Malahide

Smooth sailing: Launch of new centre is a hit with guests PICTURED at the recent reopening of the newly-redeveloped Dinghy Sailing Centre by the Malahide Yacht Club at the Broadmeadows, were Irene Devitt and Mary Anglin. The pair were among many locals

and members who had come to cel-ebrate the launch of the split-level, ultra-modern facility on the Sea Road, built at a cost of €450,000.

Full Gallery on Pages 8-9

CCTV at garda station claims denied� NATALIE BURKE

THE Department of Justice has rejected claims that it plans to install Closed Circuit Tel-evision (CCTV) at Malahide Garda Station.

The statement comes fol-lowing claims by north Dublin Senator, Darragh O’Brien, who said plans are afoot to install CCTV at the local station as it will no longer be manned at night following cuts to Garda

services. He said: “The Depart-ment of Justice are telling Garda Stations like Malahide that they will need to install CCTV and other security meas-ures to make sure that nothing happens to the barracks when there are no gardai in it.”

This makes no saving to the Government as the taxpayer will still have to fork out thou-sands for the CCTV, said the Senator.

Full Story on Page 7

YOUR COMMUNITY • YOUR PAPER April 12, 2012

ALSOINSIDE: GALLERIES ............. 2, 8-9

BUSINESS .................... 19

MOTORS ........................21

TRAVEL ......................... 22

ENTERTAINMENT ........ 24

CLASSIFIEDS ............... 26

RECYCLE THIS COPY. KEEP DUBLIN TIDY.

INSIDE: Enjoyinga feast of

fantastic fi lms P2

FREE GAZETTEGAZETTEMalahide

Soccer: United mission accomplished with league title Page 32

Camogie: Local stars shine as Dublin run Cats closePage 28

CHILDREN: Public’s views vital in helping to draft child legislation P4

2 MALAHIDE GAZETTE 12 April 2012

� NATALIE BURKE

[email protected]

A NUMBER of pathways used by the public within the Malahide Demesne are set to be repaired and resurfaced later this year. The announcement was made at a recent county council meeting, in response to a question posed by local Fianna Fail councillor, Eoghan O’Brien.

According to the coun-cil, only a limited capital budget is available for the provision of additional paths or the surfacing of old gravel paths in regional parks. However, the council also stated that the surfacing of the paths running along the southern perimeter of the Demesne, along what is known as the “back road”, have been identified as a priority area by the coun-cil and it is hoped that surfacing works will be carried out in the second half of the year.

“The amenity value of the demesne is second-to-none and it’s impor-tant the small things are being looked after for people who are visiting the demesne,” said Cllr O’Brien. “The problems with the pathways and issues with drainage can make it unsightly for visi-tors and not something they really want to see.”

It was also confirmed by the council that the

footpath running from Keegan’s Avenue to the castle will be fully rein-stated as part of the con-tract for the water main installation across the demesne.

Meanwhile, a number of new litter bins are set to be provided in the Demesne area. The new bins will be installed in order to help cope with the predicted increase in visitors in the park and castle, and will be provided on comple-tion of the development works at Malahide.

According to the coun-cil, the provision of addi-tional litter bins is a sub-ject kept under constant review and is balanced against efforts to encour-age visitors to the park and demesne to bring their lit-ter home with them, litter generated by the council or commercial activity excepted.

“It isn’t a major issue for the demesne and similar problems exist on beaches and other areas,” said Cllr O’Brien. “Many people will hang on to their rub-bish until they get home if they can’t access a litter bin but when the work is complete at the demesne, the number of visitors is expected to triple. While most people will be respectful, there will be some who aren’t, and hav-ing more bins in the area will prevent having to use staff resources that aren’t necessary.”

MALAHIDE DEMESNE: ANNOUNCEMENT

Pathways are set to be repaired says council

EVENT Inaugural Fingal Film Festival award ceremony

The Fingal Film Festival Team

Best Newcomer WriterDirector in

Fingal - Stephen Murray Oisín Reynolds - Best Animation Where the Sea Used to Be won Best Feature Film

Enjoying a feast of fine filmsT

HE inaugural Fingal Film Festival award ceremony marked the end of a success story for its organisers, who gave budding film-makers a chance to shine dur-

ing three days of film screenings and valuable workshops on the industry. What once was a casual conversation

between two friends, soon snowballed into a three-day sponsored event. The festival received film submissions from all over the world and from almost 300 entries, and the organisers had a tough job of whittling it down to the lucky few that screened in UCI Blanchardstown.

12 April 2012 MALAHIDE GAZETTE 3

BIRDS Call for public to report signs of rare kites

Good signsfor the Red Kite Project � NATALIE BURKE

WITH spring finally in the air, the Red Kite Project is celebrating the season of “rebirth” with some of the rare kites already showing signs of pairing up and the begin-ning of nest building.

With the arrival of the new season, the Red Kite project team are urging landowners and members of the public to report any sightings they may have of Red Kites, particularly if you suspect the bird is carrying nest material or in the process of building a nest.

The kites took flight

for the first time at Newbridge Demesne last year, as well as loca-tions in Wicklow, and the project team have followed their path of flight ever since, in order to help re-establish the endangered breed of birds in Ireland.

The unusual bird has become a familiar sight around the Wicklow and Fingal areas, particularly Avoca village, and peo-ple are travelling from around the country in order to catch sight of the graceful, forked-tailed kite floating and glid-ing over the fields and towns.

The Golden Eagle Trust, in partnership with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Welsh Kite Trust supported by Coillte Teoranta, the Heritage Council and Greenstar Ireland, released a total of 120 kites in Wick-low and 39 in Fingal between 2007 and 2011, and each was fitted with a radio tag allowing the project team to monitor the birds following their release.

Since then however, a number of the beautiful birds have died from eat-ing rats that had already consumed an illegal poi-

Red Kite showing the unique wing-tags that identifies them. Picture: Marc Ruddock

son called alphachlora-lose, and were dead or dying. The team believe, however, with the addi-tional release of Red Kites in Fingal last year and a minimum of 29 young produced from wild Wicklow nests over the past two years, there is hope that the east coast population is secure and will continue to spread the species across the country.

As part of the celebra-tion this year of the Red

Kites return in Ireland, the Golden Eagle Trust are hosting a talk at the Woodenbridge Hotel, Wicklow on April 14, starting at 10.30am.

The project team will be providing an insight into the project over the past five years and the highs and lows of bring-ing the Red Kite home to Ireland.

With the event kindly sponsored by Wicklow County Council, Deirdre Burns, heritage officer

with Wicklow Council, says: “The reintroduc-tion of Red Kites is a significant milestone for biodiversity in Ireland. Now that the population has been established, the continued success of the project will rely on the interest and enthusiasm of the local community.”

For more information, or to report any sightings, please email [email protected] or on the project website www.goldeneagle.ie

Discount entry fees FINGAL County Coun-cil is formulating a plan for the management of its heritage properties, to address requests for discounted access from special needs groups.

This comes in response to local Fianna Fail Coun-cillors, Darragh Butler and Eoghan O’Brien, who put forward a motion at a recent council meeting, for the council to work with certain special needs groups, for free or dis-counted access to council facilities, such as New-bridge House Farm and Ardgillan House events.

According to the coun-cil, the visitor facilities in question are managed under licence by com-mercial companies and entry fees are already at a very low level. There is some limited potential for discounted entry fees for recognised special needs groups and supervising adults at designated times and by prior arrangement.

COUNCIL


Public is urged to offer views on child protection

STANDARDS Improving Ireland’s child welfare services

Tracy Cooper, chief executive of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA)

IT is very clear from various reports in recent

years that have highlight-ed the scale and serious-ness of child abuse in Ire-land, that there is a need to significantly improve Ireland’s child protection and welfare services.

With this as our guid-ing principle, the Health Information and Qual-ity Authority (HIQA) has developed Draft National Standards for the Protec-tion and Welfare of Chil-dren that set out the key attributes of an effective and safe child protection service.

The setting of stand-ards by HIQA and the monitoring of compli-ance with them are important levers in driv-ing improvements in the effectiveness and safety of health and social care services for children and families.

The new draft Stand-ards have been launched for public consultation until May 17 next by HIQA.

The Standards docu-ment, and an easy-to-read guide to the draft Standards, can be down-loaded from the Author-ity’s website, www.hiqa.ie. HIQA has a legal duty to set standards, while the Health Service Execu-tive (HSE) has a legal responsibility to promote the welfare of children not receiving adequate care and protection and therefore it is critical to ensure that the system for protecting children is

effective and robust. The draft National

Standards have now been developed by HIQA to support continuous improvements in the care and protection of children receiving HSE child protection and wel-fare services.

The Standards put the needs of children at the heart of child protection services and promote the principles outlined in Children First, the national guidelines for the protection and wel-fare of children. HIQA is committed to ensuring that the safety and well-being of children is the top priority for the HSE.

The Standards will apply to HSE Children and Family Services and its statutory functions, which include protect-ing and promoting the welfare of children at risk in the community, and supporting and protect-ing children in the care of the State.

When finalised, the Standards will be the basis of HIQA’s future inspections of the HSE’s child protection functions and can also be used as a guide for self-assessment and improvement by all those involved in the pro-tection of children.

While HIQA will pub-licly report on the HSE’s performance, and hold the HSE accountable for these services, the Stand-ards will enable HSE child protection and wel-fare services to gear up to the best of their ability to

address concerns consist-ently and to a high stand-ard.

It is important to point out that, when imple-mented, HIQA would review HSE systems rather than individual cases. It is not intended that, as a general rule, the Authority should become involved in the detail of individual child protection cases. There-fore, people who are con-cerned about the welfare of children in any setting should continue to report any concerns about child protection and welfare to their local HSE health office.

The HSE has been consulted in the draft-ing of these standards as they are critical to the implementation of these standards.

HIQA developed the Standards assisted by a Standards Advisory Group. This is a group of key representatives from the HSE, Government departments, An Garda Siochana, other regula-tory bodies, people from the academic and legal fields, non-statutory organisations and other key stakeholders.

The expert group and HIQA looked at, and considered, interna-tional and national pub-lished research, stand-ards in Ireland and else-where, expert opinion, policy document and reports by national and international govern-mental and non-govern-mental organisations.

In general, our Stand-ards are not prescriptive but are calling for timely and effective action to be taken to protect chil-dren, and that children and their families have timely access to child protection and welfare services. A number of reports on child abuse cases were considered by the Authority and its Standards Advisory Group when developing these standards.

These Standards cover issues such as listening to children, assessment and planning, working

with other agencies, the protection of children across a range of set-tings and the training and support of staff, and are grouped according to six key themes as fol-lows:

• Child-centred services • Safe and effective services • Governance, leader-ship and management• Use of resources• Workforce• Use of information.

The Authority is now seeking the views of the

general public and chil-dren and young people on the draft National Standards. Informa-tion collected from this consultation process will be used to inform the development of the Standards.

Your comments can be submitted through an online survey on the HIQA website, www.hiqa.ie, or by download-ing and completing the consultation feedback form on our website and emailing it to [email protected]. You can print off the feedback

form and post it to us, or you can write to us.

Once the consul-tation deadline has passed, the Authority will carefully analyse all the submissions made and we make further amendments to the Standards document. The finalised Standards will be presented to the Board of the Authority for its approval.

Following this, the Standards will be sub-mitted for approval to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.

TRACY COOPER, chief executive of the Health Information and Quality Authority, says draft standards on child protection set out the key attributes of an effective and safe child protection service


Drivers wantedVOLUNTEER transport programme, Care to Drive, are seeking volunteer driv-ers from the Malahide area to help them over the coming months.

The programme is run by the Irish Cancer Soci-ety and they are seeking drivers from Malahide to help transport patients to and from Connolly Hos-pital, Blanchardstown, the Mater and St James’ Hospital.

As part of the pro-gramme, drivers are recruited and trained to drive patients to and from their hospital appoint-ments, a service which is free to both the hospi-tal and the patient with the Irish Cancer Society incurring all costs. All fuel expenses are paid.

Volunteers are asked to commit to driving two days a month, Monday to Friday. For more informa-tion call Gail on 01 2310 566 or email [email protected]

PROGRAMME

Event raises nearly €4,000ALMOST €4,000 was raised at a recent waxing fundraising event, which was held at Gibneys Mala-hide, in aid of The Ross Nugent Foundation.

A number of live per-formances by local bands took place on the night, while nine of Ross’s friends braved the pain of being waxed in order to raise money for a cause close to their hearts.

According to the two organisers of the event, students Colm Roche and Stephen Brooks, the night was a huge success, raising a total of €3,890; enough to purchase two heart monitors on behalf of the Foundation, which was set up in memory of 18-year-old Ross, who lost a courageous battle against cancer in 2010.

“This was the first time

to do something like this and, while it started out as something small, it went brilliantly,” said Stephen Brooks.

“Colm was originally hosting the waxing event as part of a college assign-ment and I was holding a football tournament on St Patrick’s Day for the Foundation, so we decided to join together. The nine lads who took part were all from Mala-hide and were friends with Ross, and the girls doing the waxing were from Blue Moon Beauty Salon. We had a fantas-tic turnout and held the events throughout the night to keep the momen-tum going.”

Performances on the night featured a number of local bands, including Jack Ryan, Jessica Smith and

Steven Finnegan, while the donated raffle prizes included a signed Dublin football jersey, VIP entry for The Wright Venue, a print by MacEoghain Pho-tography and a six-course seasonal tasting menu by MasterChef star, Ian Mul-lin, to name a few.

