June july 2018 newsfour

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June / July 2018

HOUSING DEAL IN DISARRAY

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n Alexander Kearney hat is the deal with the Poolbeg social housing agreement? Questions over social and affordable housing in the Poolbeg West SDZ remain unanswered and unclear.

On the morning of the 17th April, members of the Irish Glass Bottle Housing Action Group stood outside the offices of An Bord Pleanála on Marlborough street with familiar banners unfurled. Inside, the three-day oral hearing for the Poolbeg West Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) was about to begin. The vital question hanging over proceedings: just what had happened to last summer’s agreement over social and affordable housing – and can the deal now be saved?

In May 2017, it had all looked settled.

After persistent calls from local communities and city councillors, an agreement was finally reached between the then Housing Minister Simon Coveney, councillors, Dublin City Council officials and the NAMA-appointed receiver: 900 future homes out of a possible 3,500 (all apartments) would be set aside for social and affordable housing. This represented a little over 25% of the new stock, as opposed to the minimum 10% for social units that the amended 2000 Planning Act requires.

Some representatives and councillors had called for at least 50%. They were warned by the City Council Chief Executive, Owen Keegan, that if they insisted on a higher quota, then the receiver would likely appeal to An Bord Pleanála, and they could be left with just the 10%.

The councillors passed the motion, it would be 25%, social and affordable.

Pages 12-13: Poolbeg plans

In the circumstances, it was generally agreed that this was the best that could be achieved. A pragmatic result in the midst of Dublin’s spiralling housing crisis.

After the Poolbeg SDZ plan cleared its final hurdle at An Bord Pleanála, no further appeals could be made – all future applications would be fast-tracked through the planning department. Development and housing would speedily follow.

That mood changed sharply in early April. Word had spread that the receiver, David Carson of Deloitte, had allegedly lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála against the 25% social-affordable deal. It would insist on the strict 10% statutory minimum. City councillors were notably caught off guard. They were indignant.

Fine Gael councillor, Paddy McCartan was unequivocal, “We only signed up to this SDZ based on the fact that we would get the 900.” And if the receiver persuaded the board, “then the SDZ is off the table and we have to go back to the drawing board,” said Sinn Féin councillor, Daithí Doolan, Chair of the Council’s Housing Committee. Even the Chief Ex-

ecutive remarked that he was “surprised and shocked” at the news, and said that the receiver had acted in a way, “inconsistent with the terms of the agreement.”

And what of that agreement? In a press release, Labour Senator for Dublin Bay South, Kevin Humphries issued the following call, “This is all happening in the Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy’s constituency. He needs to publish the deal his Department made with the City Council and Deloitte last May and provide clarity not just to councillors but to his constituents...”

However, his party colleague, councillor Dermot Lacey, recently told NewsFour that a written or signed deal may never have existed, and certainly none has been released to date. Rather, Lacey argued, it was the clear assurance that an agreement had been reached on the 900 homes that gave councillors the confidence to vote through the SDZ plan.

A contract or piece of paper was not required when the Minister and the Chief Executive were both adamant that a deal was in place. And none of the parties had broken with that understanding until the

IN THIS ISSUE…

Pages 30-31: Roisin Ingle at Sean Moore Awards

Page 28: Yeats Day

receiver’s appeal – nearly a year later.

The stated basis for the receiver’s action is that it cannot be legally required to provide more than 10% social housing in its plan. Although appointed by NAMA and therefore effectively acting on behalf of the state, a receiver still has a “statutory duty to attain the best price possible in disposing of any asset and having the ability to apply to court for directions as to how to dispose of an asset,”as Deloitte helpfully notes on its website.

Councillors have argued that it is precisely because they voted through the SDZ plan that the receiver can realise an increased value for the site but the votes were only available on the basis of the agreement.

At the oral hearing, matters were little clearer. Declan Brassil, planning consultant for the receiver, stated that his client was in negotiations with the Council to reach a “commercial agreement” for additional affordable homes. However, they would still pursue their appeal, on legal advice.

In a letter that same morning to councillors, Richard Shakespeare, the Council’s Head of Planning said the receiver had agreed on an “intense period of discussions with the objective of entering into a binding commercial agreement, with confirmed funding, between the parties prior to a decision by An Bord Pleanála on the scheme.”

Those negotiations would now proceed on parallel tracks with the oral hearing itself. The distinct impression in the packed room was that we would be hearing nothing further on any deal before the hearing’s end. As of writing, we still haven’t.

Continued on page 2.

Pages 16-17: Mental health

Page 2

HOUSING DEAL IN DISARRAY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

NewsFour Newspaper is part of a DSP Community Employment Programme.

NewsFour Editor Beibhinn Byrne Web Editor Paul O’Rourke Journalists Paul Carton Kathrin Kobus Eoin Meegan Alexander Kearney Contributors Gavan Bergin Felix O’Regan Declan Hayden Elaine Corcoran Gerry and Brian Lacey Peter Carvill SuperNatural Food Market Crossword Gemma Byrne Design and Layout Eugene Carolan Ad & Photo Pages Design Lizzie Doran

Sandymount Community Services, 13A Fitzwilliam Street, Ringsend, Dublin 4.

The stakes are high. Without further agreement between the parties, An Bord Pleanála may be obliged to accept the legal argument of the receiver that it cannot be made to build more than its 10% quota. If the Board finds for the receiver, councillors have threatened to pull their support from the Poolbeg SDZ and frustrate its implementation at council level.

This could spell the end of this particular SDZ, since, under the relevant section of the Planning Act, a new draft planning scheme can only be introduced within two years of the original ministerial order.

The whole process would have to start over again, with fierce recriminations all round. However, any compromise that falls short of the agreed 900 figure, or exacts a notably higher price for it, will be viewed with grave misgivings.

The state-backed receiver will have got a ‘better deal’ only at the expense of local residents and the Council. And the Council is not just the appointed development agency,

it owns roughly one quarter of the housing site. There will be talk of both the State and City Council taking greater control of NAMA lands to build public housing.

To date, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has kept his head down regarding Poolbeg.

If the deal falls through and the SDZ is shot, that will prove untenable.

Outside the hearing, members of the IGBH Action Group stressed their resolve. Several had taken time off work to attend, and were determined to hold government and city representatives to account. Their message hasn’t changed: they demand housing that local families can afford.

Before an upcoming public meeting on May 16th, they still hadn’t heard from the minister, receiver, or Council Chief Executive on whether the ‘agreement’ would, again, be a ‘done deal’.

Picture of IGB Housing Action Group photo courtesy of IGB Housing Action Group.

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June / July 2018

The Editor’s Corner

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s this issue goes out, history has been made by our nation. On May 25th we voted to repeal the 8th amendment to our constitution and to legislate for abortion.

The results that came in from every constituency in the country showed a unity that was both courageous in its conviction and moving in its humaneness. It is a shot in the arm for grassroots politics, campaigns and people power. The bedrock of a flourishing democracy and community. It is vindication for generations of Irish women (and men) and all women’s rights. Dublin Bay South turnout was 54.9% which could have been higher, but it was an overwhelming 78.5% Yes (33,919 votes); to 21.5% No (9,298 votes). While the entire country was not unanimous, it was a resounding and emphatic majority.

This acceptance of difficult realities and the ownership of our responsibilities towards them is a coming of age for our nation. The embracing of this complex issue showed us to be a pragmatic and sympathetic society. This support of women’s autonomy and dignity is a paradigm shift in our culture for a higher and more evolved conscientiousness, as well as, a victory for wisdom and a triumph of love. This is what a healthy, functioning society looks like. It is community writ large. A collectiveness that respects the personal experience and how precious that is. With this rejection of anything, either homegrown or foreign, that oppresses our free will and with the dismissal of agendas and disruptive beliefs being imposed on us, we are now discovering our authentic identity as a nation and it is an encouraging and positive one. It is an inclusive, progressive, intelligent and compassionate identity. One that engenders confidence not shame. As W.B Yeats said in June 1925, “I have no doubt whatever that, when the iceberg melts Ireland will become an exceedingly tolerant country.”

With those words in mind, in this issue we feature, Yeats Day in Sandymount (pg 28) there’s exemplary citizenship and community recognised at the Sean Moore Awards (pgs 30 & 31) and we have plenty of difficult issues to be tackled on planning for Poolbeg SDZ and other properties in the area. Plus there’s a useful and very interesting read in a Minding The Mind spread covering a series of lectures on mental health (pgs 16 & 17) Plus all the usual news and regular sections. We hope you enjoy!

