. It will bring significant benefits to the wider community while contributing to improving health and the environment.The route of the scheme will directly serve a large number of residential, education and business centres within Balbriggan and will provide safe and attractive links between these. The majority of the population of Balbriggan is within 5 minutes cycle of the proposed scheme, making this a key facility for the whole town..Any interested party is invited to make a submission on the proposed scheme between the dates of 21/11/19 and 19/12/19:Submissions can be made on the Fingal County Council website or alternatively, by post to Senior Engineer, Planning and Strategic Infrastructure Department, Fingal County Council, County Hall, Main Street, Swords, Co. Dublin, K37 X8Y2.

€1,050 awarded under the Youth Sports Grants Scheme to local clubs Fingal County Council has awarded over €95,000 to 91 sports clubs throughout Fingal under the Youth Sports Grants Scheme. At this week’s full Council meeting, Councillors approved the funding which will see €1,050 allocated to each of the successful organisations.The purpose of the Youth Sports Grants is to assist existing sports clubs towards the purchase of equipment, refereeing/coaching fees, with the main aim of increasing participation levels in their local communities. The Fingal Sports Office, part of the network of Sports Ireland Local Sports Partnerships, invited sports clubs to apply for a small grant under this scheme. Successful applicants had to meet a number of criteria such as to have sport for young people as its primary focus and have a voluntary management committee with elected officers.Mayor of Fingal Cllr Eoghan O’Brien said: “I am delighted to see this allocation of funding to sporting organisations across Fingal, which play such a pivotal role in the health and wellbeing of our young people. I would like to commend all those volunteers who give so freely of their time and energy to their clubs.”Fingal County Council Principal Sports Officer, Marion Brown said: “Sport is an extremely important part of the lives of young people, I am delighted that this is being recognised and that we are able to provide funding to the chosen sports clubs to ensure that young people in Fingal can continue to enjoy playing sport in their local clubs.”Having examined all applications, it was decided to award a grant of €1,050 to the following local sports clubs: Balbriggan FC, Balbriggan RFC, Balrothery/Balbriggan Tennis Club and Balrothery FC, Irish Vikings (Balbriggan) Basketball club, Glebe North FC (Balbriggan), North County Cricket Club, O’Dwyers GAA Club .

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Pets Corner

Christmas Tree Safety and Other Holiday Safety Tips Keeping your furry family members safe during the holidays can be a difficult task. Let’s take a look at some simple pet safety steps that will allow your furry family members to join in the holiday fun this year while avoiding any trips to the animal emergency room. 1. Place your Christmas tree in a corner. To keep your cat from attempting to jump onto the tree, you can place aluminum foil around the tree base to warn you of an impending tree disaster. 2. Tinsel can add a nice sparkling touch to the tree, but make sure you hang it up out of your pet’s reach, or for the highest level of pet safety, simply don’t use it. Ingesting tinsel can potentially block their intestines, which is generally only remedied through surgical means. 3. Do not put lights on the tree’s lower branches. They can cause burns on both cats and dog if they become entangled. Additionally, your dog or cat may inadvertently get shocked by biting through the wire. 4. Ornaments need to be kept out of reach, too. Shards from broken ornaments may injure paws, mouths or other parts of your pet’s body. 5. For those buying live Christmas trees this year, keep the area around the tree free and clear of pine needles. The needles cause stomach upset and can irritate or puncture your pet’s intestines if ingested. 6. Did you know that holly and mistletoe are

poisonous to dogs and cats as are Poinsettias? 7. Edible tree decorations—whether they be ornaments or popcorn strings—are pet safety time bombs waiting to happen. Not to mention that they are also choking hazards. 8. Burning candles should be placed on high shelves or mantels, out of your pet’s way. 9. To prevent any accidental electrocutions, exposed indoor or outdoor wires should be taped

to the wall or the sides of the house. 10. When gift wrapping, be sure to keep your pet away. Wrapping paper, string, ribbon, plastic pieces or cloth could all cause intestinal blockages and do not leave wrapped gifts with ribbon and bows under the tree where your pets can get to them. Have a happy and safe Christmas.