For Colm Roche, who also organised the event, the fundraiser has been the most rewarding task he has ever taken on.

“It brought together all of Ross’s friends, their families and, most impor-tantly, Ross’s family. We wanted the event to be as much about remembering Ross as well as recognis-ing how inspirational The Ross Nugent Foundation is.”

See page10 for photos of the brave lads who were waxed for the charity.

No April Fools Here: Local students emerge joint winners at Schools Quiz A PALPABLE air of tension and excitement hung over the main hall of the RDS on April 1 as 100 teams of four schoolchildren from across the country battled it out in the grand final of the 21st All-Ireland Credit Union Schools Quiz.

Under the watchful eye of Marty Whelan – Quiz master for the day, St Helen’s Primary School, from Portmarnock, emerged joint winners in the Competition A (up to 11 years age category.)

Pictured at the grand finals of the All Ireland Credit Union Schools Quiz at the RDS were (left to right) Jimmy Johnstone, Presi-dent, Irish League of Credit Unions, team members Christopher McFadden, Jamie O’Connor, Robert Richmond and Sean Carroll) from St Helen’s Primary School, Portmarnock and Marty Whelan.

FUNDRAISER: BRAVE FRIENDS WAXED IN AID OF ROSS NUGENT FOUNDATION


‘No maintenance issues at estate’� PAUL HOSFORD

THERE are no problems with maintenance at the Strandmill Estate, Fingal County Council said this week.

Councillor Peter Coyle asked the manager to report on what progress has been made in the examination of problems relating to the maisonette block of [Strandmill] par-ticularly relating to wind/draughts in the units asso-ciated with poor/no exter-nal wall insulation, and to state if remedial action is being taken to address the problems.

In response, the council said that there had been no complaints regarding the estate and insulation works had been carried out in previous years.

“There are currently no outstanding maintenance complaints to be dealt with by the council at the maisonette block referred to. Insulation and ventila-tion works were carried out in these units during 2007 and 2008, with the upper units having the attics insulated to a depth of between 150mm-300mm. Three of the units have PVC double-glazed windows installed,” said the council, who went on to say that works would be carried out in the estate this summer.

“The Strandmill Estate is scheduled to undergo cyclical maintenance in the next phase of the programme, which is shortly going out to ten-der. The cyclical mainte-nance programme shall

include external painting and joinery works on the above-mentioned units. The joinery on the win-dows and doors of these units will be examined as part of these works and any necessary repairs shall be carried out as part of the scheduled works.

“It is proposed to examine the windows and doors of the one-bed units in Strandmill Estate with a view to replacement, where required, as part of a programme of window and door replacement to one bedroom units across the county, subject to the necessary resources being available. This pro-gramme will take cogni-sance of older stock and will be phased to give pri-ority to the circa 300 one-bed dwellings which are

predominantly occupied by older tenants,” said the report, but says that the issue of insulation could only be addressed when resources allow.

“There is no wall insu-lation in the maisonette block referred to. It may be possible to pump the walls with insulation but the walls of the block would need to be opened up in order to investigate whether there a suffi-cient cavity space exists to carry out insulation works. When resources permit, the council shall examine the possibility of carrying out external wall insulation in older stock on a phased basis. How-ever, there is currently no source of funding identi-fied to allow such works to be carried out.”

PROPERTY: CLLR CALLS FOR STRANDMILL ESTATE REPORT

� NATALIE BURKE

LOCAL Fianna Fail counc i l lo r Eoghan O’Brien has described recent comments made by Minister for Trans-port, Leo Varadkar, as ‘misleading’, with regard to the local campaign to keep the Fry Model Rail-

way in its hometown of Malahide.

In a recent interview with the Gazette, Min-ister Varadkar said the Fry Collection had been removed from Malahide Castle before he was appointed Minister and mentioned that Mary Hanafin was Minister

at the time, while Cllr O’Brien was also on the council.

“It was funny that Minister Varadkar men-tioned me working in the council and Mary Hanafin being Minis-ter when talking about the collection being removed, when he was

out turning the sod on the development project at the same time. His comments were mislead-ing and I just want to set the record straight,” he told the Gazette.

According to Cllr. O’Brien, he is disappoint-ed that Minister Varadkar is “pointing the finger” of

blame at others. “I don’t care who delivers it as long as it’s done. We are being assured that Minis-ter Varadkar is working on the issue, but if he is mak-ing misleading statements about myself and Mary Hanafin, I worry about his statements regarding the stage he is at in the

project.” Cllr O’Brien is keen to

see the Fry Model Rail-way returned to Mala-hide and called for a suspension of standing orders at last week’s Area Committee meeting.

“Unfortunately, the cathaoirleach ruled that the meeting had fin-

ished so couldn’t take my suspension, which I was disappointed about since the meeting had started late. So I then asked could we agree for a letter be sent from the area committee to the Minister to outline the urgency of our request,” he said.

Minister’s comments misleading – councillor

Councillor Peter Coyle

POLITICS Local campaign to keep the Fry Model Railway in its hometown

Interview skills boost for studentsTWENTY-FIVE students from Malahide Community School, brushed up on their interview skills last week when they took part in the Junior Achievement Ireland programme, in association with Hertz.

Volunteers from Hertz Europe Serv-ice Centre, Swords, gave the Leaving Certificate students a “professional edge” in interview techniques, when they held mock interviews on Friday, March 23, at the Hertz centre.

Each student sat a mock interview and got feedback from Hertz professionals, before getting a guided tour of the build-ing and learning about job opportunities available to them at Hertz.

Junior Achievement Ireland works to

bring business people into the classroom to show students the kind of jobs they might enjoy when they finish school. It aims to bridge the gap between school and the world of work and to inspire students at risk of leaving school early to remain in education.

This school year, Junior Achievement will bring enterprise and life skills to 70,000 students nationally in more than 500 schools with the help of 3,000 busi-ness volunteers. A not-for-profit organi-sation, Junior Achievement is supported by more than 130 of Ireland’s leading organisations.

For further information contact Junior Achievement Ireland on 01 2366644.


FastNewsCaring and Sharing to host boxingThe Caring and Sharing Association (CASA) will be hosting a White Collar Boxing fundraising event later this month, which will be held at The Wright Venue, Swords. CASA is a charity that gives respite breaks to people with disabilities and currently have respite houses located in Swords and Malahide, as well as Wicklow, Cork, Galway and Maynooth, amongst others. The CASA will be holding its fundraising event on Friday, April 20, where the men and women will take part in the challenge after weeks of training. To buy a ticket for the boxing event, and support this local initiative, contact Mary O’Donoghue on 087 6775300.

.Wine course to be held at Gibney’sGibney’s of Malahide is set to host its next wine course this April, which will be run by tutor Ann Moran. The course will be held from Wednesday, April 18 to Wednesday, May 16 in the Wine Room at the popular pub. The five-week course will be held from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm every Wednesday evening within the month and places are available at €100 per person. The schedule for the course includes classes on grape varieties, tasting techniques, Old World and New World wines, Sparkling Wine and Food and Wine pairing. For more information, contact Gibney’s Off Licence on 01 8450606 or email [email protected].

Gardai deny plans for CCTV at Malahide Garda Station� NATALIE BURKE

PLANS to install Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) at Malahide Garda Sta-tion have been denied by the Department of Justice this week.

This follows claims by north Dublin Sena-tor, Darragh O’Brien, who told the Gazette there were plans afoot to install the CCTV at the Garda station as it would not be manned at night.

In an interview with the Gazette, Senator O’Brien said that, with the cost of securing the unmanned stations at night, members of the community will continue to spend money on the station despite receiving a downgraded service.

“I have written to the Minister and am waiting confirmation, but I under-stand that the station will

not be manned at night and, because of that, the Department of Justice are telling Garda stations like Malahide that they will need to install CCTV and other security measures to make sure that nothing happens to the barracks when there is no gardai in it.

“We’re looking at thousands of euro spent on installing top-of-the-range CCTV equipment in the barracks. Cou-ple that with closure of the station at night, and there will be no mone-tary savings. It’s going to cost the exchequer and the people of Malahide, Kinsealy and Portmar-nock money to secure the station and they’re getting a downgraded service,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said there is no Garda-based CCTV project in

North Dublin Senator, Darragh O’Brien

INTERVIEW Senator claims plans are afoot for cameras

the Malahide area and that Garda CCTV sys-tems are planned and implemented on the basis of operational needs identified by An Garda Siochana.

“The Depar tment established a community-

based CCTV scheme in 2005 to provide finan-cial assistance to qualify-ing local organisations towards meeting the capital costs associated with the establishment of local community CCTV systems,” she said.

According to Senator O’Brien, he is still wait-ing on a response from the Minister and hopes to have confirmation within the coming weeks.

“I still don’t believe it’s too late for them to over-turn this decision.”


Sailing into a new eraT

HE newly-redeveloped Dinghy Sailing Centre has been launched by the Malahide Yacht Club at the Broadmeadows. Mayor of Fingal, Cllr

Gerry McGuire, the President of the Irish Sailing Association, Niamh McCutcheon, and the club’s 1980 Olympic Silver Medallist, David Wilkins, were all on hand to help launch the centre recently. The split-level, ultra-modern facility on the Sea Road, built at a cost of €450,000, features a general pur-pose area/classroom, changing rooms and showers on the ground floor, while on the new first-floor level, there is a large lounge/viewing area, a com-mittee room and storage room.

Graham, Sheila and Hilda Smith. Picture: Una Williams

Riona McGrath and Paul Gully Irene Devitt and Mary Anglin

David Wilkins and Roger Greene

TD Alan Farrell with Nathan, Charlotte Greene, Kate Natin and Izobel ShakleMarinda and Bob Sugrue

EVENT Malahide Yacht Club unveils its newly re-developed


Rose O’Sullivan and Alanna Tilly Cllr Eoghan O’Brien, Senator Darragh O’Brien and Cllr Peter Coyle

Barry Sheridan, Sharon, Marie O’SullivanTess O’Sullivan and Kate Sheirdan Ellen Jenkins, Brendan Costello and Paul O’Sullivan

Emmet and Orla Dalton

Trustees, Alan Lawless and Richard

Burrows Cllr Anthony Lavin and Emer Somers

Dinghy Sailing Centre at the Broadmeadows


EVENT Fundraiser makes almost €4,000 for foundation

Enduring painfor a good causeA

LMOST €4,000 was raised at a recent waxing fundrais-ing event, which was held at

Gibneys Malahide, in aid of The Ross Nugent Foundation.

A number of live performanc-es by local bands took place on the night, while nine of Ross’s friends braved the pain of being waxed in order to raise money for a cause close to their hearts.

According to the two organis-ers of the event, students Colm

Roche and Stephen Brooks, the night was a huge success, rais-ing a total of €3,890; enough to purchase two heart monitors on behalf of the Foundation, which was set up in memory of 18-year-old Ross, who lost a courageous battle against cancer in 2010.

Performances on the night featured a number of local bands, including Jack Ryan, Jessica Smith and Steven Finnegan.

Preparing, ready to go! Gone! Going...

The event was enjoyed by allNot done yet!

12 April 2012 GAZETTE 11

Top talent: A natural at wood turningJIMMY DEENIHAN, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, attended the Nation-al Museum to accept the muse-um’s most recent acquisitions from Kerry-based wood turner artist, Earl Allgrove (right).

Minister Deenihan said: “This extremely talented artist was brought to the museum’s atten-tion while participating in a craft development project with South Kerry Development Part-nership. Having started working with wood relatively recently – back in 2003 – Earl has shown tremendous natural skill in attaining this level of compe-tency with wood turning.”

Looking to our youth for ideas

COMPETITION: GETTING ‘HOOKED’ ON ENERGY

CELEBRITY broadcaster George Hook launched Tell The Future, a story-writing competition encouraging primary school children, North and South, to write a short story on how to power homes, hospitals, factories and schools into the future.

Now in its second year, the competition rewards the best ideas from young people in Ireland today regarding energy and the environment.

Rugby pundit and NewsTalk host, Hook, is spearheading this year’s competition and has made a special animated video for pupils, parents and teachers to learn more about it, which can be seen by logging on to www.tellthefuture.eu

Launching the compe-tition, George comment-ed that, as a nation, we need to pay more atten-tion to the creativity of our youth.

“Our young people today are not only more aware of innovation and new technologies, but also of the environmen-tal and energy challenges we are facing today and into the future. We need to take more notice of young people’s creativity, and Tell The Future gives them a nationwide plat-form to showcase their ideas on energy sustain-ability,” he said.

Bringing these writ-ten stories to life is a key feature of this year’s Tell The Future competition, and winners in the junior and senior categories will have the unique oppor-tunity to have their story transformed into a one-of-a-kind animated video narrated by George Hook himself.

In addition, first-prize winners will receive their own iPad and a special-ly-engraved trophy. The school of the winning pupil will receive five Netbook laptops, with branded mouse pads and t-shirts for his or her class. Second and third-prize winners will each receive a Kindle.

Tell The Future is part of a pan-European ini-tiative – Future of Rural Energy in Europe (FREE) – which is supported in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland by Calor Gas, and aims to highlight the environ-mental and energy-relat-ed concerns facing rural communities in particu-lar. Tell The Future will be launched for post-prima-ry school students North and South in autumn 2012.