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Telephone: (01)6673317 E-mail: newsfour@gmail.com Website: www.newsfour.ie Opinions expressed in NewsFour do not necessarily represent the views of Sandymount Community Services.

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These girls from Ringsend College brought NewsFour to new heights – the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, in fact.

Jamal Khalid with his NewsFour on a recent trip to Sri Lanka.

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June / July 2018

FUNDRAISING

Cancer fundraiser a great success

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n Eoin

Meegan

here was a sense of jubilation at the cancer fundraiser in McCloskey’s Donnybrook on May 12th, which we mentioned in the last issue of NewsFour, when the targeted €1,000 goal was exceeded.

The figure raised by the end of the night was over €1,200, and still rising, as people continue to drop in with donations. In previous years, the total raised had been a disappointing €500 to €600, so this year an all-out push was made to break the €1,000 barrier.

The organiser David Doyle, who has been fundraising to raise awareness of cancer for over ten years now, was delighted, “I would first of all like to thank those who came,” he said, “as well as those who gave donations and prizes.”

Among those he wished to thank were Joe Cronin of the Pro14 Group for the tickets to the Pro14 final in the Aviva; Kian O’Sullivan for generously getting the GAA ball and jersey signed by the Dublin players; Sean Gilley of Terroirs for wine;

Elliots Cash and Carry; Marian from Wilde’s of Donnybrook, who donated beauty products; Tom Brady, everyone’s favourite barman in Donnybrook for the souvenir hurley; Martin Finglass and Dublin Bus for the City Tour tickets; not forgetting local resident Annie Delaney who donated a cooker, among other things, and Noel Gibbons for a toolbox. Apologies if we left anyone out.

Thanks also to the Donnybrook Residents’ Association, and all the local shops and businesses for their kind donations, and to all those, too numerous to mention, who contributed so generously.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a success without the Munchkins on the ground who volunteered their services on the night and in the lead-up to the event. David would especially like to thank

them with particular mention to Audrey McNevin for doing everything, local taxi driver Martin

Page 3 McGibney, who modelled on the night and MC Paul Doyle.

A big thanks too to McCloskey’s for supporting the event for the last number of years and who helped with posters and catering; particularly to Tom, Joe and John who worked diligently on the night to ensure everyone had a good time. Also, to the Irish Cancer Society for their generous support.

Finally, a big thank you to all who came on the night, bought raffle tickets, and made the occasion the huge success it was.

Remember, you can still donate by popping into McCloskey’s pub in Donnybrook and putting something into the cancer donation box. Thanks all.

Above left: David Doyle, and MC for the night Paul Doyle.

Below: McCloskeys.

Photos by Eoin Meegan.

PORT NEWS

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n Kathrin Kobus ince the first week of May, Dublin Port is truly in its cruise season, huge ships, at least twice as long as Croke Park, are calling to port because now they can. The Capital Dredging Programme, completed earlier this year, made it possible for such large vessels to safely navigate into port.

The first of these was the RoRo vessel MV Celine. She was christened in a ceremony at the Ocean Pier in Alexandra Basin on Friday, 20th April 2018, having arrived from Zebrugge only hours before.

An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, T.D. was present at the traditional breaking of a bottle of champagne against her hull to signify good fortune on all her voyages.

“It is a pleasure to be here today in Dublin Port for the christening of this magnificent new vessel, the MV Celine. I would like to congratulate CLdN on its continued commitment to providing enhanced cargo shipping into and out of Ireland,” he said.

The MV Celine will carry up to 580 trailers for goods and wares and her capacity also allows for tank containers, project cargo and a dozen driver-accompanied units. Eamon O’Reilly, CEO of the Dublin Port Company added, “It is an honour for Dublin Port to host the christening of MV Celine at such an exciting time for Dublin Port. The addition of new ships and sailings shows the shipping sector’s resilience and ability to adapt to changing customer needs, particularly in response to Brexit. We expect MV Celine will mark the beginning of additional new services to Continental Europe from Dublin

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Cruise ships converge on Dublin Port

Port over the coming years.”

The Alexandra Basin Redevelopment (ABR) continues. The Port company is investing €132 million this year alone, while capital investment of €1 billion is planned over the next decade.

After the cargo ferries arrived, the cruise ships came in, beginning with the Celebrity Eclipse.

She came from Florida, but will now be calling Dublin her home port until the end of June.

Pat Ward, Head of Cruise Tour-

ism, Dublin Port Company was optimistic for this summer’s sailing season. “2017 was a recordbreaking year for Dublin Port, with 127 ships making a stop in the capital and over 210,000 cruise visitors using the port. In 2018 we are on target to exceed that further, with the home porting of Celebrity Eclipse in the city, making a significant difference to our growth plans. We look forward to continuing to work with Celebrity Cruises to

continue this success in 2019.”

2,850 new passengers embarked on the Celebrity Eclipse on April 30th for a ten-day voyage around Ireland and then to Iceland.

They were the first of an estimated 14,000 tourists to book a luxurious holiday on the cruise ship for this season. The Eclipse will run five full return trips starting and finishing at Dublin Port Jo Rzymowska, vice president and managing director of Celebrity Cruises, Ireland, UK and Asia, commented on the arrival of the Eclipse at Dublin Port. “This is the first time in three years that we’ve added a new European home port to our itineraries and Dublin has exceeded our expectations. Testament to the strong demand from our guests to sail

June / July 2018

from Dublin, we are excited to return with another ship and another mini season in 2019.”

Her sister ship, the slightly larger Celebrity Reflection, will have Dublin as her home port too for this year’s mini-season.

Not to be eclipsed completely, the Royal Princess came in on Friday the 4th of May with more than 3,000 passengers and crew.

Overall, 151 cruise calls are scheduled for this year’s season.

Nine of these will be maiden calls to Dublin.

Pat Ward says, “We are seeing growing demand for Dublin Port on passenger itineraries from the world’s leading cruise lines, with more requests to accommodate larger ships and a strong demand for turnarounds. An estimated 90% of turnaround passengers will fly into Dublin Airport to begin their cruise holidays and these passengers alone account for one-fifth of the €50 million boost to the local economy from cruise tourism this year.”

For those who cannot or do not want to go on these cruise voyages, the sight of them manoeuvring into Dublin Port is something to marvel about. Another big highlight will be the scheduled arrival of the 330-metres long Regal Princess on September 13th.

Now, only the weather god has to be pleased to bring clear and bright sailing days ahead.

See also Photo Diary on pages 20 and 21 for more pictures.

Clockwise from top: Pictured at Dublin Port beside Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship was Pat Ward from Dublin Port and Jo Rzymowska, Managing Director, Celebrity Cruises, UK & Ireland with Dublin Port entertainment Artastic.

Guests celebrating the christening of MV Celine.

The 2,850-guest Celebrity Eclipse has arrived in Dublin to become the first ever cruise ship to be based from the port.

Photography by Conor McCabe Photography Ltd.

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June / July 2018

COMMUNITY NEWS

Mexican art on Raglan Road

B

n Paul

Carton etween the months of April and June, the Mexican Embassy on Raglan road hosted an art exhibition. Colores de Mexico showcases over 25 artists from the homeland and was open to the general public at the embassy.

This allowed visitors in the area in through its doors to take a glimpse of Mexican culture and tradition and perhaps take home some of the pieces with them. Acrylic and oil paintings, sketches from pencil and sculptures made from mud and metallic resin were only some of

the interesting displays that were brought over to Dublin by the firm Art-Promoter.

Doris Calderon, who owns the company and also has a music art management company, says that this project was a year in the making, and that Raglan Road is not the only Dublin location for the gallery. Doris told NewsFour that the gallery, which includes traditional and contemporary art from Mexico, and this particular exhibition Colores de Mexico, will move to 56 Lower Gardiner St, Dublin 1 for the months of June and July.

Prominent in Mexican traditional and Huichol (indigenous) art are lots and lots of skulls. Doris tells us, “it is a main theme in Mexican culture due to our connection and celebration of the dead, sort of like your Halloween” Doris says that these skulls represent ‘Catrinas’ which is a female skeleton always dressed in outfits from a particular era and which is a humorous take on morbidity in Mexico.

Music from Mariachis on the opening night in Raglan Road brought large crowds to the embassy, so if you are heading for a visit to the In-spire Galerie for the next showcasing, make sure you contact Doris on 0851552007 for details on its opening night.

Pictured: Doris Calderon.

Photo: Paul Carton.