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Finance

Your Finances - Do these excuses sound familiar? By Dave Kavanagh “Let’s go for a drink?”, “How about a nice meal out?”, “Shall we book a nice holiday?”, “How about an afternoon shopping?”, all questions that are (usually!) met with a positive response. “Shall we have a look through our finances and plans that we have in place?”, not usually met with the same enthusiasm or joy! For many reasons, people put off or avoid having to go through an exercise such as this, despite the fact that it can lead to them spending less and having more money left over each month! So, what excuses do they present to avoid this not-so-desirable activity and what are they really saying? Let’s have a look: 1 “I’ll have a look at that after Christmas”. This is sometimes replaced with “after Easter”, “after the holidays”, “after the kids go back to school” and a host of others. This is a bit like the “I’ll start the diet next Monday”. What you are actually saying is “I’ll name some time in the future, so I don’t have to face up to it or think about it now”. Let’s face it, you can make time to spend 30-60 minutes even once per year to look at something this important. Every year will have Christmas, summer time, back to school time, etc. Once you do, you’ll be glad that you did! 2 “We have everything in order already”. Great. That is, if you’ve done this in the last few

months but many people we’ve heard this from, on closer examination, haven’t looked at this area in years and are not really sure what they have. Circumstances change and it’s important that whatever you have in place is the most relevant for your own personal situation. 3“Our bank has sorted all that out for us”. Your bank may have sorted a few things for you but in most cases, banks are tied to one company’s products which means a fair comparison cannot be done and you may be paying way over the odds for whatever the bank put in place for you. Dealing with an advisor who is not tied to one company and can compare other options is the only way to make sure you are getting the best value for money. 4 “I’m busy at the moment, I’ll give you a shout in a few months”. Let’s face it, going through your finances is rarely on anyone’s favourite activity list. But the fact remains, if there is an activity you like, you can make time for it. Burying your head in the sand is rarely a successful solution to most problems! 5 “I’ve no spare money at present”.This usually comes from thinking that a review is going to either cost them money or they will have to take out something new that will cost them more money. The reality is, a review will usually highlight someone paying too much for something so the end result is, they save money.

Dave Kavanagh QFA has been advising people financially for over 25 years. For quotes or information (with no cost or obligation) he can be contacted by emailing info@financialcompanion.ie or use the contact form on www.financialcompanion.ie or phone 087-6414570. Combined with his previous role of gym/nutrition adviser, he regularly gives talks and workshops at seminars and events for groups, companies and government departments on financial wellbeing, positivity and motivation. As heard on RTE 2FM and TV3.

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Local News

Guide Dogs Events and 2020 Calendar now on sale

Tom O’Neill with his guide dog Gatsby and Tesco Community Champion Lisa McEvoy of Millfield Shopping Centre

By Tom O’Neill guide dog owner As always the Balbriggan\North County Dublin fundraising and awareness branch of Irish guide dogs for the blind have been very busy coming up to the end of the year. The school talks that the branch give are proving to be more and more popular year after year.In November we were one of the chosen charities to receive funds from the Tesco community initiative. Balbriggan Garda held an open day and invited the branch along to create awareness that guide dogs do suffer from the sounds of Halloween fire crackers. The branch were out selling their merchandise and car raffle tickets in Millfield Shopping center in early November. Another merchandise sale took place in Tescos of Rush and picture shows Tom O’Neill with his guide dog Gatsby and Tesco Rush community champion Barbara.Winding down the year is always enjoyable and nothing better and more enjoyable to do is take your children along to Millfield S.C. to see Santa in his Grotto there. The event is coordinated by

Brian Brodigan and his team at Specksavers Millfield Shopping Centre. Do you want a 2020 guide dogs calendar or a pack of xmas cards and want to support guide dogs. If so in Balbriggan go along to Pat Baxter family butcher, Donal Hayes Chiropodist Clonard street. E-Cigarettes and Suds cleaning services Drogheda Street or Lissenhall vets Dublin Street or to my guide dogs favourite shop Cuddles pet store at Millfield Shopping.Centre, where you can buy the calendar for €8 or a pack of 8 cards for €6.To all who support our work as volunteers, a member of the public who gives money to us, support magazines like this who promote us, to business premises and owners we thank you all sincerely and wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year. As the founder of the branch in 1985 I was asked had I a wish for 2020 and I said yes. “We want more volunteers to keep our branch active and alive”. So will you help me fulfil my New Year’s wish by ringing 0857663107.