The closing date for entries to the Tell The Future primary compe-tition is Friday, May 18 2012. For full details, please visit www.tellthe-future.eu

12 GAZETTE 12 April 2012

HEALTHCARE Food Solutions are producers and suppliers of ready prepared meal solutions for the Health sector (Hospitals and Nursing Homes).

With the current pressure on us to stay at home during our advancing years, we have launched Ireland’s first 100% Irish Home-care meal delivery ser-vice.

O u r c h e f s h ave designed a wholesome range of carvery meals to suit the age profile of our customers.

Once fully cooked all of our meals are freshly frozen and are ready for you to enjoy in less than 15 minutes from your

microwave or under 40 minutes from a conven-tional oven.

Our meals are deliv-ered weekly or fort-nightly to your door by our friendly homecare team.

Hea l thcare Food Solutions have been awarded the Love Irish Food mark for our work in only using 100% Irish ingredients and being proactive in Irish Employment with our produce being manufac-tured here in Ireland.

We only produce the most wholesome meals, such as our Tender Cooked Bacon as seen above, Roasted Irish Beef with Yorkshire pudding, Tender Cooked Turkey

and Ham with handmade stuffing and traditional Irish Beef and Stout Stew to mention just a few.

Homecare delivery has been proven to be grate-fully received in the Irish

market in the current cli-mate.

The main difference between Healthcare Food Solutions is that our produce is 100% guaranteed Irish, sup-

porting Irish jobs and Irish suppliers.

If you are an older per-son or if you have a par-ent living at home and are concerned about the quality of their daily meal, why don’t you visit our website at www.health-carefoodsolutions.com and visit our Homecare Shop.

We deliver our meals on a weekly or fortnightly cycle across Co.Dublin, we can be contacted via the web shop or contact one of our telesales team on 01 289 8823.

Once you are happy with our service you can set up a regular weekly or fortnightly order which will be delivered auto-matically.

100% fresh Irish homecare meals delivered to your door

COMMERCIAL FEATURE

Tender cooked bacon with cabbage, creamed potato, carrot and turnip mash with parsley sauce

Paul Kavanagh, Chief Executive, Healthcare Food

Solutions.

EVENT Getting a Lidl help for Happy Heart

Have a heart and help raise funds for foundation� BAIRBRE NI BHRAONAIN

FAIR City’s Tom Hopkins and TV celebrity, Caroline Morahan, have volun-teered to raise money for the Irish Heart Founda-tion’s 23rd Happy Heart Weekend appeal.

The weekend is on May 10 to 12 and the aim is to raise half a million euro to fight heart disease in Ireland.

The event is sponsored by Lidl Ireland and their staff, together with the team at 2FM, and the Irish Heart Foundation are appealing to Dublin-ers to volunteer and lend a hand in the mission to raise the target amount. Happy hearts will also be sold through Lidl stores.

“I support Happy Heart Weekend because I’m passionate about driving awareness of heart disease and stroke. A little bit of awareness can be the dif-ference between life and

death. This was the case for my cousin, who was able to spot the signs of his heart attack and man-aged to get help in time,” Caroline Morahan said.

Caroline has helped the Irish Heart Foundation before and been involved in previous years’ Happy Heart Weekends. She left Ireland for Los Ange-les but has returned and is looking happier and healthier than ever. She is a loyal patron of the charity.

The anticipation is building for the Happy Heart Weekend 2012 and preparations are already in full swing for what is shaping up to be the best Happy Heart Weekend yet.

Every year thousands of people all over Ireland give up their time during the weekend of May 10, 11 and 12 for The Irish Heart Foundation.

These volunteers scat-

tered across the country will hit the streets to col-lect donations and sell the Happy Hearts for €2 each.

They will provide you with a fundraising pack, heart badges, and details on local collection points, plus you can choose what day or days you would like to volunteer.

You can also raise money for Happy Heart Weekend your own way by registering for the events pack to keep hearts across Ireland happy and healthy.

Collect donations at work and discover new ways to gladden and strengthen your heart so that it will last a lifetime.

The spoils of the Happy Heart Weekend will pro-vide free heart disease education and fund a helpline to support heart and stroke patients. Every €2 raised from the sale of happy heart badges will

Caroline Morahan calls for volunteers to support the

Irish Heart Foundation’s Happy Heart appeal, with ‘Lidl

volunteer’, three-year-old Laura Ormsby

help to avoid 13 unnec-essary deaths from heart disease and stroke in Ire-land.

Hopkins said: “Even giving a small bit of your time can make a big dif-ference. Whatever you feel passionate about, preven-tion, research, CPR... the Irish Heart Foundation does it all and I hope the people of Dublin will vol-unteer to sell happy hearts this May.”

Hopkins is from Bal-lyfermot and has been on the show for many years. He began life as a civil servant but ended up treading the boards., and is well known for giv-ing his time to charitable causes.

To volunteer for Happy Heart Weekend in Dublin by selling happy hearts or by organising your own fundraising event, call Jena Clark on 087 3743367.

You can also donate directly to the charity online or find out more about the fundraising drive by going to www.happyheartweekend.ie

Dublin Dance festival set to delightDUBLIN Dance Festival is stopping off at several venues across Dublin and Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, is one of them this year.

The Spanish company, Aracaladanza, will per-form a piece inspired by surrealist artist, Magritte. It will be a strange mix of puppets, dance, clouds and ladders sure to ignite the imagination of any audience.

The show is entitled Nubes (Clouds) and it has already delighted audi-ences across Europe. It is suitable for all ages from

four years and up. “Magritte would tip his

hat… for 50 minutes both children and adults were left speechless,” accord-ing to La Tribuna de Albacete.

You can catch the show at Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, where there will be four performances, on Saturday, May 12, and Sunday, May 13, begin-ning at 2pm and again at 4.30pm.

Tickets are €14 for adults and €10 for Chil-dren. Concessions are €12 / €8 and Family tick-ets, €40 (for four people).

SHOW: PAVILION VENUE

12 April 2012 SWORDS GAZETTE 13R1


GazetteBEAUTYBEAUTY

CELEBRITIES and models across the world swear by it, and it can be seen in make-up bags of A-listers like Adele, Alexa Chung and Rhianna, so what is Weleda’s skin food’s secret?

Skin Food was created in 1926 and was the first skincare product developed by natural brand, Weleda. The replenishing skin repair cream, Weleda Skin Food is ideal for people constantly on the go, which can lead to tired, overworked and dehydrated skin.

The product’s main ingredients include nature’s best, includ-ing organic sunflower seed oil, and extracts of wild pansy, calming chamomile, caring cal-endula and revitalising rosemary extract to perk up even the weari-est skin.

A great rescue reme-dy for undernourished complexions – the rea-son why it’s the go-to skin care product for so many worldwide.

Weleda Skin Food is €6.25 (30ml) /€11.25 (75ml) and available from Nour-ish Health and Beauty Stores, selected independent health stores and pharmacies nationwide.

Weleda nourishes with its Skin Food

Green Angel skin range nurtures with nature

Holistic Green Angel experience will leave you revitalised and ready to face the

busy world again

AN Irish-based company is showing just how won-derful Mother Nature can be with their exclusive range of seawood and essential oil beauty-based products.

Each product is hand-made using the very best in Irish products, sourced by a husband and wife team. Chris and Mary Mitchell developed Green Angel and have over 10 years experience in bringing, and devel-oping high-quality Irish products.

The Green Angel col-lection is a unique collec-tion of fresh and innova-tive beauty products with over 33 unique hand- crafted skin care, spa and hair-care products helping to rejuvenate and nourish all types of skin. The product is themed to be wellbeing from the ocean, which many users

would agree after testing it.

According to the own-ers, the top-to-toe holistic approach they provide leaves the entire body, revitalised and enriched, with nurturing ingredi-ents like vitamin E, jas-mine, ylang ylang, neroli and apricot all combined with the natural healing benefits of Irish seaweed. Yes, you heard right, sea-weed. Nature’s very own beauty product is added with care to ensure best results.

Each produc t i s blended meticulously to ensure that all the ben-efits of seaweed extract is captured. The seaweed is sourced from unpolluted waters off the west coast of Ireland, with all the benefits of natural, high- quality essential oils to deliver amazing results.

The Green Angel prod-

ucts have been making customers look and feel refreshed all day long.

The couple have always seen natural ingredients as an important part of their lives, whether it is in the food they eat, or the topical applications they use. The importance of which has been carried through into their work and development of Green Angel products on an ongoing basis.

The holistic Green Angel experience will leave you revitalised and ready to face the busy world again. Green Angel have their factory showroom in Rathcoole, where they continually develop new ingredients and products.

Green Angel Body Massage Oil with Neroli Geranium & Irish Sea-weed Extract is just one of the many products

available. It’s used to help relax; pour one drop into the palm of the hand and massage from the feet to the neck. Body massage is renowned for helping to clear toxic build-ups and for aiding relaxation. Another way of using this product is in

the bath – pour two tea-spoons into bath water and soak for at least 10 to 15 minutes to soothe and relax.

Check out the full range of Green Angel products by visiting greenangel.com, where products can also be pur-

chased. There is a also a wide

range of pharmacies and gift shops nationwide stocking the natural range.

For stockist informa-tion call 01-4124900 or visit their website for details of stockists.


Edited by Laura Webb

Give yourself something to really smile aboutGIVE yourself something to smile about, and make that smile glisten with a whitening glaze, thanks to a new fuss-free treat-ment.

Not everyone can afford to get their smile matching celebrity smiles on red carpets all over the world. But who is to say we can’t try, and try is what Gazette Beauty has done. When we heard about PolarWhite Pro, a product used by some friends, we decided to find out if it really works

PolarWhitePro Teeth Whitening Glaze comes in a very stylish silver pen-like product, which says it is a fresh, affordable and fuss-free treatment to keep teeth looking healthy and pearly white. It’s a safe, pain-free way to whiten and brighten. Stains from

smoking, tea, coffee and red wine disappear with use. The light and small product can easily feet in to a bag or make-up bag when on the go.

As a heavy tea and cof-

fee drinker myself, it was time to put it to the test and see the results. It is recommended to use for five days once a month. and follow instructions carefully. It is a bit messy but worth it. Holding a smile after applying the application can make you

feel like a Chester Cat, but you won’t mind smiling once you see the finished results.

It takes 60 seconds to dry, but do not rinse because the gel remains active, slowly dissolving surface stains on teeth and you can’t eat or drink for 30 minutes after application. After using it for the full five days there was a noticeable change. PolarWhitePro has been developed by an Irish company in conjunction with a leading interna-tional dentist. It uses potent active ingredients, a formula that helps to whiten teeth up to six shades lighter after six applications.

For further informa-tion, or to purchase it, log onto www.polarwhite-pro.com PolarWhitePro Teeth Whitening Glaze

IT is estimated that about 20% of Irish people suffer from food intolerance and many of us are not aware of it. The term, “food intoler-ance”, refers to a reaction in the body that arises from an inability of the digestive sys-tem to properly digest cer-tain foods. These undigested foods lead to an accumula-tion of harmful toxins in the bloodstream, which causes our immune system to over-react. Food intolerance can manifest itself in many ways some of which include: IBS, indigestion, eczema, asthma, hay fever, and even headaches. A finger prick test in your local pharmacy may identify foods that you are intolerant to and help improve your quality of life.

With Thanks to the Staff of Lucan

Village Pharmacy

Food intolerances - Could you be suffering?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

‘PolarWhitePro has been developed by an Irish company in conjunction with a leading international dentist’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


GazettePETSPETSBrought to you by Miriam Kerins of

the DSPCA

THE FACTS: HOW TO SAFELY INTERACT WITH FAMILIAR AND UNFAMILIAR CANINES

Keeping children safe around dogsI WAS deeply upset to read about an incident reported earlier this week concerning a small child who was viciously attacked by a husky dog.

Now, before I go on, I want to say that this is not typical behaviour for such a breed. In fact, here at the Dublin SPCA, we have successfully, respon-sibly, re-homed many huskies over the years that have made wonder-ful, loyal family pets, so I would hate for any reader or prospective husky parent to shy away from this breed in light of the unfortunate and dreadful incident.

I don’t know the facts, only what I have read and I thank God for the quick intervention of the child’s neighbour and I believe

the little guy is recovering in hospital.

When my own, now adult, daughter was only three, she was savagely attacked by a neighbour’s dog and I can tell you I was mad beyond words.

Thankfully, Megan made a full and speedy recovery and I insisted on adopting a rescue dog, so she wouldn’t grow up fear-ing all dogs were going to attack her. That dog is my much lamented great-aunt Sophie, now 17, and I immediately set about educating Megan regard-ing her own personal safety around Sophie.

However, I would stress to all parents/guard-ians that no child should be ever be left alone or unsupervised with any dog, irrespective of breed.

Teach your child to NEVER pat a strange dog without

the owner’s permission

That is not to say the little lad in question was ever left unsupervised, it’s just a piece of advice from somebody who works in animal welfare.

As a mother and grand-mother, I can only imag-ine the poor mom’s utter horror as she helplessly watched the scene unfold before her very eyes. As a result of that unfortunate

incident, I want to give readers a few tips regard-ing safety around dogs; whether it’s your own family pet or a strange dog, because, believe it or not, there are a number of ways in which your child could come into contact with an angry dog. They are:

• The family pet.• A friend’s, neighbour’s

or relative’s dog.• An uncontrolled dog

on the street/in the park.• A dog under effective

control, on a lead, but who is approached by your child in a manner he doesn’t like.