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Page 5

StepUp for Stevo

n Kathrin Kobus round four hundred, maybe even five hundred family, friends and teammates turned up on Sunday April 8th for a charity run in support of local teenager Stephen Deering, who is currently undergoing cancer treatment.

NewsFour had joined the call-out in the community for this charity event, organised within just four weeks from the spark of the idea to the actual event.

Whoever NewsFour spoke to during that afternoon, they all agreed on one main thing: “It shows the community spirit, how we all came together to help out. We look after each other in tough times like this.”

Stephen’s close friends had come up with the idea and with a little help from parents and coaches campaigning in the neighbourhood and the invaluable word of mouth method, the event got sponsors, raffle prizes, music and the white blue

tops sorted.

The initiators of the event performed a flash mob dance to the tune of ‘Prince of Bel Air’ before an audience of members and students from Cambridge FC, Homefarm FC, Clanna Gael, Oatland School, Marian College, St. Mary’s and St. Brigid’s from Haddington Road, Scouts 4th Port Division to name a few.

Kids, teens, coaches, family members plus some canine supporters completed the race or walk along the footpath around Sean Moore Park and up onto the Beach Road and back again It was a long afternoon until the race/ walk was finished and due to the drizzling rain the raffle lottery took place in Clann’s hall. But whatever prizes were won this afternoon, NewsFour joins all the well-wishers and hopes the one true winner can only be Stephen Deering.

Photo: Kathrin Kobus.

Page 6

June rocks Energia Park

W n Paul

Carton alk up, dance home this June when Donnybrook Stadium plays host to a collection of music acts, which include genres of punk and psychedelic rock.

The newly-named Energia Park will open its doors this summer to ‘Mercury Rev’, ‘Future Islands’ and the ‘Idles’ on the 17th of June, which falls on the Sunday, a day of rest. Well they do say there is no rest for the wicked and the Sunday addition ‘Idles’ are to prise that out of you. Idles are a British punk band that are a cross between The Prodigy and The Sex Pistols. If you think you don’t have the stamina for an up-close experience of this, then I advise finding a nice seat somewhere at the back.

The variety of music on the day will have you up and down, which is always a good thing as the doors open at 2pm. There is music here from Mercury Rev to allow you some chill-out time after headbangers Idles and then after that hypnotic journey you might be inclined to get back up again and move to Future Islands, a synth-pop band from North Carolina, whose backing tracks sound like a revamped Flock of Seagulls, in a good way.

Properly handled gigs like this could be a thrilling experience, but without proper controls in the area, Donnybrook could be the site for a donnybrook. Tickets for the day are €63 and are available through tickemaster.ie.

Above: Mercury Rev. Photo courtesy of Wiki commons.

Fake: good and bad

F

n Paul

Carton rom fake meat to fake emotions, if faking it gets the job done, who cares? This is the theme of the current exhibition running at the Trinity Science Gallery on Pearse Street.

An exhibition exploring the fakeness around us was something I thought I needed to update my brain with. When I walked in on the Monday evening I knew I’d have to have my brain in check. As I walked through the exhibition I noticed a dormant atmosphere and figured I was been watched by a group of students in a separate room in fits of laughter as I asked a gallery assistant for help only to be told they weren’t open on Mondays.

Doh! My second attempt the following day was no less unnerving but felt very much aware that immersing myself in this exhibit was the only way forward. Visitors have many attendants to explain pieces to you, as some of the concepts behind these installations are quite complex. This exhibition has your run of the mill virtual reality play toys, a synthHAizer that enabled you to modulate your fake laugh into something that sounded similar to your real laugh, for the purposes of explaining how in your thirties you are better at picking up on other people’s fake laughs and what societal reasons they do them for.

At another stand, there was a chemistry showcase on what forms of vanilla are out there and how the majority of vanilla we find in everyday products is made in the lab and that a tiny percentage is the real stuff from the bean which is said to be in your vanilla essence used in baking. You are allowed to help yourself to each of the vanilla types to see if you can tell of any differences.

The exhibit also shows the benefits imitations can have in science, showing a collection of fake frogs sent into the wild with microphones to pick up on the variety of sounds these creatures use to talk to each other and also fake hearts that are used as scaffolding for stem cells to be applied. The exhibit which runs until the end of this week has to be seen to be believed.

Photo courtesy of the Science Gallery.

EVENTS / TIDY UP

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June / July 2018

Working to keep Sandymount vibrant

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n Kathrin Kobus bout 100 residents of Sandymount and neighbours of all ages and gender came and got their gear and handy tools, like gloves and tongs on a stick, from the Sandymount Tidy Towns committee. They were going about the business of cleaning up around the Green in Sandymount and along the roads and footpaths, where it looked more like a bout of spring cleaning, with most neighbours getting involved.

It was the first event of this kind in 2018. The youngest helpers picked up rubbish bits on the lawn of Sandymount Green, all kitted out in high viz vests and the obligatory plastic (hmm) gloves for protection.

The Tidy Towns committee was happy with the turn out.

“It’s almost too warm,” said Declan Hayden for Dublin City

Council. “It’s actually more inviting in this weather to just go for a walk in the sunshine than doing a clean up.”

Working in pairs and little groups the teams spread out from the Green throughout the village. Morgane Legrand, from France was on her round together with local man Maurice Foyle on the footpath surrounding the Green at the Books on the Green corner.

“I am here as an au pair at the moment, but it’s a good thing to come out and help with the cleaning here,” she said.

NewsFour encountered other non-Sandymount residents at the beach like David Smith from Goatstown. “I cycled all the way along the Dodder to help put the sand back into Sandymount beach.” Next to him was Adrian O’Connell from Sandyford, picking up litter, like plastic bottles, caps, leftover socks and other, unmentionables, as well.

Both were part of the Clean the Coast group, led by Jen

Doran. The bright yellow object she picked up at first was dropped again after it became clear on inspection it was an ordinary flower.

Light blue plastic bags waited lined up near the curb for their collection at the end of the first organised clean-up of this year’s “Work for Summer” initiative. The Sandymount Tidy Town Association is meeting from now on regular Tuesdays at 7pm and Saturday mornings at 11am to keep their village clean of litter and rubbish. Helpers are always welcome and no age restrictions apply.

Clockwise from top: Renee Quinlan, Mary Ryan STTCA, Helena McDermott Sandymount resident, Sheila Mooney STTCA, Audrey Hanley STTCA, Carolina Costa STTCA, Paddy Dunne STTCA, Vincent Ryan STTCA, Declan Hayden DCC. From left: David Smith and Adrian O’Connell at the beach.

Pictured at the Green: Morgane Legrand and Martin Foyle.

Photos: Kathrin Kobus.

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R

n Paul

June / July 2018

Carton oyal Hospital Donnybrook Housing Agency’s Beech Hill Terrace accommodation project is on track to be completed for September.

The address in Donnybrook was previously home to a dilapidated apartment block which was demolished to allow for the construction of these new homes.

That apartment block, which was built in the 1960s, was so poorly insulated that its past residents were in fear that when they went to sleep, they might die of the cold if they touched off a wall.

Those tiny flats are now gone and after a long, arduous battle to provide homes for the old and disabled, the Royal Hospital of Donnybrook (RHD) Housing agency will give these residents the keys to their new homes later this year.

NewsFour met up with Kieron Moyston, site manager with Merrion Contracting at the Beech Hill Terrace site to find out what residents can expect in their new home. “Walk-in showers without a tray, so it’s flat with the floor, with a gully to take away the water, there‘ll be handrails and grab rails in terms of the bathroom for assisted living, there is a lift shaft

HOUSING

Beech Hill Terrace nearing completion

going up to the first floor, with balconies right through, there are 20 rooms, including one on the ground floor which includes

a visitor’s room and a common room,” said Kieron.

He says that the homes are energy efficient, with total insula-

tion and with a 150 mm of thickness on the external walls. The project started last October, with the turning of the sod by Taoi-

Page 7 seach Leo Varadkar and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy.

Even though the snowy weather kicked them back by three to four weeks, according to Kieron, himself and his 14-member crew, have the project on track for a September completion. “There were an existing 16 units, but they were tiny and we are doubling them in size. Each apartment is approximately 50 square metres – before they were 25 square metres,” said Kieron.

RHD Housing, the not-forprofit housing association behind the project, was established in 1993 as a social housing provider for frail older adults and people with disabilities. It was founded by the Royal Hospital Donnybrook, which has been providing care for disadvantaged and disabled people for 270 years. The company has a charitable status and is a member of the Irish Council for Social Housing.