Tom O’Neill and his guide dog Gatsby approving of the Santa Grotto before it is officially opened.

Andrew Green with his guide dog Nico at the Garda Open Day

Dana Kelly a volunteer with the branch leading guide dog Qeb

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BALBRIGGAN LOCAL-DECEMBER 2019

Niamh’s Festive Food Fun! For parties, ensuring that the whole fam ily gets their ‘7 a day’ over the festive season or for just a bit of fun and something to do! These are ima ginative ways to get young people involved with food and encouraging a wide variety of vegetable s and fruit throughout the day over the Christmas period.

A ‘Veggie’ colourful Christmas

tree

e carrot. 1.Wash and peel a long and larg Top and tail the carrot. slice each 2.Cut the carrot in half and then of the k half lengthways to make the trun (or use dish tree. Place onto a large serving less carrot for a smaller plate). es, the 3.For the tree branches and leav ner green run following could be used: long long slices in beans, mangetout or cucumber as in the image. the tree, 4.To make the star at the top of and er I used a star shaped cookie cutt d it off. lifte n placed hummus inside and the the dip to The hummus can then be used vegetables into! different 5.To decorate the tree, the more this In coloured vegetables the better! peas. and t image, there is peppers, beetroo , cut tree the er 6.Finally, for the presents und into ots carr different coloured peppers or t to make shapes. I used tiny strips of beetroo bows on the presents.

Snowman/woman Spuds! 1.Cook and mash potatoes with a small amount of milk. 2. Use a spoon/ice-cream scoop to shape the mash into a larger round ball for the body and a smaller round ball for the head. 3.Place the small round ball on top of the large round ball on a plate/serving dish. 4.Cut up a variety of vegetables to make the face, hat/hair and buttons and stick them on/in the balls of

mash potato. In the image attached, I used beetroot, peppers, brocolli, carrot and peas. 5.There’s many vegetables that could work for the arms! I used celery and long strips of carrot in mine.

Porridge Penguin 1.Make porridge as you/your child likes it. 2.Scoop onto the centre of a plate in a rounded heart shape. 3.Place blueberries around the edges of the porridge and down either side as arms. 4.Place 2 mandarin orange segments underneath as feet. 5.Place 2 blueberries and a triangle shaped chunk of kiwi

into the porridge as eyes and a nose. 6.Use a red pepper in a triangle shape and a blueberry for a hat with a bobble!

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Christmas time and health and happiness for the new year. For preschool, primary and secondary school or community group talks and workshops, pleaseemail:niamh@ biabites.net.See my ‘Fun food’ and ‘Recipes’ albums on ‘Biabites’ Facebook for other food ideas. 12 BALBRIGGAN LOCAL-DECEMBER 2019

Local Sports

Rugby League lads for the World Cup

Ronan Michael

Josh McNamee presented with his International Jersey

Ben McKiernan

James Mulvaney in action

Rugby League Ireland held their qualifier for the Rugby League World Cup (Ireland versus Italy) in Morton stadium recently â€“ preceding this match Ireland under 23s faced the British Lions under 23s. Ireland qualified top of itâ€™s group beating Italy 24 tries to 4 and earning them a place in the Rugby League World Cup 2021 in England. The sport is gaining momentum here in

Ireland with the help of Balbriggan locals Ronan Michael, James Mulvany, Kevin Varga, Josh McNamee and Ben Kiernan who have all donned the Irish jersey - the future looks bright for Rugby League. Congratulations to these local lads aand all in the squad. Lets hope you can bring the cup back to Ireland and Balbriggan and North County Dublin in particular.