All parents know that kids go off the rails when they spot a dog. Their natural instinct is to run up and pet the animal, try to hug it, pick it up and scream and squeal with excitement, often upsetting the dog, albeit unintentionally. So, what can you do to protect your child from being bitten by a dog?

• Teach your child to respect a dog’s instincts and, most importantly, its fears. When around a dog, ask your child to speak quietly and to move slow-

ly – no running around making mad, flapping movements.

• Never allow your child to ride a bike, a scooter or skate too close to a dog. Some dogs feel scared because they are not nor-mally used to these things and may even chase the moving object because such behaviour can trig-ger a dog’s natural prey instinct.

• If a strange dog gets frisky or excited around your child, teach the child to behave like a statue. Your child will need to drop any food or toy they’re holding and stand still like a statue or a tree. Statues are boring for dogs – they will usu-ally come over, sniff and go away. Practise this with your kids, so they

know exactly what to do if a strange dog rushes at them.

• Teach your child to NEVER pat a strange dog without the owner’s per-mission.

• With the owner’s per-mission, teach your child to approach the dog slow-ly and quietly and allow the dog to sniff the back of the child’s hand – then gently pat the dog’s chest, sides or back.

Again, these are guide-lines. Hopefully, the little lad will make a full recov-ery and I wish him and his parents the very best for their future.

� For more information, contact your vet or log onto www.dspca.ie or email me at [email protected]


GazetteMUSICMUSIC

Supporting the sound on Pieta House release

We Cut Corners, one of the Dublin bands who feature on Life Support, released in aid of Pieta House

� ROB HEIGH

LIFE SUPPORT, a com-pilation of exclusive tracks from some of Ire-land’s finest artists was released last week in aid of Pieta House, the sui-cide and self-harm crisis organisation based in Lucan.

Life Support is the brainchi ld of Alan Jacques from the Green & Live Show on Limer-ick’s Live 95 FM, a per-ennial supporter of new Irish music. Among the 18 tracks on the compi-lation, many which are exclusive, are songs by Delorentos, The Coro-nas, Windings, Wallis Bird, We Cut Corners and The Flaws.

“Pieta House is a cause close to my heart. I wanted to support and raise money for Pieta House in a practical, pro-active way,” said Alan Jacques who con-ceived the album and approached some of his favourite Irish artists of the last few years to get involved.

“Music is a great way to express your emo-tions. We’ve very appre-ciative that so many art-ists have come together to support the work we

do at Pieta House,” said Joan Freeman, CEO and founder.

“We want to remind people that we are here to help, and we urge peo-ple who feel they can’t cope, or who find them-selves in crisis, to please contact us. Our services are free of charge and we’re equipped to help people get through their crisis,” she said.

Pieta House provides a professional, face-to-face, free-of-charge therapeutic service for

CHARITY: IRISH ACTS CONTRIBUTE TRACKS TO NEW RELEASE

people in the acute stag-es of distress.

The therapy is aimed at people who have attempted suicide but survived, those who have a strong urge to take their life and those who self-harm.

The primary aim of Pieta House is to reduce suicide by helping peo-ple get through that crit-ical phase when suicide becomes a plan rather than just an idea.

Pieta House opened its doors in Lucan in

January 2006. In the last five years, the organisa-tion has opened four more centres – three outreach centres in Fin-glas, Tallaght, and Bally-fermot in Dublin, as well as a second national centre in Limerick.

The unique, clinically-based model developed by Pieta House is used by the five centres across the country.

Aside from the con-tribution of the 18 art-ists who appear on the compilation, the album

has been made possi-ble with the support of Limerick’s Live 95 FM and The Delphi Label to allow all proceeds from the sale of the CD to contribute directly to Pieta House.

The album, priced €9.99, is released on The Delphi Label on Friday, April 20, and will be available to buy online and from selected stores in Ireland, and also as an iTunes download.

For more information, see www.pieta.ie.

COMING on the back of her recent acclaimed set at the O2, Florence Welch and her Machine are releasing the MTV Unplugged session recorded in New York recently.

The set features songs from Florence’s two albums, as well as covers of Johnny Cash’s Jackson, backed by Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, as well as a beautiful rendition of soul stand-ard, Try A Little Tenderness.

Go with the Flo: Machine release Unplugged set

FORGET bankers, bondholders and brokers - it’s the rockers we should have been looking to for financial advice all this time. Two major players in the rock world could be making (even more) big bucks very soon.

Bono’s tech-wise investments in the likes of Facebook and Yelp means some investors are saying “I Will Follow” to whatever the U2 frontman puts his money to. His invest-ment firm, Elevation, is set to pocket a billion dollars from Facebook alone, and the next trick up Bono’s leather sleeve is the company expected to take a huge bite out of Apple’s market.

Dropbox - an internet storage service - is still in its early stages but already has tens of millions of users, and with the first 2Gb free, they’ll be logging on in their droves.

Although, back in the music world, it’s yet to be seen if ALL Bono’s investments are “sound”. U2 have apparently enlisted the help of the songwriter who gave X-Factor losers (well they didn’t win, did they?) One Direction their debut hit. Bet they’re sorry they already used ‘Pop’ as an album title.

Another rocker with his eyes on a very big prize is Neil Young. Coming from the time of vinyl, the legendary musician thinks MP3 just isn’t up to scratch and wants to develop a new audio format with quality that’ll take the listener right into the recording studio.

Young wants the future of music to be com-ing from an online “cloud” as opposed to compressing audio like an MP3 would.

Don’t be fooled by his 66 years, Neil Young is down with the kids, and with one of his trademarked names for this new invention: “Thanks for Listening” — he’s polite too! They don’t make them like that anymore.

Listen to Dee Woods from Radio Nova every weeknight from 7pm to 12am on 100.3FM

FastTunes with Radio Nova’s Dee Woods


ANTONIO Macari’s parents came to live in Ireland in the late 1950s and early ’60s, respectively.

Borza Cafe on Braemor Road in Churchtown, was owned by Antonio’s aunt and uncle and his mother was working there at the time. She met and married Antonio’s dad soon after.

They went on to open a successful business, Macari’s, in 1966 at Harold’s Cross, but in 1972, they moved back to Italy.

Antonio was only five years old, so he was brought up in Italy until he decided to come back to Ireland in 1993.

He worked in Borza’s, in Tallaght, for a few months until he was given an opportunity to run the new Roma takeaway in Lucan Village, then a restaurant in Terenure and another takeaway.

In the year 2000, he co-founded Italtiles, a bathroom and tiles company, with a friend. It had showrooms in Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, and he was involved until 2008 when he sold his shares.

He spent some time back with Borza’s again, which has always been his second home, until last year, when he decided to open Macari 66. The number 66 is very significant to him because his dad opened Macari’s in Harold’s cross in 1966, where it used to be a few doors down from the cinema. He kept it in the name to distinguish him from the other Macaris.

He then decided to do things a bit different from other chip-pers and cook fresh fish while you wait. His beef and chicken burgers are home-made and use Irish beef and chicken, and he fries with palm oil only.

Interview: Antonio Macari, owner of Macari 66

Q&A

Cooking the best in fresh at Macari 66

Antonio Macari, owner of Macari 66

Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be?A: An airplane pilot.

Q: What was your first job?A: Serving sweets and ice

cream at the Borza on

Braemor Road in 1980.

Q: And your first pay cheque?A: Twenty pounds.

Q: When did you start your present job?A: November, 2011.

Q: What is the best thing about your job?A: I suppose it’s that I am the

boss!

Q: Have you ever done a job you loathed?A: No, not really.

Q: Have you achieved anything that you once thought you could not pull off?A: My house, I guess.

Q: What part of your working day do you ‘delegate’?A: Most of the cleaning, which

I supervise anyway.

Q: What’s currently on your desk that shouldn’t be?A: A holiday brochure, even

though I can’t go right now!

Q: What sport do you follow?A: Football and the Six Na-

tions’ rugby.

Q: What sport can you play?A: Football.

Q: What habits would you like to lose?A: Eating too much!

Q: At the moment, what are you looking forward to?A: Definitely a holiday.

Q: What is your guilty music/TV or movie pleasure?A: Rock music.

Q: Who best represents mod-

ern Ireland – David Norris or Jedward?A: Probably Jedward.

Q: What music/pictures/mov-ies do you have on your iPod/iPad?A: A lot of Pink Floyd, Red Hot

Chili Peppers and other rock

groups.

Q: Who do you follow on Twit-ter/Facebook?A: Mostly my friends status’.

Q: What was your last Tweet/status update?A: I shared a joke.

Q: Describe your dream meal?A: It would have to be my wife’s

lasagne and my mum’s home-

made sausages.

Q: Who would you rather have dinner with – Enda Kenny or Dame Edna?A: Definitely together at the

same table.

Q: Where do you enjoy spend-ing money frivolously?A: Fancy restaurants and on

holidays.

Q: How many pairs of shoes do you own?A: Six, plus four or five pairs of

sport shoes.

Q: What was your worst holi-day experience?A: I’ve never had a bad holiday.

Q: Describe your dream holiday?A: A round-the-world trip of

three months, at least.

Q: What would be your dream job?A: I would love to win the lotto

and then do charity work full-

time.

Q: What do you plan to do when you retire?A: Travel as much as I can af-

ford to.

GazetteBUSINESSBUSINESS Supported by AIB

SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS A D V E R T I S E W I T H T H E G A Z E T T E C A L L 6 0 1 0 24 0

LOCALMATTERS

WHERE TO PLACE € 10,000

Q – I have €10,000 to invest. Would my best

option be to put it off my tracker mortgage and

keep same repayments to reduce the term ?

Or another option, to buy prize bonds ? Thanks.

Declan – Blanchardstown

A - There are a number of factors that must be

considered in making investment decisions. Age,

family and income are the three major considera-

tions, along with current savings and investments

strategies – do you have a Rainy Day Fund ? Ideally,

three to six months net annual income in an acces-

sible account for three reasons :

1. Emergencies (your engine packs in)

2. Sudden loss of income (one of you loses your job)

3. Investment opportunity (buying that le Broquy

for half nothing !)

Tracker rates are 1% currently and possibly likely

to go even lower for the next 24 months. Therefore,

you CAN earn more on deposit than you can save by

paying off your tracker mortgage. You are prob-

ably paying c. 1.75% interest on your mortgage.

Best demand deposit is 3.25% ( KBC Bank – email

me for details ) or net 2.275%... over 0.5% more

than your mortgage is costing. Investec Bank also

offer 4.52% (net 3.164%... 1.314% greater) on an 18-

month fixed deposit account.

As regards Prize Bonds, you are subject to the

vagaries of chance. While you do have a greater

chance than the Lotto, those chances are still slim,

but Prize Bonds are a good option in a balanced

portfolio.

� Contact John with your money questions at

[email protected] or visit his website at

www.moneydoctor.ie. John Lowe, Fellow of the

Institute of Bankers, is founder and managing

director of Money Doctor


with light. There is access to the utility room from here, which is plumbed for a washer and dryer. The condenser gas boiler is housed here and this room is ideal for further storage.

The master bedroom is decorated with great flair and imagination, containing built-in ward-robes and triple win-dows maximising light. The flooring in all of the bedrooms upstairs is high-quality semi-solid. The master bedroom is also en suite, with cream ceramic wall and floor til-ing and a Merlyn shower enclosure.

The second bedroom is also en suite, a double guest-room with dual windows and built-in wardrobes. Bedroom three is another excellent double room with same flooring and quality-fitted wardrobes.

The master bathroom is fully tiled, comprising bath with shower attach-ment, WHB and WC.

Outside, the garden has a parking bay for two cars to the front, and dual

entrances to the land-scaped south-west- fac-ing rear garden.

For more information, contact Michelle Curran at Sherry FitzGerald on 01 820 1800.

Redwood rises high in Hollystown homes

Number 38 Redwood, Hollystown in Dublin 15, is on the

market for €315,000

SHERRY Fitzgerald are bringing No 38 Redwood, Hollystown, Dublin 15, a detached four-bedroom property in showhouse condition, to the market for the asking price of €315,000.

The best quality fix-tures and fittings adorn this turnkey property, situated near Hollys-town Golf Course, and it further benefits from a landscaped, sunny, south-west facing rear garden with water feature, split-level patio and garden lighting.

Inside, the accomoda-tion, which extends to 1,360 sq ft, comprises of an entrance hall with Canadian solid hard-wood flooring. There is particularly good under-stair storage here also.

The oversized guest WC is elegant in its sim-plicity with quality wall and floor tiling, compris-

ing WHB and WC.The living and recep-

tion room benefits from dual aspect, with a bay window to the front and a picture window and double glass doors which open to the rear garden. A contemporary style-stone fireplace has a gas inset fire.

The kitchen-breakfast room comprises an ivo-ry-fitted kitchen, and is complemented by a deep red-tiled splash back and cream ceramic floor tiles. The electrical appli-ances are mainly top-of-the-range Neff appli-ances, such as a double oven, five-ring gas hob, chimney-style extractor fan. There is also an inte-grated fridge freezer and dishwasher.

Tall, double, glass doors open to the patio and rear garden, and a sepa-rate window to the side of the kitchen fills this room

BLANCHARDSTOWN: DETACHED FOUR-BEDROOM PROPERTY

SHERRY FitzGerald in Castleknock are bringing No 3 Castleknock Court, Castleknock, Dublin 15, a two-bed ground-floor apartment, one of just eight apartments in this sought-after development, to the market for the ask-ing price of €245,000.