As part of their strategic plan, they have ambitions to be the leader in providing high-quality housing for older persons and people with physical disabilities.

Photo: Paul Carton.

Page 8

PROPERTY / TECHNOLOGY

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June / July 2018

Facebook eyes up former Bankcentre

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n Alexander Kearney hat’s going on with the AIB Bankcentre? Mystery still surrounds the future of the site after it was revealed earlier this year that AIB intended to vacate the last portion of its purposebuilt campus by summer 2019.

The bank will relocate to a new headquarters on Molesworth Street, with some of its staff going to premises in Sandyford.

It was assumed that its former premises would be leased, and speculation has now centred on a particularly high-profile candidate for tenant.

On the 8th February, Bloomberg reported that Facebook was in talks to agree a staggered move to the 41,800 square metre property, which was greatly expanded to its rear just over a decade ago.

The tech giant has rapidly expanded its Irish presence in recent years, and in late 2017 announced that its Dublin workforce would grow by hundreds from a current figure of some 1,600.

The capital hosts its largest operations centre outside Silicon Valley, and had looked set to become a prime beneficiary of the social network’s inexorable growth. However, the recent revelations of illicit harvesting of Facebook users’ data brought a deluge of bad press. Facebook’s share price nose-dived for a time and the US Federal Trade Commission announced it would investigate the firm’s practices.

Perhaps even more worrying

for Facebook’s chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg and company was the risk that public anger might turn to user flight, and a dwindling number of ‘likes’. While it’s still too soon to tell, Facebook seems to have weathered the initial crisis, and Zuckerberg left his hearing with the US Senate looking somewhat stronger than when he entered it.

The public remains wedded to the platform, despite the rumble of ongoing scandal.

Barring a major legislative assault in the US and Europe, or the sudden emergence of a serious network rival, Facebook’s Dublin expansion seems set to continue.

The other Bankcentre puzzle concerns the four blocks at the front of the site. These were acquired by Johnny’s Ronan’s property firm, Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE) in 2015 for 67.5 million euro. The company claimed that its redevelopment of the four-acre site could be worth more than five times that figure when complete.

In October 2016, An Bord Pleanála granted permission to demolish the existing blocks and build a 32,000 square metre scheme, with a capacity for some 2,000 workers, but nothing further has happened to date.

At the time of the decision, RGRE’s Development Director, Shane Whelan said that he expected work to begin within the year, and construction to continue until mid-2019. That was over 18 months ago, and

were the scheme to begin now it would not be ready before late 2020 at the earliest.

That delay is all the more strange given the prestige of the site and the current demand for commercial property in D4.

The new buildings would contain approximately three times the floor area of the old, and the terms of An Bord Pleanála’s judgement make the prospect of obtaining greater densities unlikely in the near future. So what is Ronan waiting for?

The most likely answer can be found at the other end of the Ballsbridge site. It is believed that negotiations between Serpentine Consortium (which owns the rear blocks AIB wishes to vacate), AIB, and Facebook, have widened to include the campus as a whole. In March, Brian Carey of The Sunday Times reported that “Facebook is considering occupying the entire 10 blocks (sic), which would require the agreement of all three landlords. While the deal under discussion would allow for a staggered occupation, Facebook would start to move in only once it had agreements to occupy all the buildings.”

The three landlords in question are Serpentine Consortium, Davy Target Investments and RGRE. In April, Carey wrote an update that an informed source had said the deal was ‘70% there’; he also expanded on the charged back-story of the 2006 deal that first broke up the campus.

It is unclear whether RGRE is already party to the present

negotiations or whether it has simply held off construction until Facebooks’s precise intentions become clear. Given the potential for a unified scheme with a global giant, waiting could be prudent. Ronan was recently left smarting from An Bord Pleanála’s refusal to grant his 22-storey Tara Street skyscraper permission in March.

Biding his time here could open up possibilities that might have seemed outlandish when he bought the low-slung blocks three years ago.

It would be a great irony if the existing campus were now to be re-integrated under a single occupant. In the last edition of NewsFour, we provided an overview of Andy Devane’s remarkable fusion of landscape and carefully arranged office buildings. He designed the complex specially for AIB in the 1970s, but in recent decades, Irish banks have tended to sell or divide their old headquarters, often preferring to use them as vehicles for profit, as they restructure and downsize staff.

If Facebook proceeds with the deal, it may wish first to move into AIB’s existing quarters, while waiting for Ronan to complete a slightly amended scheme. But this assumes that a powerful new tenant wouldn’t desire an entirely new campus layout. At some point it likely will, if only to realise greater densities and technical performance under a coherent brand image. This too may have entered into Ronan’s calculations.

Large tech firms like Facebook, Google and Apple, have recently turned to commissioning purpose-built headquarters in the US and London. These have been designed by leading names such as Frank Gehry (Facebook), Bjarke Ingels and Thomas Heatherwick (Google) and Norman Foster (Apple).

Neither Facebook nor Google have yet commissioned purpose-built schemes in Dublin.

So far, they have preferred to rent, buy and adapt finished buildings or those already under planning and construction.

At a packed-out talk in Belvedere College in early May, Ingels discussed his work for Google, but made no reference to the possibility of building in Ireland. The former AIB campus site could offer Facebook, or another tech giant, the clearest and boldest opportunity to do just that. It is hard to think of another site in Dublin 4 that offers similar potential.

The current hiatus suggests that RGRE’s two planned ranges might not now proceed as planned. This would come as a relief to local residents and those who opposed the dismemberment of Devane’s greatest work – but the reprieve could be short-lived. At some future point, a much more ambitious scheme may come into view.

Above: A computer-generated image of RGRE’s approved scheme for the former AIB Bankcentre, Ballsbridge.

Picture credit: Henry J. Lyons Architects.

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Page 10

T

Eoin Meegan he Book and the Body was a two day symposium, held in UCD in April, which comprised presentation of papers, discussion, and dance performance. The event was organised by twins Jessica and Megan Kennedy who formed Junk Ensemble in 2004, and are responsible for some of the most innovative theatre of recent times, including Soldier Still and It Folds.

The various papers presented over the two days explored such diverse themes as challenging the perceived boundaries of theatre, found objects, the cultural memory of abuse, suppression of the female voice, and other typologies of absence.

“When two unconnected objects occupy a shared space there is a tendency to make a connection between them, even where one is not intended. The very act of juxtaposition will force a synthesis in the minds of the audience.”

This was an observation made at the beginning of the symposium by theatre producer John Collins, known for his innovative and uncompromising work, particularly Gatz. Gatz is a marathon eight-hour verbatim rendition of The Great Gatsby that resists any attempt to make the text ‘fit’ theatre in the conventional sense, thus freeing it from the defilement of interpretation, leaving the audience with the raw experience of the roar of language, its purity, its truth.

Collins explained how the actors, playing office workers who find the text in the office, move from a kind of detachment, even boredom, to a gradual assimilation into the roles, so that by the play’s end the lead actor is Gatsby. A sweeping move from discordancy to wholeness.

This trope of disconnectivity, together with the medium of verbatim theatre found resonance in three other performances, No Escape, The Blue Boy, and Echoes of the Past, discussed in separated presentations, around a common text, namely the Ryan Report.

No Escape (2010) is a 90minute play by Mary Raftery, journalist and producer of the groundbreaking RTÉ television documentary States of Fear.

Directed by Roisin McBrinn, it was shown in the Peacock as part of the Abbey’s Darkest n

PERFORMANCE

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June / July 2018

The Book and Body experience

Corner series. In it, six actors read verbatim accounts from the Ryan Report in a performance that was both courageous and uncompromising. “The docu-drama takes something vast and brings it up close, there is an amazing sense of silence at the end of the play,” Dr. Pine recalls.

Brokentalker’s, The Blue Boy (2011), written and directed by Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan, is an expression through dance and body movement of the same disturbing material. Here, choreographed performers, complete with oblique facial disguise, move to a background of audio recounting testimony of the abused in spasmodic manner, mirroring the soulless existence of those condemned to the industrial schools.

In Echoes of the Past, the found space is now the actual streets of Dublin, specifically the area around Goldenbridge.

By downloading an app containing a 15-track audio of verbatim testimony from the Ryan Report (using actors’ voices), each around 90 seconds long and accompanied by an interactive map (historyhub.ie/echoes) you are directed to specific places approximating to where the events actually took place (you may, if you wish, listen online.) This gives the participant a sense of closeness, a forbidden intimacy almost, that creates a felt experience around St. Vincent’s Industrial School, Goldenbridge, which

was closed in 1983. There is something almost ghostly about walking around a landscape that no longer exists, and through the nightmare children were subjected to in the shameful history of Ireland’s recent past.