Balbriggan Roadrunners at the Dublin City Marathon

Balbriggan was very well represented at this years 40th Dublin City Marathon with over 75 runners and 9 volunteers taking part on the day (and probably as many supporters in the city centre to cheering them all on). For many of our runners - this was their first marathon making the day all the more special. Two of our more seasoned runners brought home gold and bronze medals in their age category. The Dublin City Marathon is a lifetime goal for many people who start to run - it a huge achievement for those running it and a fantastic and inspiring day out for the spectators and volunteers. Every year Balbriggan is represented in bigger numbers. Congratulations to all concerned. Contact us: communitylocalseditor@gmail.com

BALBRIGGAN LOCAL-DECEMBER 2019

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1. Submerge an area with water. (5) 2. Hawaiian word of greeting and parting. (5) 3. Interrupt the rest, peace or order. (7) 4. The only kingdom in the Pacific. (5) 5. A dish of melted cheese on toast, often Welsh. (7) 6. Devoutly religious. (5) 7. An increase in salary. (5) 8. Facial coverings worn to disguise or amuse. (5) 9. Ways to get from a starting point to a destination. (6) 10. The man for a film award. (5) 11. Small items kept in memory of the person who gave them. (9) 17. A small drink for the child. (3) 19. Opened windows to ventilate an area. (5) 20. Elaborate maze in Greek mythology. (9) 21. Is it mightier than the sword? (3) 22. Circular band used in making barrels. (4) 23. A situation in which no progress is possible. (7) 24. Made someone with an illness healthy again. (5) 26. Am I a cad, Ma? Nutty question! (9) 28. Obtainable at a low price. (5) 29. A boat designed to keep harbours clear. (7) 31. The person in charge of a trial in a court. (5) 33. Concur, have the same opinion about something. (5) 36. Happen afterwards or as a result. (5) 37. Cuts off a branch from the main body of a tree. (4) 38. Talking in a rapid, excited, and incomprehensible way. (9) 41. Irritate, annoy. (3) 44. Tree susceptible to a Dutch disease. (3) 46. In opposition to. (7) 47. Major port on the River Scheldt. (7) 48. Full of incessant or frantic activity. (6) 50. A person entertained in one’s house. (5) 51. The main artery of the body. (5) 52. The direction in which a compass needle normally points. (5) 53. A god in Greek mythology who is half man and half goat. (5) 54. Piece of fabric worn by women over the shoulders or head. (5) 55. Knock something over, often an apple cart. (5) 56. A narrow passageway between or behind buildings. (5)

SUDOKU ANSWERS

1. Someone who gets money by deceiving people. (9) 6. This town hides a carport monk! (11) 12. Double-reed woodwind instruments/ (5) 13. Addictive drugs, especially illegal ones. (9) 14. A male relative. (5) 15. Bram Stoker’s undead creation. (7) 16. Short-legged scent hound. (7) 18. Gets money in exchange for labour. (5) 19. Spoken or performed without previous preparation. (2-3) 21. Erect a tent on the playing field. (5) 23. It demands to be scratched. (4) 25. Running while out of control in a dangerous manner. (4) 27. River crossed by Julius Caesar in 48 BC. (7) 29. Bend or hang downwards limply. (5) 30. Items sold cheaply because of minor flaws. (7) 32. A mournful song, especially one forming part of a funeral rite. (5) 33. Noise made when clearing the throat, typically to attract attention or express disapproval. (4) 34. Not new. (4) 35. Avoid someone or something by a sudden quick movement. (5) 38. Distilled alcoholic drink deriving its flavour from juniper berries. (7) 39. The centre of Dublin, postally. (3) 40. I simpered at the outer layer of skin. (9) 42. The official currency of Thailand. (4) 43. Make rude and mocking remarks. (4) 45. Small amounts of food eaten between meals. (5) 47. Become less intense, like a storm. (5) 49. Large, powerfully built bird of prey. (5) 51. A partial or total loss of memory. (7) 54. Sweet citrus fruit. (7) 57. Showing no skill, clumsy. (5) 58. Fictional European country used by Anthony Hope as the setting for The Prisoner of Zenda. (9) 59. A wooden frame for holding an artist’s work. (5) 60. Unwelcome party guest. (11) 61. The ability to know what is in someone else’s mind. (9)

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