Built to extremely high standards and benefiting from a recent total refur-bishment, this property is in walk-in-condition, with an upgrade of wir-ing, plumbing and new double-glazed windows throughout. The ceilings have even been re-plas-tered to remove the previ-ous stipple plastering.

This property is further enhanced by having its own hall door and, there-

Courtly sought-after apartment CASTLEKNOCK: TWO-BED GROUND FLOOR APARTMENT FOR €245,000

fore, no shared communal hallway.

Built to extremely high standards and benefitting from a recent total refur-bishment, this property is in walk-in-condition, with an upgrade of wir-ing, plumbing and new

double-glazed windows throughout.

The new kitchen and electrical appliances are bound to appeal.

The accommodation, which extends to 700 sq ft, comprises an entrance hall with laminate floor-

The interior of No 3 Castleknock Court

GazettePROPERTYPROPERTY

ing and a storage closet/cloakroom which affords ample storage space for a clothes dryer, and there is a separate hotpress.

There is a large open plan living/dining room with matching flooring. Decorated in neutral cream paint finishes and cream-painted wood-work, the room also fea-tures wood surround fire-place has an electric fire. A large glass sliding patio door opens to a sunny balcony which overlooks communal gardens.

The new kitchen in the property is in high-gloss cream with wood veneer trim and matching coun-tertops. An electric oven, ceramic hob, extractor fan and washing machine are

included, and the floor is tiled in cream ceramic and there is a very attrac-tive natural stone splash back and window sill.

Both bedrooms are spacious double rooms with built-in wardrobes, while the bathroom com-prises a shower, wash-hand basin and WC, tiled flooring and extensive wall tiling.

Castleknock Court is located at the top of Beechpark Avenue at the junction with Castle-knock Road, right in the heart of the village.

Viewing is by appoint-ment and can be arranged by contacting Michelle Curran at Sherry FitzGer-ald in Castleknock on 01 820 1800.

Captivating Cove for new buyersHooke & MacDonald and Grimes Real Estate Alliance are opening showhomes on the waterfront at Skerries, at Barnageeragh Cove this weekend, and already only a small number of properties remain in the sought-after development.

The specification in Barnageeragh Cove is well above normal standards, both internally and externally.

The contemporary houses and apartments are nestled amidst grounds that incorporate a blend of hard and soft landscaping, with feature seating areas and pathways providing residents with a soothing environment.

In every property, kitchens are finished to a high standard as per the individual show-homes, and bathrooms and en suites focus on hygiene and clean modern lines.

The bedrooms feature contemporary wardrobes, while all the living spaces boast fine finishes.

The extra-large terraces are one of the main features of design of the apartments providing above-average outdoor space to residents.

There is high-efficiency gas condensing boiler, WormGlo central heating system, with contemporary style Stelrad radiators. All the houses and apartments at Barnageeragh Cove are covered by the ten-year HomeBond Guarantee Scheme.

The two bedroom apartments (70 sq m / 760 sq ft) are priced from €150,000; the three-bedroom duplexes (114 sq m / 1,230 sq ft) are priced from €220,000; and the three-bedroom-plus study houses are priced from €295,000 (125 sq m / 1,350 sq ft).

SKERRIES: RANGE OF PROPERTIES FOR SALE

Interiors at Barnageeragh Cove

pletely over the top, the car does stand out nicely from the crowd.

The front grille is low and large, almost giving it the look of a bask-ing shark. Just over this grille, the headlights have a stretched look, as

they wrap from the front back towards the wind-screen, really lending some expression to the front end.

There’s also fog lights that give a little bit more personality to the whole affair.

In terms of spec, the Clio Expression may be the entry-level model, but it does have quite a bit on offer.

It comes with a three-year/100,000km warran-ty, as well as ABS with EBD (electronic brake distribution) and electric windows up front.

There is an 80W radio-

CD MP3 with a separate display, and four speak-ers that can also be oper-ated from controls on the steering column.

The back seats get three headrests, and an electronic immobiliser is also standard.

In the rear, there are Isofix points on the seats, and the three-door model has Isofix points on front passenger seat.

The rear seats also fold down to allow for larger items in the boot.

There are a host of air-bags, a multifunction trip computer, Renault’s Anti Intruder Device (RAID),

as well as remote central locking and a normal-size temporary spare wheel.

The interior is dark grey cloth upholstery, and there are attractive chrome inserts on the dashboard and steering wheel.

Coming in at €12,990 for the 1.2-litre model, the price is a little steeper than some other, high-profile entries in to the market, but with Renault’s various trade-in offers, there are sure to be plenty of ways to bring that price down a bit.


GazetteMOTORSMOTORS

T HERE is an awful lot of buzz going a round about new compact cars

entering the market this year, such as the Skoda CitiGo, VW up! and the Seat Mii.

But, there are still other models around that should not be dis-missed altogether, simply because they cost a little more. One such car is the Renault Clio.

This week, I spent a few days with the entry-level Clio, also known as Expression, and it is cer-tainly a useful and eye-catching little motor.

The model I drove was of the three-door variety, which is always a good test of practical design when there are two kids under the age of seven to ferry around.

When it comes to pas-sengers, the idea of buck-

ling in the kids in the back seat of any three-door car always fills me with dread, but the real-ity is rarely all that bad.

The front seats in the Clio Expression do move quite freely, and the han-dle for tilting and sliding the seats is easy to get at and operate.

One trap this Clio doesn’t fall into is using overly-long front doors.

There are quite a few small cars that go large on the doors to make passenger access that bit easier – but that often leaves the driver with a heavy weight close, and, more often than not, swinging wildly against the next car in the car park. So far, so practi-cal.

Where the Clio does make a statement is with its design.

Without going com-

Renault Clio gets a fresh design

The Renault Clio – also known as the Expression – is an attractive entry-level, three-door vehicle, with a subtle

look that strays from recent Renault designs for a more refined style, replete with plenty of useful features

JAGUAR CON-FIRMS PRO-DUCTION OF F-TYPE: JAGUAR has confirmed that it will be bringing an all-new sports car to production – the F-TYPE.

Speaking at the New York auto show, Adrian Hallmark, global brand direc-tor, Jaguar Cars, said: “We showed the C-X16 concept in September 2011, and the reaction to it has been so positive that we’ve accelerated our development of an all-new Jaguar sports car.

“The core appeal of Jaguar’s cars is their sporting heart, and that heart will beat stronger than ever before in the F-TYPE.”

Full F-TYPE technical and range details will be announced later in 2012. It will go on sale in mid-2013.

RoadRoadSignsSigns

SKODA Ireland are sponsoring rally driver Robert Barrable and his team, Robert Barrable Rally Team, as he takes part in the Circuit of Ire-land rally.

A native of Swords, Barrable is a former Billy Coleman Award winner and 2010 British and Irish Citroen Racing Tro-phy Champion.

The rolling sponsorship agreement will see Skoda Ireland support the Rob-ert Barrable Rally Team with additional team infrastructure, including the provision of branded

merchandise, marketing, PR support and a team hospitality unit as well as investment towards event costs.

This season, Robert is competing in the latest specification ex-works Skoda Fabia S2000 rally car.

Last weekend’s Circuit of Ireland Rally formed the third round of the global Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC).

The circuit of Ireland is the second-oldest rally in the world. Steeped in history, many epic bat-tles can be recounted

after almost 80 years of rallying on the Emerald Isle. Skoda has previous-ly tasted success at the event with Eugene Don-nelly and Paddy Toner winning in 2009 with a Skoda Fabia WRC.

Speak ing a t the announcement of the new sponsorship deal, Barrable said: “I’m delighted to have such a great brand like Skoda supporting the team, the Skoda Fabia S2000 is a fantastic rally car; the added support from Skoda Ireland will hope-fully lead to further suc-

cess this season.”Raymond Leddy, mar-

keting manager of Skoda said: “Skoda Ireland is very pleased to be able to support rising Irish Sports stars like Robert and we hope this spon-sorship can help him further his career. We can see the potential in Robert and are delight-ed to be involved.”

For information on Robert Barrable Rally Team please go to: http://robertbarrable.com/

Or follow him http://twitter.com/#!/RBarra-bleRally

Skoda Ireland to sponsor Robert Barrable Rally Team

� CO2 emissions:(g/km) 132� Consumption: 8.3 litres/100km� 1.2-litre 16-valve� Fuel tank: 55 litres� Fuel type: Ethanol/unleaded� €12,990 for 1.2-litre

SPECS: RENAULT CLIO

Skoda Ireland are sponsoring rally driver Robert

Barrable and his team

Edited by Cormac Curtis

Relaxing in the elegant surroundings of Ballymaloe� MIMI MURRAY

WHEN the sun shines in Ireland there really is no better place on earth. Our coastline takes on a glistening aquamarine hue, the lush countryside is several shades of green and, as we all know, the craic pores out on to the streets for some al fresco dining and drinking.

Just east of Cork city is the lovely village of Shanagarry, which is home to the Allen family estate, Ballymaloe.

This beautiful coun-try house is set on hun-dreds of lush acres, with plenty of elegant country pursuits available right on the grounds. These

include an outdoor pool, a croquet lawn, a tennis court and a small golf course.

We only stayed for 24 hours, but the intensely relaxing atmosphere in the house makes it feel like longer. We slept in the Blue Room, in the main house, which has double doors leading out to a very pretty garden, which leads into an area that houses pigs, chick-ens and a magnificent peacock.

No television can leave some guests a little wor-ried about the lack of a diversion on arrival, but we were thrilled to not have the distraction. A trip to Ballymaloe is all

about relaxation and din-ing. Oh, the dining.

After a lengthy drive from Dublin, we imme-diately wanted to sample some of the food, even if it was only a small sampling. I went for the scones with home-made jam, whilst my other half had an open roast ham sandwich – big meaty chunks served on home-made brown bread with lots of pickled cucum-bers and coriander. Eve-rything was bursting with flavour – delicious and not a mouthful of their famed relish in sight!

After some very sed-entary pursuits, includ-ing reading and a nap, we decided to explore

the grounds. The estate is breathtaking and we meandered into the near-by craft shop and cof-fee shop for a look. The walled garden should also be seen.

Perfection

And so to dinner. On Friday evenings, they do a hors d’oeurves buffet before the main event, which is really differ-ent and gets everyone buzzing about the meal ahead. There was every-thing from smoked fish, mussels, oysters, lots of delicious vegetables and a selection of pates and terrines. It is tempting to get stuck in here, but that would be inadvisable as there are five more courses to come, includ-ing, soup, main, cheese, dessert and coffee with petit fours. Everything is cooked to perfection and is very imaginative. Slow- cooked lamb for me and poached monkfish with scallops for him, were perfection.

We loved the way our waitress came around with a cheese trolley and the dessert trolley. It was quite 1970s, Fawlty Tow-ers but good fun and something a little differ-ent. Plus, the selection was outstanding. The French almond tart was sublime.

After that lot, there is nothing more for it than

an after-dinner drink in the bar or an early night.

On many evenings you can find Rory Allen in the drawing room playing tra-ditional music. In fact, you might run into any of the Allens, although we didn’t spot the illustrious Rachel or Darina during our stay. However, the elder matri-arch, Myrtle, was on hand to chat to guests.

After a very decent night’s sleep, brought on by the good country air, we looked forward to breakfast, which was again to an exceptional standard. We managed another quick jaunt around the gardens before we had to bid a very tear-ful farewell to Ballymaloe, with a definite promise to return very soon.

For information on deals at Ballymaloe House go to www.ballymaloe.ie or check out the Blue Book website on www.irelands-blue-book.ie.

The Ballymaloe country

The sixth-annual star-studded Isle of MTV Malta music festival is a must-see for music loversTHE successful Isle of MTV Malta music festival will be taking place in Malta this year for the sixth consecutive year on June 26.

The music and entertainment organisation has already confirmed the attendance of multi-plati-num selling musician and producer, Will.I.Am, in what promises to be a stellar line-up.

The star-studded event will take place in Flori-ana, Valletta, and is a must-see for all music lov-ers. Concorde Travel is currently offering package holidays to this, or the neighbouring resorts, for the dates around the event. Early booking is rec-ommended as availability is limited.

Departing on June 21 for seven nights, stay at the three-star Bayview Apartments, in Sliema, on a self-catering basis, based on four sharing a two-bedroom apartment, from €654pp; the three-star Bayview Apartments, in Sliema, on a self-catering basis, based on two sharing a studio apartment, from €674pp; the three-star Tal Fanal Complex, in Gozo, on a self-catering basis, based on four sharing a one-bedroom apartment, plus car hire for the stay, from €684pp.

Stay at the four-star Mellieha Bay, in Mellieha, on a half-board basis, in a double/twin room, from €844pp or the five-star Le Meridien Hotel, in St. Julians, on a BandB basis, in a double/twin room, from €874pp.

Prices include return flights to Malta, return airport transfers, accommodation and board basis as indicated, and all taxes and charges.

To view videos of Malta and Concorde Travel accommodation, go to Concorde Travels YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/concor-detraveldublin

To book your Malta break, or for further infor-mation visit www.concordetravel.ie or phone (01) 775 9300.