Echoes of the Past was created by Maeve Casserly as part of the Industrial Memories Project into analysing the findings of the 2009 Ryan Report, which was led by Dr. Emilie Pines.

“When you see a wall, you want to know what’s on the other side. But here in Ireland it appears that we didn’t,” Dr. Pines said, “so we had to think of a way to lower that wall.”

Fitting into this narrative of displacement were papers on Teresa Deevy’s 1936 play Katie Roche about a young woman who dares to dream of love, and of even becoming a duchess, only to find herself excluded because she was born out of wedlock and treated at the time as somehow defective.

These papers were supported by presentations on Nina Arsenault and gender fluidity and the repressed genius of Lucia Joyce which all expanded on and added to this fascinating topic.

On the performance side, there was a dance workshop

by Amanda Coogan and a live rehearsal of Doloros by Junk

Ensemble, based on Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita, which foregrounded the weekend symposium with its themes of displacement, alienation and unwanted incursions. Doloros subsequently showed at the Dublin Dance Festival.

A very stimulating two days of presentations, discussions and performances.

Footnote: Papers presented by John Collins, Artistic Director of Elevator Repair Service. NYC, ‘Don’t Adapt.

Adapt. Do it Wrong: Elevator Repair Service and Staging Literature’. Dr. Cathy Leeney, Assistant Professor Emeritus, UCD, (Not) Withstanding Love: Performance in Irish Theatre’. Aine Stapleton, Choreographer and Filmmaker, ‘Autobiography in Performance and Reimagining Lucia Joyce’. Dr. Emiline Pine, Associate Professor UCD, ‘Theatrical and Digital Responses to Testimony of Child Abuse’.

Oonagh Kearney, Filmmaker, ‘Creativity Made Visible as Female Embodiment: Text to Performance’. Dr. Paul Halferty, Head of Drama Studies UCD, ‘Nina Arsenault and Performative Body’.

Above: John Collins, Aine Stapleton and Cathy Leeney were speakers at the Book and the Body.

Photo: Eoin Meegan.

Left: Dolores (Junk Ensemble) conjoined.

Photo: Fionn McCann.

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PROPERTY / DEVELOPMENT

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Pandemonium over Poolbeg plans W n Alexander Kearney hile speculation has centred on the future of the social and affordable housing agreement for Poolbeg West, the recent oral hearing has exposed the many competing agendas at play across the Strategic Development Zone (SDZ).

The interests of the statebacked receiver, the City Council, planners, politicians, ministers, the Irish Port Company, various transport authorities, film producers, developers, environmentalists and local communities are all engaged in the c.34 hectares lying between Sean Moore road, Sean Moore park, Sandymount, and the sea. And many of those parties are now in open conflict.

The lines of division fall not simply between the receiver and housing action groups, but between the following: • The Irish Port Company and its tenant, Bisset Engineering who would like to have the right to raise a 20-storey tower.

• The Port Company and Lens Media, who wish to create film

studios on port-owned land.

• The Development Agency and environmentalists who fear the impact on local wildlife.

• Finally, between those who wish to build on the Eastern Bypass reservation, and the National Transport Authority (NTA) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) who insist that it be kept clear for a stretch of road that may never be built and is widely opposed.

Even the official size of the SDZ lands has been challenged, with one of the appellants, Lens Media, measuring it at 38.1 hectares.

Historically the exact size of the Poolbeg Peninsula has been a moot point. Look at old maps from the 18th and 19th centuries and the current lands do not exist – they were steadily reclaimed with increasing industrial use across strand and port areas.

The largest single portion of the current SDZ was occupied by the Irish Glass Bottle Company, which closed in 2002. From that point on, its 10.1 hectares (25 acres) would embody the rise and fall, and rise again of Ireland’s

property-driven economy.

In 2006, the Dublin Port Company sold the site for an astonishing €412 million to Becbay Ltd., a consortium led by Bernard McNamara, Derek Quinlan, and the State-owned Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA).

Anglo Irish Bank lent €288 million for the deal. Its chairman, Seán Fitzpatrick sat on the board of the DDDA, and DDDA chairman Lar Bradshaw served as a director of Anglo. The value of D4 land seemed limitless. In fact, it was at its peak.

Its fall would be even more dramatic. In 2009/10 the DDDA valued the property at just €50 million and by 2012, Becbay pegged it at €30 million – a mere 7.2% of its peak price. Some €100 million had already been spent on decontaminating the site.

That same year, NAMA would appoint receivers to Becbay, and the Environment minister, Phil Hogan, would announce DDDA’s abolition; its ‘assets’ and prerogatives were finally transferred to the Council in 2016. The adjoining 11-acre site, which had been owned by Liam Carroll’s Fabrizia

Developments, would now be grouped with the former IGB site in an effort to revive the c.14.7 hectares (36.2 acres).

The revival was officially kickstarted In late 2015, when Council Chief Executive, Owen Keegan requested an SDZ designation from then Minister, Alan Kelly; this was granted in May 2016. But the request and the grant applied not just to the IGB/Fabrizia parcel but to areas to the North and East controlled by Dublin Port, referred to as ‘B1’ (23.4 acres) and ‘B2’ (32.6 acres).

That designation has led to a series of increasingly bitter clashes over what those lands should be used for – and whose vision should prevail.

At the April oral hearing, easily the most assertive presence was Tom Phillips, an experienced planning consultant working for Lens Media, whose eye has been trained on the ‘B2’ area for several years. Its partners, James Morris and Alan Moloney, view it as a near-ideal location for a set of international film production studios.

But Lens Media is at a distinct

disadvantage. Not only does it not own the site, Dublin Port has explicitly told the company that it will not sell or relinquish its land.

Most of ‘B2’ will serve, perhaps in perpetuity, as a depot for shipping containers. Phillips went on the offensive – as recently as 2012, he pointed out, the Port Company had marked ‘B2’ as “non-core port land” and – as if the irony couldn’t be more pointed – had also consented to a planning application for a drive-in cinema on the same patch.

Just days before the oral hearing, the Port Company released its revised ‘Masterplan 2012-2040’– in it both ‘B1’ and ‘B2’ were deemed essential to the port’s future. Estimates for trade have been revised sharply upwards; the Port Company would need all its land.

Yet an even graver impediment to Lens Media’s €80 million venture is a set of dots arching across the Poolbeg SDZ map from Sandymount Strand, through the ‘B1’ and ‘B2’ areas and on to the Liffey. This describes the virtual footprint for the Eastern Bypass or M50 Dublin Port South Access Road. Or as Phillips called it, “the

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June / July 2018

elephant in the room”.

The Eastern Bypass has had a shadowy existence on various city plans for over forty years. It has been spoken of occasionally as an elevated bridge over Dublin Bay and more recently – but in no greater detail – as a tunnel descending somewhere in the Poolbeg peninsula, running under the sands and emerging past Sandymount. It has been repeatedly opposed by councillors and residents but has survived as an idea – the final piece in a road planner’s vision of a city ring road.

Its path is represented on other maps by a swathe of hatching entirely covering ‘B2’, eating into the IGB/Fabrizia parcel, and covering most of ‘B1’. That hatching describes a ‘corridor’ in which long-term development is forbidden, until a precise route is set – which may be never. In planning terms, this is known as ‘land sterilisation’.

Judging from a relatively brief statement at the hearing by Helen

PROPERTY / DEVELOPMENT

Hughes of Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII feels under no pressure to firm up those plans any time soon. Neither government nor the Council have exerted visible pressure to do so, and the sheer expense and complexity of the task have placed it a state of perpetual limbo. Hughes did clarify that the TII was comfortable with full development of the IGB/ Fabrizia site – despite hatching over its North East corner – but would block Lens Media, Bissett Engineering, or anyone else from building on ‘B2’, until the delivery of the bypass. Mr Phillips made his exasperation clear.

Nonetheless, the impact of that ban has real implications for whatever housing and commercial developments are finally built on the IGB/Fabrizia lands, The closure of the Irish Glass Bottle factory was a blow to local employment, and Lens Media has promised to bring some 1,800 jobs in studio production and 1,000 in digital production to the vicinity.

If the studios were built, they could be a major employer at the doorstep of a new community of some 8,000-10,000 people. Dublin Port’s activities are recognised as being vital to the city and the country as a whole, but port-related jobs (approx. 3,000) are likely to decline with greater automation. There is also the question of just how long a growing city can accommodate a facility that occupies so much prime land, but can afford to part with none of it.

The Poolbeg SDZ masterplan sharply illustrates this facture.

Within the IGB/Fabrizia plot, the Council has laid out a splayed village green, a broad central boulevard, a grid of apartment blocks of varying heights (between four and five storeys along the Sean Moore road and up to 20 storeys at certain focal points), and a raised linear park to follow the coast.

The plan can certainly be criticised for its lack of architectural flair – no real-life examples of best practice are offered to prospective

developers and the Council’s own CGI renders are numbing in their banality. Perhaps inspiration will strike when detailed applications are made, but the signs are not promising.

But what is most striking is that, beyond a commercial buffer zone along South Bank road, there are no new streets or other structures indicated for ‘B1’ and ‘B2’. And none appear in any plans or mockups. Indeed, the South Bank road seems to come to a dead end right where the outline of ‘B2’ begins.

Without dramatic change, the new community will be hemmed in by the sterilising path of the Bypass Corridor and bounded by the port activities that continue to flourish in its shadow. The Council’s vision could and should be brighter for the lands it controls; but for the remaining half of the Poolbeg SDZ it has offered no vi-

Page 13 sion at all. How long this standoff between city, port, and phantom infrastructure can continue is anyone’s guess, but it may last years, and perhaps decades.

After the hearing, James Morris of Lens Media stood in the lobby of An Bord Pleanála wearing a slightly rueful expression. I asked him how he thought it went.

“Well, we got a fair hearing, but we were asking for more clarity, not a change.” As someone with decades of film experience, he was surely familiar with the concept of development hell.

Clockwise from page 12, Poolbeg SDZ map and surrouding areas.

Poolbeg Chimneys.

Photo courtesy William Murphy.

Poolbeg / Dublin Bay from air.

Courtesy Google Images.

Proposed Poolbeg west SDZ area.

Page 14

C

n Alexander Kearney onstruction of the new National Maternity Hospital is finally due to get underway on the St Vincent’s University campus, Dublin 4 by the end of the year.

The 300 million euro project has been beset by public controversy since news broke in April last year that the hospital was to be owned by the majority shareholders of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, the Sisters of Charity and not by the state.

At the time, Holles Street master Dr Rhona Mahoney and Health minister Simon Harris were forced to defend this arrangement against fears that management of the National Maternity Hospital would be bound by a Catholic ethos, therefore prohibiting certain procedures.

The drama peaked when former master of Holles Street and Dr Mahoney’s brotherin-law, Professor Peter Boylan publicly condemned the agreement and resigned from the hospital board.

At one point, the crisis threatened to derail the move to the Elm Park campus altogether. In late May 2017, the Sisters of Charity announced their intention to withdraw from St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, public and private, and the principal objection to the deal was substantially removed.

Confirmation that the hospital would proceed came in late August, when An Bord Pleanála approved the ambitious scheme, with just minor changes. The application

PLANNING / HEALTH

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June / July 2018

National Maternity Hospital in the works

was submitted directly to the Board, under Section 37E of the revised Planning Act, 2000, rather than through the City Council planning department.

The new five and six storey facility will be located immediately to the east of the Clinical Services Building, to which it will be joined. It will contain a gross floor area of 50,776 square metres and hold 244 beds. The strategy of co-locating all maternity hospitals with other primary

care facilities was laid out in the National Maternity Strategy, 2016-2026, and renewed in the National Development Plan 2018-202.

The technical advantages of co-location were emphasised

by Dr Mahoney in her advocacy of the move. She also stressed the severe drawbacks with remaining in the existing cramped and outmoded city centre location. The number of babies delivered at Holles Street has risen by roughly 50% in the past twenty years

with 9,186 births in 2015.

This accounts for some 14% of the babies born in the republic as a whole. The NMH is not only the largest maternity hospital in the state, it is one of the largest maternity hospitals in Europe.

For local residents, the most contentious issue remains the impact of the new hospital on nearby traffic and parking.

This was highlighted in An Bord Pleanála’s oral hearing of 31st May - 1st June with particular concern expressed about the entrance junction with Nutley Lane. Provision for 277 new hospital parking spaces will be made by extending the existing multi-storey car park. A further 149 spaces are earmarked to replace those lost to the new addition.

The first site works will be aimed at limiting the release of aspergillus fungus during excavation and construction.

Aspergillus is of most concern to patients with weakened immune systems. In the planning documents, the building phase is projected to take some 56 months with a peak number of 500-600 workers on site. This suggests a completion date of 2022-23.

The principal architects for the NMH are O’Connell Mahon, who have become Ireland’s leading practice for hospitals within the past decade. They are also responsible for designing the muchdelayed Children’s Hospital in St James’s, and the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire, each now underway.

While the new NMH seems at last to be becoming a reality, the precise details of its governance have still to be announced. The areas of contention are likely to centre around whether the state, which will own the NMH building, will pay rent to St Vincent’s Hospital Group which continues to own the land.

Following the departure of the Sisters of Charity, it has been assumed that the public and private hospital will be run by a lay-only board, but it has yet to be stated whether this body will be accountable to any other group. Further details on these arrangements are expected in the coming months.

Images courtesy of NMH Planning and O’Connell Mahon Architects.

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June / July 2018

Legal Q & A

E

n Elaine Corcoran

laine Corcoran (right) is a Solicitor working in Ringsend, she lives locally and can often be spotted out walking her beloved dog Bam. She is here to answer readers’ questions and to give some guidance on current legal trends/developments.

Elaine can be contacted on 01 5617900 or by email: elaine@ corcoransolicitors.com Please email any questions that you have for Elaine to newsfour@gmail.com.

Dear Elaine I am thinking of attending a BidX1 auction to buy an investment property. I have never been to an auction before and I am not sure how they work exactly. I have seen one or two properties that would be suitable and in budget. Do you have any general advice?

P.R.

EC: Buying a property at auction can be risky business if you do not first complete your due diligence. The majority of properties for sale on BidX1 are sold by Receivers. This in itself is not an issue however the Receiver will have limited knowledge of the property and will offer little or no assurances in relation to planning,

structural issues etc.

Once you register your interest with BidX1 they will provide access to the legal documents. It is vitally important that you appoint a solicitor to review the title documents before going to auction. Your solicitor will check for liens or charges against the property and highlight any defects on title, issues with planning permission etc.

It is also very important to have the property surveyed, a survey will highlight any hidden structural damage. If your bid is accepted you will sign the contract and pay a non-refundable deposit.

The Contract for Sale will have strict closing dates so it is important to have a solicitor appointed and funds ready to go. Good luck!

Dear Elaine Six weeks ago my son was cycling home from school when he was knocked off his bicycle. He was lucky that he had a helmet on him. The man cycling behind him who witnessed the accident stopped to help and called the Gardai.

My son was taken to hospital by ambulance and sustained cuts and bruises to his leg, shoulder and face. I am furious as the car that hit him did not

LEGAL ADVICE

Page 15 have been involved in accidents with unidentified or uninsured drivers. I am assuming your son is under the age of 18 and therefore must take a personal injury claim through a ‘Next Friend’ which is usually a parent or guardian. The ‘Next Friend’ can act on behalf of the minor and make an application through the Injuries Board for compensation*.

A good solicitor will provide you with the best possible advice on how to move forward with your son’s claim*. Please feel free to call me at any time for a no obligation consultation.

stop, the Gardai are investigating but I feel they are unlikely to catch the driver.

My son has been left with a scar on his face. He hasn’t been back on his bike since the accident and is very nervous around cars. Can my son take a claim if the Gardai don’t find the driver?

B.B. EC: I am very sorry to hear of your son’s accident. Cyclists are one of the most vulnerable

Pictured above are members of Ballsbridge ICA with their knitting and crochet work.

Ballsbridge ICA meet every second and fourth Monday in the Iris Charles Centre Newbridge Ave. They will be resuming 10th September and new members are always welcome. For information phone 0863292117 or 0863380890.

Photo courtesy of Bridie Murphy.

road users and unfortunately accidents involving cyclists are rising year on year.

Should the Gardai not locate the driver, the MIBI (Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland) compensates* victims who

DISCLAIMER: Information provided is for general guidance only. Whilst every care has been given in the preparation of this article, Newsfour and the writer take no responsibility for the content. Independent legal advice, specific to your circumstances should always be sought. *In contentious business a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award of settlement.