FastTravel

GazetteTTRAVELRAVEL22 GAZETTE 12 April 2012

A spacious, tranquil standard room

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Valletta, the capital of Malta

house is set on hundreds of lush acres in the lovely village of Shanagarry, just east of Cork city

London tops the polls for second year as most popular overseas destination for Irish travellersLONDON has topped the poll for the second year in a row as the most popular overseas destination for Irish travellers, according to the latest Hotels.com Hotel Price Index.

The report shows that London was the most visited overseas city by Irish travellers in 2011, beating off competition from places such as New York and Paris to take the top spot.

Despite London topping the poll as the most visited city, the US was the most popular coun-try for Irish travellers in 2011, with six Ameri-can cities in the top 20. New York, Las Vegas, Orlando, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago all featured on the list as travellers took advan-tage of the strength of the euro against the dollar.

Short breaks to European destinations also remained popular in 2011, with Paris, Rome, Berlin, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Madrid and Nice all in the top 20. Closer to home, well- known soccer cities, such as Liverpool and Manchester, also made the list with Liverpool the fifth most visited destination in 2011.

Kate Hopcraft, senior PR manager at Hotels.com, said: “London is always a popu-lar choice for Irish travellers, thanks to its accessibility for both business and leisure travellers. High-profile media events, such as last year’s royal wedding, have really helped keep London top of mind with travellers and, with the Olympics just around the corner, we would expect to see London continuing to be a popular destination.

“It was also interesting to see that six out of 20 destinations on the list were US cities, indi-cating the popularity of the US for Irish travel-lers all year round.”

At home, Dublin was ranked as Ireland’s most popular destination for a ‘staycation’ in 2011, while cultural hot-spot, Galway, took second place. Cork was third on the list while Limerick, the destination with the lowest aver-age price covered by the report, took the fourth spot. The popular picturesque town of Killar-ney scooped fifth place to make up the list of most popular domestic destinations.

TravelBriefs

Edited by Mimi Murray

ETIHAD Airways’ inau-gural passenger flight to Kenya touched down at Jomo Kenyatta Interna-tional Airport (NBO) in Nairobi, last week.

The new daily, two-class A320 service is the airline’s first passenger service to East Africa and a critically important step in expanding its presence in Africa.

The airline will also reach into West Africa with the introduction of flights to Nigeria in July, 2012. Etihad Air-ways commenced opera-tions to the Seychelles in November, 2011, and Libya in January of this year, building on existing services to Egypt, South

Africa, Morocco and Sudan.

An Etihad Airways delegation of senior executives, led by chief commercial officer, Peter Baumgartner, was on the inaugural Nairobi flight.

Executives from the airline will meet govern-ment officials and local tourism representatives during the visit to Kenya. The delegation will also host an evening recep-tion to celebrate Etihad Airways’ new flights.

Etihad Airways Presi-dent and chief executive officer, James Hogan, said: “We are delighted to introduce Etihad Air-ways to East Africa. This year will see consider-

able growth for us within Africa as a whole, as we observe strong and emerging markets across the continent.

“In particular, this new route services the con-siderable and growing flow of people and capi-tal between Kenya and north Asia, with major Chinese investment in Africa generating pas-senger demand in both directions.

“We expect to see strong loads to China, including our new des-tinations – Chengdu and Shanghai – and, of course Beijing, though the schedule allows sub-four hour connectivity to key destinations across

Etihad Airways new service to Kenya expands presence in Africa

north Asia, south-east Asia, the Indian subcon-tinent and Australia.”

The A320 aircraft has 16 Pearl Business class and 120 Coral Economy class seats.

Etihad Airways began dedicated cargo serv-

ices to Nairobi in March 2009 and will continue to operate five freight-only flights per week. The combined capacity of passenger and cargo air-craft will allow the airline to transport 340 tonnes of cargo each week.


Etihad Airways’ inaugural passenger flight to Kenya

touched down in Nairobi

st east of Cork city


A sinking feeling ...Group of human soldiers in boat, meet enormously powerful invading alien vessel. Aliens, meet some ants. Still, cinemagoers will know which

side to bet on in this latest tale of derring-do on the high seas. Luckily, Rihanna’s on board to help save the day. Hurray!

GoingOUT

GazetteENTERTAINMENTENTERTAINMENT

Kate’s left all at sea by a brash film that’s sure to leave critics floundering, but should make a splash at cinemas

�THE PAVILION THEATRE 01 231 2929Springtime Recital

MUSIC lovers are well served by the Dun Laoghaire School of Music’s spring lunchtime rehearsals, which returns to the Pavilion with what promises to be a delightful performance by acclaimed cellist, Sandra Vedras. She will perform music by Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, and will be accompanied by Declan Fitzpatrick, for a refined recital that will usher in a fresh feeling for the middle of the season. Her lunchtime recital is at 1pm on Saturday, April 14, with tickets priced at €9.50/€6.50.

MILL THEATRE 01 296 9340 Cause Celebre

THE social and cultural mores of the 1930s come to the fore in this 1977 play, which is based on a real-life story. Presented by the players of Sandyford Little Theatre, a young chauffeur, and his much older lover, is charged with the murder of her third husband. But who is really on trial, and who will society damn the most? Gender, class and the expectations of 1930s’ morality collide in this engrossing production. The play runs nightly at 8pm until Saturday, April 21, with tickets priced €18/€15.

CIVIC THEATRE 01 885 2622Our Father

STEFANIE Preissner’s remarkable performance examines abandonment, loss and acceptance as she uses rhyme and rap to explore the death of a parent, as, stanza by stanza, the familiar familial threads of love, birth, betrayal, regret and death are pulled back to create a moving, mesmerising production, courtesy of a rhythmic journey through the language of rap. Our Father runs from Monday, April 16 to Saturday, April 21 at 8.15pm, with a Saturday matinee at 3pm, and with admission priced €16/€10.

DRAIOCHT 01 885 2622Easter Integrated Dance Project

CROI Clan, a professional contemporary dance company based in Cork, invites both disabled and non-disabled dancers, aged between 13-18 years, to participate in this exciting and dynamic week-long project, which celebrates and encourages dance diversity. The week will conclude with a dance piece set in a professional show in Draiocht’s studio space. The free project will run from Tuesday, April 10 to Saturday, April 14. If interested to participate, email [email protected] or telephone 01 809 8029.

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� KATE CROWLEY

IF I ever find Liam Neeson trying to stuff any kind of cheap flyers through my letterbox (you know, for any kind of local takea-way or taxi firm, that kind of thing), I swear I’ll drop my Mariettas and teapot to race over to the front door as fast as my dainty Size 9s will take me.

Once I’ve flung open the front door, I swear, I’ll grab Mr Neeson by the strap of his leaflet delivery bag and drag him into the front parlour, ready to grill him on some of the roles he’s been taking on in recent years.

After all, choosing to enlist for a (brief) role as an admiral in Battleship doesn’t seem to have quite the same gravitas of other roles he’s had in the past, right? (Are you listening to me, Oskar?)

I’m sure that, like the rest of the Crowley house-hold, my dear readers can both instantly relate to

the raw tension and stress involved with the classic game, complete with end-less shouts of “G7!”, “E3!”, and the like, eventually culminating in the indig-nant coup de grace: “You sunk my battleship!”

Not, one may imagine, what one might call obvi-ous source material for a $250 million blockbuster, but hark! What sound of barrel-scraping breaks through yonder window?

Given that the thought of Liam Neeson play-ing Battleship against, I dunno, a CG panda, or a CG turnip (voiced by Eddie Murphy) for 90

minutes probably didn’t lead to high-fives at the movie mogul meeting, instead, we arrive at the completely logical and inexplicably previously omitted element needed to complete Battleship’s appeal – aliens.

Yes, that’s right, a bunch of them-tharr extree-turres teea l folk have sud-denly started splashing about in the ocean, where, as luck would have it, Admiral

Neeson (oh, and Rihanna) are standing by, ready to do a lot more than shout “F6!” from the deck.

(As normal for any film with plucky military types saving the day, I complete-ly fail to remember char-acter names, ending up with The Tall One or The Captain or The Sidekick – as such, it’s just easier to remember The Neeson or The Rihanna here.)

With several ships hap-pening to be in the area at the time, and caught una-

wares by the s u d d e n a p p e a r -

ance of vast (and vastly

s u p e r i o r ) i n v a d i n g alien ves-sels, it’s not long before the aliens have suc-ce s s fu l l y t u r n e d

pretty much all of the ships they come across into rather unsuccessful submarines, and started trashing urban areas, too. Oh dear.

Can the sailors wipe the deck with the aliens, or will there be an early bath for humanity?

Well, you’ll get plenty of bang for your buck with this one, which is, basical-ly, a much wetter version of Transformers. No doubt it’ll float yer boat if you’re one of those landlubbers that’s happy to send your brain on shore leave for a while, but Cap’n Crowley here found it all to be a lit-tle bit fishy.

Now. Hollywood. I have a fandabidozi idea for a new film, with car chases, a love triangle, a hot chick, and a nerve-wracking finale shootout on top of the Chrysler Building. It’s called “Tid-dlywinks”. Call me.

FILM OF THE WEEK: Battleship�� (12A) 131 mins

OUR VERDICT:TIMBERS are left well and truly shivered by the bombastic antics in this tale. It messes about a bit with the standard Hollywood trope of Vastly Superior Invading Aliens Get Spanked By Primitive Hoomans, but its cheerfully enthusiastic approach to chaos and destruction will delight audiences as much as deafen them. Intellectually empty, it’s an adrenaline-packing production that’ll do well.

Director: Peter BergStarring: Liam Neeson, Rihanna, Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker, The Tall One, The Sidekick, The Captain, Aliens

Meet Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson, in a

not especially memorable role)


� SHANE DILLON

LAST week, The Guard-ian published an interest-ing story that emerged at the Association of Teach-ers and Lecturers’ annual conference, in which the negative aspects of gam-ing were having on some children were discussed.

That word – “some” – is very important, as it is impossible to argue oth-erwise that regular expo-sure to violent and adult games has no effect on some children.

At the conference, it was discussed that many psychologists were report-ing negative behavourial traits in young children who played computer games extensively – of most note, and unsur-prisinly, there were some worrying trends associ-

ated with young children playing games designed for teenagers, or adults.

(Given that some of my siblings are teach-ers, these comments and insight backed up much of the anecdotal evidence I’ve heard from the coal face, in addition to my personal experience.)

SuggestedIt was suggested that

many children who expe-rienced such content (pri-marily, violent computer games) were prone to be more violent, potentially at greater risk to social exclusion, more physi-cally sedentary, and other such worrying traits.

Without wishing to sound too professor-ish, I’ve been gaming for more than 30 years, from the earliest days of home

computer gaming, so I’ve probably got more insight into gaming than an awful lot of people – and parents – out there.

With this in mind, while I’m passionate about gam-ing, and still can enjoy games from many points of view, I’m also much more aware, lately, of the ways in which gaming is still largely regarded by many parents and adults as, “you know, for kids”.

In this way, I’ve been pretty horrified by the increasing sight, and sound, of young children playing completely inap-propriate games, along with teens also being needlessly exposed to gory, graphic content,

Having just trotted past 40, my teenage years are some way past, although I can still (just about)

GazetteGAMINGGAMING

While many games that revel in slapstick violence can be age-friendly for all the family (such as Angry Birds,

left), many other titles are rated 18+ for clear reasons (such as Grand Theft Auto IV, right) – yet many parents

remain unconcerned about the potential negative impacts that such titles may have on their children

Gaming and its potential for a negative impact on kids

remember all of the things I, and my peers, did as teens in the 1980s, includ-ing the then media frenzy over “video nasties”, and the like, and how willing – of course – my friends and I were to dabble with our first steps into the adult world.

However, while of course games, and gam-ing, can be wonderful pas-times, and fun for families to share and spend time together with, it’s worry-ing indeed that too many parents don’t seem to know, or care, what their children are playing.

It’s safe to say that the

vast majority of parents wouldn’t know one end of a claymore from another – or, indeed, what a clay-more is – but it’s a pretty safe bet that their seven-year-old son does, given the amount of six- or sev-en-year-olds I’ve heard running around with guns and mines in games like the Call of Duty, or Battlefield franchises, with pretty disturbing language to boot.

While of course “play” takes many forms, and any child psychologist worth his or her salt would tell you that violent, explora-tory play is a normal part

HERE at The Gazette Group, we’ve teamed up with XBox to offer read-ers another great Kinect prize.

Following on from the recent launch of Kinect Star Wars for Xbox 360, five lucky readers can be in with a chance to win a copy of the game.

Using the Kinect sensor, Kinect Star Wars allows fans to physi-cally hone their Jedi skills, wield the power of the Force in their hands, pilot iconic ships and vehicles, ram-page as a vicious Rancor monster or even dance with iconic Star Wars characters.

Using full body motions, players can live out the ultimate Star Wars fantasy to use the Force, battle with a Lightsaber and more – no control-ler required.

To be in with a chance to win your copies, simply email The Gazette with the answer to the fol-lowing statement:

Complete the following Kinect for Xbox 360 tagline:

A. You are the bossB. You are the controllerC. You are the best

Email your answer, with the subject line “Kinect”, before 5pm on Friday, April 20, to: [email protected]. All correct entries will be entered into a draw, and five winners will be selected at random to win a copy, which will then be posted out.One entry per person.

fol-

Five readers can feel the

Force and win a copy of Kinect Star Wars, for the XBox 360

Control the Force with this great Kinect competition

of child development, as boundaries are explored and defined, gaming’s potential negative impact for some (but by no means all) children needs greater policing by parents.

While it’s clear that gaming is an acceptable, and welcome, part of chil-dren’s lives today, it’s to be hoped that parents take a greater interest in what, exactly, is being played.


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THEY say that war is hell, and this weekend sees an opportunity to put that maxim to the test when one of the toughest adventure races in Ireland, the 53 Degrees North Wicklow Adventure Race (WAR) takes place at Glen-dalough.

On Saturday, April 14, over 600 competi-tors will run, cycle and kayak through some of

the most beautiful scen-ery in Ireland.

There is a choice of three courses for com-petitors new to the adventure race scene. For those serious tough guys and girls, there is the full WAR course of 75km, which takes in 21km of mountain run-ning, 52km of cycling and 2km of kayaking.

The course takes competitors along the Spink Run, over the Sally Gap, along the

challenging Djouce run before ending with kay-aking on Lough Dan.

There is the shorter WAR-Spor t opt ion, which will take in simi-lar spectacular scenery and route, but which will total only 44km.

And, for the first major race of 2012, there is the new WAR-Mini option, which avoids the gruel-ling heights of the Spink Run, but will be equally as challenging for new converts.

ADVENTURE RACE: RACE OVER WICKLOW MOUNTAINS SET TO CHALLENGE ATHLETES

Former Ireland and Leinster player Shane Byrne celebrates finishing his first WAR event

Competitors set for WAR at Glendalough

The 53 Degrees North WAR series of adven-ture races will be run to the BS8901 standard.

The standard defines the requirements for a sustainability event management system to

ensure an enduring and balanced approach to economic activity, envi-ronmental responsibil-ity and social progress relating to events.

Event T-shirts will be made for 100% recycled

polyester (each is the equivalent of five plas-tic bottles).

And instead of the traditional single use plastic goodie bags, dis-tributed at the end of the event, 53 Degrees

North WAR goodie bags will be reusable draw-string bags.

For more informa-tion, and to register for the race, log on to www.wicklowadventurerace.com.

GazetteSPORTSPINNING AROUND SPINNING AROUND Stephen Halpin on Stephen Halpin on his return to the top his return to the top level of cycling: level of cycling: Page 29Page 29


GazetteSportSport

A battling and impressive Dublin side closed out the Kilkenny girls in the second half but just fell short of a win

NCL DIVISION 1Kilkenny 2-9

Dublin 2-8


DUBLIN missed out on a rare senior camogie triumph over Kilkenny last weekend when their incredible comeback came up an agonising point short at O’Toole Park on Easter Sunday.

They were left to rue a tally of 13 wides from placed balls, while the concession of a soft second goal will rankle. But huge positives can be taken from the tie and Dublin will be look-ing to recreate this form in their next matches.

Ten points down with four minutes to go at the break, the Dubs went on to outscore Kilkenny by 2-7 to 0-4.

In the entire second half, the visitors could only score once from

play, and never threat-ened the Dublin goal, a testament to a wonder-ful defensive perform-ance, with debutante Emma Whyte starring, and holding talented Cat Aoife Neary score-less from play.

Some of Dublin’s play was outstand-ing, particularly in the super four minutes spell before half-time. Louise O’Hara was central to much of this recovery.

An Ali Maguire point-ed 45 was Dublin’s first score in 23 minutes in the 26th minute, and this was followed by a superb cross-field pass by O’Hara to Amy Mur-phy who pointed.

Another O’Hara mis-sile found Ciara Burgess in the 29th minute and the Raheny girl raised Dublin’s fourth white f lag. Dublin weren’t finished, and O’Hara

picked out Murphy whose rasping shot shook the net, reducing the deficit to four.

It countered Kilken-ny’s strong opening, in which they wiped out Murphy’s opener with Neary scoring three points before Katie Power cut in for their first goal.

Tara Corrigan had to retire injured shortly afterwards and, from there on , Gra inne Quinn had a tight watch on Katie Power (a cous-in of Dublin player, Fiona Hayes), limiting her to one point.

A second Kilkenny goal by Siobhan Hyland saw them open a 2-5 to 0-1 lead by the 24th minute. when Dublin lost possession going for ward and com-pounded this error by indecision in the small box.

BreezyWith the breeze in

the second half, Neary clipped over a free, but Ali Maguire responded with a point from cen-tre back. Four min-utes later, Muireann O’Gorman cut the gap to a goal with a pointed free.

Confidence was grow-ing and the half back line of Whyte, Maguire and Ballinteer’s Fiona Hayes were outstand-ing.

O n t h e o c c a -sions when Kilkenny breached that l ine, Catriona Power stood in the way on more than one occasion ably supported by Gráinne Quinn and E la ine O’Meara.

Neary’s fifth pointed placed ball put Kil-kenny four clear in the 41st minute as Dublin

introduced Aoife Kelly and Miriam Twomey. O’Hara was doing all she could to lead the charge and when her dipping shot nipped under the cross-bar, the O’Tooles throng were in full voice.

One sensed that if Dublin could draw level, they might just be able to drive on from there. But Neary notched another free to settle her side.

A m i n u t e l a t e r , O’Hara fired over a great point but Colette Dormer showed great leadership for Kilkenny to strike their only score from play in the second half.

It got them just clear and while Maguire put over a difficult free, despite three minutes of added time, the clock ran out on a great Dub-lin performance.

Camogie stars just miss out

CAMOGIE: DUBLIN COMEBACK FALLS JUST SHORT AT CRUMLIN

FastSport

Row, row, row your boat to league openerHUNDREDS of Dublin rowers will be at the National Rowing Centre in Cork this weekend to compete in the huge Skibbereen Regatta, which this year forms the first round of the eFlow Go Row League.

The league, which includes the Dublin Metro-politan Regatta next month, has been gathering interest and numbers since it was launched two years ago and, which recently received the boost of eFlow becoming their headline sponsor.

Sunday’s event in Cork will feature 560 crews, and will be one of the biggest one-day regattas ever held in Ireland.

UCD, the national champions in the women’s senior eights, and recent victors over Trinity in the colours races on the Liffey, will be favoured to win the Division One eights’ title. They take on senior eights in NUIG and a Limerick com-posite crew drawn from St Michael’s and Uni-versity of Limerick, but also Queen’s University and Trinity, who have entered Under-23 eights.

The men’s senior eights will feature crews from Cork Boat Club, Grainne Mhaol and Queen’s University, with UCD and Trinity both having two crews in the intermediate one eights class, which is also part of Divison One.

Both UCD and Trinity will be targeting a big performance at the Irish University Champion-ships at the same venue on Saturday.

The eFlow Go Row League continues with the Queen’s University regatta on April 28, the Dublin Metropolitan event on May 26 before a return to Cork on June 23.

Almost 1,500 athletes, 300 crews and 350 boats will participate in Dublin Metropolitan, Queen’s University, Cork and Skibbereen regat-tas. For more information, see www.rowingire-land.com.


in association with

AFTER a year ravaged by a nightmare series of injuries and infections, Swords Cycling Club’s Stephen Halpin is lining up a rejuvenated 2012.

Relocating to his native city from Bel-gium, and a full pre-sea-son, sees him in positive mood, and the results have begun to flow for Halpin. He took two big wins in March, as he spies top form ahead of May’s An Post Ras.

Those wins included the Ras Naomh Finan in Clonard, Co Meath, and the Carrick Wheel-ers Cup in Carrick-on-Suir.

It gives a confidence fillip that he can get back on track af ter an 18-month period wracked by ankle prob-lems, as he told Gazette-Sport.

“I was injured for a lot of last year, from Octo-ber to maybe April or

May. Then I came back, did a few weeks training and then went into the Ras very unfit.

“I came out of that and got a blood infec-tion and chronic fatigue,

which put me out for the rest of the season.”

It tested his resolve but he cites the con-tinued support of his Swords’ clubmates and his sponsors, Metaltek Scott, who stuck with him despite the prob-lems.

Such issues have afflicted a number of Irish pro riders in recent seasons, pre-season struggles leading to on-going mid-season issues, with Phil Lavery and

Nicolas Roche lament-ing the long-term effects in recent years.

“It’s very important – that base training in the winter months – your fitness can be hit

and miss all year and then missing a couple of months of racing; you’re playing catch-up throughout the year. It’s hard to discipline your-self to take it slowly. I learned that the hard way last year, coming back too soon.

“But this year has been really good. I’ve been disciplined and the positives that came from last year were that I was really motivated. I missed it so much last

year, the winter was good enough this year, no snow to disrupt the training camps with the team, so it was very pro-ductive.”

“In the space of a week, I won in Clonard and then in Carrick-on-Suir. That, in itself, is very good for the confi-dence.”

A crash in Essex slowed that momentum while a trip to Scotland for the Tour Doon Hame was also fruitless, but Halpin is content with where he is at.

After five years in Belgium, he recently moved back to Dublin, moving in with top pro, Phil Deignan – a stage winner in the Vuelta in 2009 – in Terenure, something which he sees as another boost.

“ I t happened by chance; we were both looking for a place to stay. It’s great, training with one of the best.

“You do pick up bits as you go along, like diet, routines and treat-ments … little things that make a difference.

“Living in Dublin, when the contract came about in the UK with Metaltek, it was the per-fect opportunity to get a year at home. I could be living in London and a race would come up in Newcastle and you’re looking at a five-hour drive … so I’m prob-ably better off living in Dublin, with the airport

Comeback kid is ready for the RasStephen Halpin has bounced back from a tough year with the kind of form that sees him on the verge of a huge 2012, says STEPHEN FINDLATER

Stephen Halpin, in blue, training with the An Post team last year

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‘In a race, anything can happen, so I go out with every intention of winning.’-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FastSport

THE biggest ever cast of celebrities from stage and screen are set to take part in the SPAR Great Ireland Run in the Phoenix Park, Dublin on Sunday, April 15 as they come together to sup-port a range of charities.

Among the leading lights confirmed to take part are Ugly Betty star Eric Mabius (above), Boyzone’s Keith Duffy, radio and TV talk-show presenters, Matt Cooper and Craig Doyle, former Miss World Rosanna Davison, Diarmuid Gavin, Irish actor Jason Barry and Coronation Street star John Michie (Karl Munro) among others.

Many of the celebrities are taking part to support the events nominated charities, the Marie Keating Foundation and the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation. Others are running for Leukaemia And Lymphoma Research and other good causes.

Up to 10,000 runners, walkers and joggers are expected to participate in the event, which gets under way at 1pm and is shown live on RTE television.

A further 1,200 children have entered the Mini and Junior Runs for five-to-eight and nine-to-15-year-olds. These runs will make up the largest ever children’s running event in Ireland.

The Junior Run starts at 11:15 followed by the Mini Run at 11:30. The Mini and Junior Runs take place over a flat 2.5km course, which uses the same start and finish areas of the adult SPAR Great Ireland Run, which starts at 1pm. The nominated charity for the Mini and Junior Runs is the Baby Max Wings of Love Fund.

Entries for the SPAR Great Ireland Run are now closed, and those entering are required to collect their numbers and run packs at Lifestyle Sports in Blanchardstown during trading hours between noon on Thursday, April 12 and 4pm on Saturday, April 14.

Stars come out for the Great Ireland Run 2012

going to loads of loca-tions.

“Having family and friends around does make a huge differ-ence rather than being abroad. You do miss things, so it works out better for your mentality to training and overall for your performance.

“My programme with the team has been sort-ed since January. I know now what I’m doing for the rest of the year so it gives me time to plan where I go and when. I don’t need to be on call, like I was in Belgium.”

And it leaves the ele-ments in place for him to try and make a big impression in the Ras in the next month despite the growing crew of Irish pro cyclists.

“It’s the next big one. I’ll go out to win a stage but, if it happens that I’m in contention for the GC, I’ll race every-day.

“As for the Ir ish nationals, anywhere in the top five or ten would be great. But you see the likes of Matt Brammeier a couple of years ago winning it, so anything’s possible on the day.

“The good thing about having more than just one or two pros, they can mark each other out on the day and, in a one-day race, anything can happen, so I’ll go out with every intention of winning it.”

GazetteSportSport



FOLLOWING on from hosting the 420 Class Leinster Champi-onships the previous weekend, Malahide Yacht Club’s (MYC) newly re-developed Dinghy Sailing Centre at the Broadmea-dows was the scene for a highly successful Early Bird Regatta, which attracted 60 boats in four classes from Dun Laoghaire, Howth, Sutton, Rush, Skerries and Malahide.

The event, supported by Din-ghy Supplies, Starbucks and Dunnes Stores, had three races

for each class, sailed in moder-ate northerly winds on Olympic courses set by race officer, Neil Murphy.

The outstanding perform-ance on the days was Howth’s Ronan Cull, who topped the Laser class with three wins to finish first, overall ahead of Daragh Peelo (MYC) and Daragh Sheridan (HYC).

The Laser Radial division was dominated by MYC sailors, with Derek Sheehan, Ciaran Costello and Darren Griffin heading the rankings, while Stephen Craig of the Royal St George YC won

the Laser 4.7s.His younger brother, Harry,

headed the senior Optimist fleet ahead of Skerries’ Ben Walsh and Conor Kneafsey (National YC) while another NYC sailor, Peter Fagan, topped the jun-ior fleet ahead of Malahide’s Gemma McDowell and Nicola Ferguson (NYC).