Page 16

MENTAL HEALTH SPECIAL

Minding the Mind:

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A comprehensive guide to mental health

I

Eoin Meegan t is estimated that one in four people will experience mental health problems in their lifetime. The World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants on Health stated that depressive mental illness will be the leading cause of disease in high-income countries by 2030.

Research has shown that people with mental health conditions have a much higher mortality rate than that of the general population, and also suffer disproportionate rates of physical illness. This proves that our mental health does have a bearing on our physical wellbeing, and that caring for it was never more important.

To promote awareness of this issue, St John of God Hospital ran a series of public lectures throughout April. The lectures were given by senior clinicians from the hospital, and the topics covered were dementia, anxiety and the internet, addiction, and general mental health. The series was organised by Kate McCallion. NewsFour was there.

n

Dementia: a new approach The first talk entitled ‘Dementia, Who Cares? We Do’, was given by Norma Sheehan and Elaine Byrne, from St Joseph’s Shankill.

Dementia is an umbrella name for a large group of illnesses which include Alzheimer’s, Vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, Huntington’s, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). There are about 200 types in total.

The number of people with dementia in Ireland is expected to more than double over the next 20 years, from 55,000 today (two thirds of whom are women) to 113,000 by 2038. One in ten people diagnosed with dementia in Ireland is under 65.

Among the many myths about dementia is that it’s a natural part of growing old. This is not true.

Dementia is not an inevitability of the ageing process, which is really good news. Nine out of ten people over 65 do NOT have dementia.

There are four progressive stages of dementia: Early Stage, Altered Reality, Repetitive, and Later Stage. Each stage presents

its own problems and complexities.

The first sign that a person has dementia is usually cognitive behavioural changes: having difficulty following conversations, confusing their current home with the one they grew up in, not knowing how to use a knife and fork, and seeing colours differently. And of course the ubiquitous memory lapses.

Often, dementia sufferers are seen as aggressive or challenging, however, such labels of convenience are not only unfair, but also misleading. We should remember acted out behaviour can be a form of communication. It is better to listen to that communication and determine what it is they are trying to tell us, or ask for; in short to get inside the bubble they live in.

And this is exactly what a radical new approach to dementia known as the ‘Butterfly Model’ is aiming to do.

The Butterfly Model challenges us to live in the world of the patient rather than expecting them to conform to ours.

It sets out to make the world a softer and more manageable and friendlier place for them. One of tonight’s speakers, Norma Sheehan has been to the fore in introducing this new model in St Joseph’s.

It is a move away from a medical-centred form of treatment (which chiefly served the institution’s needs) to a new social model, which is patient-centred, and caters, firstly, for the patient’s needs.

The patients no longer live in large dorms, but in smaller, manageable lodges tailored to the particular stage of the disease they’re at. They go and come within the home as they please, get up and have breakfast at whatever time they want, just as you would do at home.

Staff do not wear name badges or uniforms, and are not set ‘apart’ from the patients. There are no drug trolleys, or nurses’ stations. All signs of authority are smoothed back.

Dementia is an incurable illness that can have a very long trajectory. This new butterfly model holds great hope for the future for those suffering with dementia. It has been a great success in St Joseph’s. All that’s

needed is a small shift in our thinking, away from seeing dementia as something to ‘fix’, to one of fixing our attitude to it.

Anxiety and the Internet Internet usage, as I’m sure you know, has mushroomed in recent years, and many people are concerned by our growing dependency on it, and its attendant anxiety.

In the second, very stimulating talk, Dr. Amy Watchorn explored the topic of ‘Anxiety in an Age of Information Overload’. She describes two kinds of people online; digital natives and digital immigrants Digital natives are people who were born in the 80s or later, also known as millennials. They have an almost umbilical connection to the internet, and feel they can’t do without it.

Digital immigrants, on the other hand, are those born before the internet came into existence. They use it for specific things, such as sending an email or booking a holiday, but it is not essential to their existence.

With continuous attention switching, multi-tasking, and bombarded as we are by a constant stream of alerts and messages that more and more demand our attention, online overloading can become a very real concern. Factor in intermittent detachment, attention span deficit, and you just ratchet up the rising sense of anxiety. Further, the sheer volume of information available online can actually retard, rather than assist decision making.

In the adolescent brain, the impulsivity striatum, or pleasure centre, is more dominant than the prefrontal cortex; it’s not until we hit 25 that the latter catches up. Therefore, information overload is even more or a concern for teens and young adults.

When the body experiences extremes of anxiety, it goes into fight or flight mode. This is an evolutionary mechanism designed to assist us in genuinely stressful situations, which becomes a hindrance if it gets triggered all the time. It was obviously never intended to get activated by the numerical amount of ‘likes’ we may have received on our favourite social media

platform.

So, having recognised the new phenomenon of digital overwhelming, what is the solution?

Dr. Watchorn outlined that our online activity, like any other, needs to have a purpose to it.

We need to choose when we will go online and how long we stay there. This is known as satisficing, the ability ‘to choose when to choose.’ Doing any kind of mindfulness practice was also advocated because it puts the person back in the present moment. The important thing is to maintain a balance between time spent online and off.

So, purpose, presence and balance are the words to remember.

“It is not selfish to take time out and care for yourself,” says Dr. Amy Watchorn.

The next question is, are we becoming addicted to our mobiles and social media, and, perhaps more saliently, is this causing an increase in cases of ADHD, autism and panic attacks?

The answer is we simply don’t know whether cases of autism and ADHD are more prevalent now than in pre-digital years or if it’s just that these conditions are being seen and recognised more now. And indeed, if they are, whether social media is the

significant driving factor behind them. Therefore, it is dangerous to jump to conclusions for which there may be no scientific basis.

Research is still only catching up and we are on the back foot with this subject.

In the discussion which followed this talk, it was unanimously agreed that it is too simplistic to blame the internet and social media for these very serious conditions.

And that sounds like good advice. Instead of setting out to demonise all social media, it is better to understand the causes as to why people are spending so much time there. Equally, to be familiar with your type, whether you are a digital native or a digital immigrant, and then, from that perspective, try to understand the other and not see them as something alien. One is not better than the other, they are just different. Obviously, this is even more important if you’re a parent striving to understand your digital native offspring!

Digital anxiety and information overload are undoubtedly real, and can pose a problem for the changing society we live in, but understanding that we’re different and being comfortable with that goes a long way to eliminating unwanted and

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June / July 2018

misplaced fears. Handled this way, and taking into account the safeguards and suggestions put forward, we can embrace social media in its positive aspects, a tool for education, gathering information, and connecting in a meaningful way with others, without becoming overwhelmed by it.

A way out of Addiction The third talk, ‘Addiction Services and Treatment Pathway’, delivered by Senior Addiction Counsellor Louise Rose, dealt with a subject that has sadly impacted on all too many families.

Addiction can be broken into two categories: substance addiction – that is substances ingested, such as alcohol, drugs, food - and process addiction; gambling, exercise, the internet, and so forth.

At St John of God’s hospital addiction is seen as an illness, one that can be treated, and no blame is apportioned to the individual concerned. The approach is an holistic one, and is tailored to meet the needs of the individual patient. It is not a one-fits-all approach.

Rose explained that when someone is caught up in an addiction, reality for them can become distorted, leading to a proclivity to understate and minimise the problem and their role in it. How this can manifest will vary; it may be a tendency to blame others, one’s job, spouse, or just the stresses of life. Or it can show itself in complex forms of defence, such as always appearing well groomed in public, or showing up on time; in short, behaviour one might not readily associate with addiction. Comparing oneself favourably with other addicts is another tactic.

The person may say, “well I’m not as bad as so and so.”

In St John of God the person with the addiction is taught to take ownership of their problem and not rely on these unsound crutches.

Then, when the denial starts to crack open, the person begins to get a real insight into how they were manipulating events around them and the story they were telling themselves. This is when recovery really begins to happen. They now start to get a true picture of their condition, not the distorted one the addiction was creating.

Understandably, this can be a very painful time for the patient, and they are given all the sup-

MENTAL HEALTH SPECIAL

port needed.

This is where, Rose points out, the nursing contingent in the hospital plays such a vital role.

The first point of contact for most patients will be the nursing staff, who not only help to allay initial fears but remain a constant source of strength throughout the programme. It is a very difficult decision for a person to come through the gates and admit they have a problem and this act of courage is duly recognised.