Philip McDowell (with crew Cian Buckley) of the host club won the 420 Class and the Topaz honours went to Mala-hide’s Conor Costello from clubmates Diarmuid Marron and Peter Cunning.

Malahide YC host early bird regatta

LSL SUNDAY SENIORVerona 0

Malahide United 5


IN the end, crossing the finishing line was a facile affair when Glen Crowe’s hat-trick eased Malahide United to the LSL Sun-day Senior One title with the minimum of fuss last week away on the Grove Road.

Vinnie Perth’s side were 2-0 up in jig-time, Crowe and Mark Cashin netting early on to put the side on the verge of getting the three points required with less than half an hour gone.

And Verona, with

minds very much else-where — they face an FAI Intermediate Cup semi-final date at Cherry Orchard this week — were keen to keep their jets cool ahead of the national competition.

Indeed, many of their senior team were play-ing on the adjacent pitch, going through their train-ing routines ahead of that big date.

It made for a low-key tie for United, with the triangle of Cashin, Crowe and Noel McGinty down the left causing problems and creating the third in the 54th minute with a slick move.

Crowe had his hat-trick

put on hold two minutes later when he rebounded a corner, but play was called back for offside.

But he fittingly com-pleted the rout two min-utes from time when he clipped in from the left edge of the box, adding to Robbie Dillon’s corner header just before.

The result left Mala-hide 15 points clear of the chasing pack, with Dub-lin Bus, Edenderry Town and UCD left out of the running in their remote hopes of catching Perth’s charges.

It meant they could relax with three fixtures still to go in the campaign, having picked up 18 wins

from 23 outings to date.Despite falling 4-3 in

the first league game of the season at TEK Unit-ed, a seven-game winning streak catapulted Mala-hide to the top of the division with something to spare with September coming to a close.

October saw the only phase when Perth’s men endured a slight stutter, drawing and losing their two games in that month but ten points from 12 in the lead-up Christmas enhanced their position.

And, since the turn of the year, seven wins from eight league outings pushed them through with few qualms, with the

chasing teams regularly taking points off each other.

The league campaign has played out against the back-drop of a number of cup runs for United, reaching the FAI Interme-diate Cup quarter-final.

A Senior Cup berth was earned and, last week, they set up the possibility of a big date when they beat College Corinthians in the first round, coming from behind with goals from McGinty and Crowe to win 2-1.

As a result, they go into April 30s draw with all of the Airtricity League teams as potential oppo-sition.

Malahide ease to LSL crown

SOCCER: FACILE WIN AT GROVE ROAD SEES UNITED TAKE TITLE

Malahide United’s players celebrate as they glide to the league title against Verona at Grove Road last week

FastSport

Local schools take to the field for the futureFINGAL’S Future Olympian (FFO) qualifiers were in full swing last week, which saw some 90% of schools in the local area take part in two of four regional blitzes for tag-rugby.

These blitzes saw St Patrick’s, Skerries, Lusk NS, and Balscadden NS, qualify for the FFO Finals Day, which will take place on on June 6.

Fingal’s Future Olympians Tag-Rugby quali-fiers saw 192 children from 16 local schools take to the field at events in Skerries and Balbriggan, which were organised by Fin-gal County Council’s Rugby Officer, Gerry McCleery.

Speaking about the event, McCleery said: “I was delighted with the numbers participating in the events. We had 90pc of the schools in the area participate; this figure is a credit to the principals and teachers who make such an effort to promote and prioritise sport.”

It is part of the Fingal County Council’s Sports Office series of events in 2012 to iden-tify future Irish Olympians.

Working with partner sports organisations the FAI, Leinster Cricket, Tennis Ireland, Leinster Rugby and Athletics Ireland, each sporting organisation will promote their sport in knock-out style tournaments to encour-age children from third- to sixth-class to get involved in sport in the months leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

The Future Olympians of Fingal Finals Day will be held in Sportslink Santry on Wednes-day, June 6.

The Future Olympians programme is an opportunity to encourage children to get involved in sport, as well as creating an inter-est in the Olympic Games.

If your school would like to get involved in tag rugby, contact Gerry McCleery on 086-2422829 or email [email protected], while, if your school wants to get involved in any of the other events, contact Fingal County Council’s Niall McGuirk on 01 890 6232, or email [email protected].

in association with


CLUB NOTICEBOARD

LEINSTER U-21 FC FINALDublin 1-16

Louth 0-8


NAOMH Mearnog’s Kevin O’Brien cap-tained Dublin’s Under-21 to the Cadbury Lein-ster Under-21FC title in emphatic fashion in Pairc Tailteann, Navan, last week.

The results sees the young Sky Blues claim the title for the third time in four years.

Full-back O’Brien, in his post-game trophy acceptance speech, said he is hoping the side are looking to kick on, say-ing that their success at provincial level is only “step four of six” in their larger plan, to claim the All-Ireland crown for 2012.

Such a situation is one which Martin Skel-ly, chairman of the Lein-ster Council, suggested may come to pass when he handed the cup over to O’Brien.

“I think we may be looking at not only the Leinster champi-ons, but the All-Ireland champions in a couple of months’ time,” said Skelly.

O’Brien was joined in the side by another local player, St Sylvester’s Garry Sweeney, who kicked a point from the half-forward line, while Fionn Carney was part of the panel as well.

Dublin put on what was a dominant per-formance all round, and there could have been an even wider margin of victory but for some excellent goalkeeping from Louth netminder, Joe Flanagan, coupled with some brave last-ditch defending from their backline.

The Dubs’ shooting at times, too, was slight-ly off course, but that mattered little, as Jim Gavin’s men were too hot for Louth to handle in the scoring depart-ment.

One forward whose radar did not let him down was Castleknock man, Ciaran Kilkenny, and his contribution helped Dublin to annex their tenth provincial title at this grade.

With a stunning per-sonal tally of 1-7, the schoolboy’s strength and power were pivotal throughout.

The game was less than two minutes old when Kilkenny palmed an enormous wind-assisted delivery from Mark Schutte to the net to give his side the dream start.

Less than a minute later, Philly Ryan had the ball in the Louth net after slick interplay in the forward division, but he was adjudged to have been in the small square before the ball and the score was disal-lowed.

Desp i te Dubl in ’s dominance of posses-sion they failed to turn it into scores and it was

not until the close of the first half that they gave themselves any breath-ing space approaching the break.

Two points from Kil-kenny, and one each for Jack McCaffrey and Paul Hudson, was reward for Dublin’s endeavours as the likes of O’Conghaile, Sean George, and Ciaran Reddin got through a lot of work.

The second half fol-lowed a similar pattern to the first with the Dublin defence deal-ing comfortably with whatever Louth could muster.

The Wee County’s chances though were few and far between — the final wides tally of Dublin 14, Louth hitting three, is an indication of what way the traffic flowed all night long in Pairc Talteann.

T h e D u b s n o w progress to face the Munster champions on Saturday, April 21.

FOOTBALL: LOCAL PLAYERS HELP TO CLAIM CROWN

Dublin’s Under-21 footballers were in complete control at Pairc Talteann when they saw off the challenge of Louth

O’Brien captains the Dubs to Leinster title

Nominations for positions and

motions for the AGM must be

received by Thursday, April 12. The

AGM takes place on Thursday, April

26.

St Sylvester’s Business and Serv-

ices Network invite you to get the

inside track on smarter searching

and competing in the job market for

students (LC and 3rd level), gradu-

ates, job-seekers and parents.

The guest speakers are Ray Nolan

of worky.com, and Jason Kennedy

from Grafton Employment Group.

The event takes place at 6.30pm

on Tuesday, April 17, in St Sylvest-

er’s clubhouse, 2 Church Road,

Malahide.

Pre-register online and enter

draw for an Apple iPad 2, kindly

sponsored by Dr Roisin Corkery,

Dental Practice, New Street, Mala-

hide .

The Nicky Cleere Trust are selling

€10 tickets for the sensational priz-

es of a 15-seat corporate suite for

the All-Irelland football and hurling

finals. Visit www.nickycleeretrust.

com.

Our fixtures for this weekend are

on Sunday, April 15: AHL9 Arthur

Griffith Park, 3pm, Lucan Sarsfields

v St Sylvester’s; MFL 1 Shankill 11am

Cuala v St Sylvester’s.

There is also a friendly at Broom-

field, 11am: St Sylvester’s (AFL9) v

Wild Geese (AFL8).

The Lotto jackpot this week is

€1,900.

Play online at www.stsylvesters.

ie and get all the news, views and

information as well.

ST SYLVESTER’S

Our Easter football camp last week

had over 250 kids taking part. Five of

the Dublin senior hurling team, Conor

McCormack, Ross O’Carroll, Finn

McGarry, Danny Sutcliffe and Simon

Lambert will be present at this week’s

hurling camp.

Club academy resumes next Satur-

day morning at 10am. New members

are most welcome.

Well done to Barry Rodgers and

Liam Nangle who competed in the

U-12 hurling ball wall competition in

O’Toole’s on Good Friday.

Club awards’ night will be on Sunday,

May 6. Ticket details, time details, etc

will be available next week.

We done to Aoife O’Reilly who won

a college All-Star at midfield, repre-

senting Maynooth College.

It was a great week for the ladies,

with our seniors opening their league

1 campaign with a narrow win away

to Clontarf.

The club are delighted to announce

another addition to our coaching

staff. Nicola Fitzgerald started last

week. Nicola is from Swords and

played all her underage football with

the club. Her contact details are nico-

[email protected]

Social football is on every Friday at

8pm on Astro pitch. New players are

welcome.

The club have a recycling fundraiser

until April 29. Please donate all your

unwanted clothes, bedlinen, towels

and textiles, including shoes, bags

and belts and soft toys. Mobile phones

will be accepted, but please keep sep-

arate. No household bric-a-brac.

Bags can be dropped off on Satur-

days from 10am to 12 noon and week-

days from 7 to 9pm at the club bar.

FINGALLIANS

THE club website is regularly

updated, so anyone who has photos

or info they would like put up, send

them to [email protected].

In adult football training contin-

ues Tuesdays and Thursdays.

There is an €80 and a €150 annual

lotto ticket available this year.

Please check the website for full

details, or contact Mary Madigan.

Club membership for 2012 is now

overdue; pla yers are now not

insured if not paid up.

Furthermore, only paid-up mem-

bers by April 21 can apply for Dub-

lin match tickets this season, no

exceptions.

In juvenile football, best of luck

to the Under-12s who start their

league campaign this weekend.

Finally, well done to Barbara and

Sean Madigan on finishing runners-

up in Cha Cha Cha for Chernobyl, a

great night was had by all.

ST MARGARET’S

Follow GazetteSport on Facebook and Twitter and at www.gazettegroup.com

Ga

zetteSPORT

� STEPHEN FINDLATER [email protected]

WHILE THE primary objective achieved, Malahide United manager Vinnie Perth says there is still plenty more to come this season from the Gannon Park club.

He was speaking to the Gazette as Malahide put the finishing touches on a 5-0 win over Verona last Wednesday night to move a mas-sive 16 points clear and out of reach of the LSL Sunday Senior One chasers.

Perth has always pitched promotion back to the top division in inter football in the prov-ince as the be-all and end-all but the ease with which his side has done so means he can look forward to a few bonus ties in the cups.

“It’s a strange feeling tonight because we cer-tainly don’t feel the season is over.

“We’ve a huge amount of stuff still to play for; the quarter-final of the [Charlie Cahill] cup coming up and the FAI Senior – we wait for the

draw on that – so it does feel strange because there is so much going on,” he said.

“We can relax now and concentrate on those cups. In a couple of those competitions, we’ve made changes – even in the FAI the other day, resting people for the Verona game to make sure.

“But we’re there now and it’s huge for eve-ryone involved, not just the 18 or so who play, which people don’t realise.”

TributeAs far as winning the league is concerned,

Perth paid tribute to the support he has had from the club to make sure they reached this notable point, making it back to the top tier at the second time of asking.

“All last year was rebuilding the side and the senior section and we’ve done a lot of work on it. Touch wood, we’re going into the top-flight with a lot more positivity than we have had in a long time.

“We’re now back where we belong in the top flight so that is the key. How we got there didn’t really matter but I’m really impressed with the manner in which we have done it.

“We got a lot of support from a lot of people in the club so it’s been a big team performance, from the secretary all the way through to the players.”

They have done so with a smattering of League of Ireland experience with Alan Mur-phy – a contemporary of Perth’s in Longford’s FAI Cup winning sides – added to the coach-ing ticket while Glen Crowe has piled on the goals.

“We’ve tried to bring that kind of profession-alism into the club – obviously they are all ama-teurs – so that we act like professionals and do everything right.

“In fairness, we got the backing of the club to do that, getting everything right, like the train-ing ground, with a lot of people pulling their weight to support what we’re doing it.”

United complete United complete primary targetprimary targetPerth pays tribute to huge club effort as Malahide get back into the top tier of soccer with big Verona victory

Malahide United’s Noel McGinty, Barry Slattery, Mark Cashin and Glen Crowe celebrate the fourth goal in their 5-0 win over Verona

CATS’ CLAWS: Kilkenny scratch out tiny win over Dublin’s local contingent P28

BLAZING SADDLES:Halpin ready for topreturn from injury P29

ALL OF YOUR MALAHIDE SPORTS COVERAGE FROM PAGE 27-31 APRIL 12, 2012

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