Among the many treatments provided at St John’s is the 28day programme. This is a residential form of care, with the patient being allowed home on the second and subsequent weekends. This serves to re-inte-

of God provide complementary therapies, such as aikido, pilates, yoga and mindfulness body work. Rose says patients particularly love this aspect of the recovery programme, as, again, it forges connection and is a lovely way of slowing down the mind and bringing people back into themselves.

Undoubtedly, families of those with addiction suffer too, not only with concern for their loved one, but also feeling there is no one they can turn to. St John’s organise special days where families can meet and bond with others in a similar situation. This helps alleviate feelings of isolation, and can be a great source of strength and comfort for all concerned.

prove this. In the study, participants were divided into three groups and given money. The first group was told to spend it on themselves, the second to give it to a charity, and the third group instructed to spend the money on somebody they knew.

At the end of the experiment all three groups were tested on their happiness level. And while all three reported an increase in happiness, it was the third group, who spent the money on someone they knew, who rated their happiness the highest.

Another study, this time carried out by Harvard University, has shown that 40 percent of our genetic makeup is there at birth, like the colour of our eyes, etc. and there’s not really much you

grate them back into society by degrees, as well as being a testing lab for the progress they are making. As part of any recovery process, decisions must be taken as to the appropriate changes in the person’s lifestyle, habits, and former associates.

On completion of the 28-day programme, patients are encouraged to participate in an aftercare programme, where they visit the hospital once a week for a year. This is a chance to discuss their progress with trained staff, as well as to strengthen new, healthy friendships formed with other recovering addicts. These are encouraged as they help to foster a sense of togetherness.

As well as the medical and psychological services St John

A very interesting and illuminating talk on the caring and compassionate work St John of God do for those suffering with many forms of addiction.

can do about that. But the hidden potential in this study means that there is 60 percent you can change or work with. So, by making small changes in your life you can make a very big difference.

There is growing evidence that mindfulness, good nutrition, and time spent in nature can all help at the milder end of depression.

Mindfulness is deliberately returning your attention to the present moment with acceptance. It is really the practice of paying attention to what’s going on around you and bieng aware of yourself – your feelings and thoughts in the moment.

It is recommended we do thirty minutes exercise each day.

Ciaran suggests running in the

The Art of Being Happy Are we genetically predisposed to being kind? This is a question which has been considered by many great thinkers down the ages and one which Clinical Supervisor Ciaran Cuddihy, in Building Better Mental Health, the final talk in the Minding the Mind series, unhesitantly answers yes. He points out that because in our evolutionary past we had to look after each other in order to survive, we are wired to be altruistic.

A scientific study seems to

Page 17 outdoors rather than on a treadmill in the gym; also not to exercise alone, but to bring a friend or workmate along, as another important health benefit is to enjoy meaningful interaction with others; that is surround yourself with people who make you feel good (a feature we saw in the talk on addiction.) This way, we benefit from the physical aspect and the social.

Do you constantly worry about the future, or find yourself having hypothetical arguments with others in the shower?

Sometimes we don’t value ourselves enough. When stressed, it is crucial we find a suitable way to deal with it and not be afraid to ask for help. Growing old should not be equated with failing health (remember nine out of ten people over 65 do not get dementia) but excessive worrying can cause premature ageing.

Practice gratitude. Be grateful to yourself. Think of three things every day which you are truly grateful for, and write them down. Too easily, we find ourselves distracted (for instance, with social media) and focus on stuff that’s not important. A change of routine is also good, don’t get stuck in a rut. Some people are more inclined to be happy than others, but if we can be flexible and adaptable in life, this gives us a head start.

There is evidence that doing these things can help prevent mental illness.

The meaning of life is finding the thing you like to do, and do it as often as you can. Above all, Ciaran stresses, be kind to yourself.

All of which affirmed the WHO’s statement above that the state of our mental health has an impact on our physical health, and vice versa, while ending an excellent series on an upbeat note.

SJOG run Wellness Courses, and Mindfulness Based Stress Relief Courses throughout the year. For more details see their website www.stjohnofgodhospital.ie If you wish to view these lectures, you can do so online at https://www.stjohnofgodhospital. ie/news/240-public-lecture-series-may-2018 Page 16: Dr. Amy Watchorn.

Photo: Eoin Meegan.

This page: Control your time on devices; get out in nature, connect with people and activities.

Picture: Google Images.

Page 18

CHESTNUT TREES, SANDYMOUNT GREEN

By Peter Carvill

Around Sandymount Green, the old chestnut trees Deck themselves in delicious green and unfold their pyramids of blossom.

The horse chestnut tree, Aesculus hippocastanum Linnaeus, Native to the forests of the Pindus Mountains and the Balkans, a classical tree Cultivated all across Europe for its magnificence; parks in Brussels Promenades in Paris, and yes, here in our small green in Sandymount.

I’ve known my chestnut trees from childhood. Growing up in Kilgobbin When it was still a country outpost just outside the pale of Dublin I climbed and explored the branchings and wide crowns of those thrilling trees, Gathered those polished mahogany nuts from their soft-spined shells Filled my pockets with them and strung them through for conkers.

Better still, I would relent and plant a few in pots and the spring after Find the fingered leaves of those newborn trees starting out On their long campaign for the greatness of their promise.

Even then I knew that if they lived they would see me out.

Better then, maybe, to smash conkers against each other in war; to shatter them!

Trees grow unaware of the part they play in our lives What then do I love when I love a tree, when for that love I help begin a story whose end I will not be here to witness?

Trees long outlive us. They do not die quietly; torn apart by storms They crash down, whole or branch by branch, feeding fungi in their slow demise.

But in the city, trimmed and kept within bounds, trees are pleached into our own story, No dangerous limbs are set free to reach out against angry weather.

Tended and kept, the branches leaf and spread to come to full May bloom Gracing our green with new green, with white, blood blotched blossom spikes And then, school back, brightening boys’ lives with windfall treasure.

And here in Sandymount where Yeats was born A bust of the man looks out from under his great rooted blossomers Watches the chatting elders sitting on the benches as their grandchildren, Torn away for a little while from the digital order of the day, Kick up the golden leaves and gather those burnished windfalls.

J

udith McAdam is a theologian, kinesiologist, inspirational speaker and lifecoach.

She runs a thriving practice helping men and women create exactly what they desire in their lives.

In The Source she puts the work she has developed over years on to the pages. Her methods are a blend of introspection, visualisation and mapping. But she also derives results from the principle power of her personal story. She herself found transformation through connecting with what she calls Source Energy. This she explains is a universal energy that lies all around us and supports us. We can

tap into it using various tools and create whatever we desire from it whether that be love, wealth, success or happiness. When you have flow all these tend to support one another. Her broad knowledge of alternative therapies, ancient spiritual traditions and world religions reveal an experienced practitioner whose ability to synthesise purpose and meaning and help people is backed by a open mind, informed by knowledge and intelligence.

Her methods revolve around seven principles to tune into this energy. A systemic order of steps; connecting, alignment, feeling and knowing, decisions and expecta-

BOOKS

www.newsfour.ie

June / July 2018

Good bugs or good drugs

E

n Paul

Carton

ver felt your mood lift after consuming yogurt? Or maybe your anxiety fell away after a certain meal? Or perhaps you live your life going by your ‘gut feelings’ and wonder has anyone done any science on what’s the source of power behind these simple solutions to life’s problems.

Although the benefits of consuming good bacteria, either from yoghurt or fermentables, has been around for centuries, it has only been now that scientists across the world are taking up a starting position to be the first ones to connect your gut bacteria’s diverse community to how you behave and deal with anxiety.

This book ‘The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection’ is a publication from one of those competitors on the starting line that want to open a new mood-enhancing bacteria market to compete with serotonin uptake drugs like Prozac.

The book is an accumulation from years of researching by the team at the APC Microbiome Institute at University College Cork. Leading the research at this institute are Doctors Ted Dinan and John Cryan. Di-

nan is a professor in psychiatry with his primary focus on depression and anxiety and Cryan is a professor in anatomy and neuroscience.

Now, as a team they are working together with a mutual goal to understand the interaction between brain, gut and microbiome and how it applies to stress, psychiatric and immune-related disorders.

This book is co-authored by science writer Scott Anderson, who presents Doctors Cryan and Dinan to the public, along with their findings as being an important achievement and milestone in the science connecting microbes and humans.

The book gives you neuroscience and microbiology 101 crash courses.

It also gives a glossary at the rear, which is essential when so many biological features are mentioned throughout the book, with bacteria alone having a number of aliases such as bugs, and microbes.

This allows you to develop a good understanding on the theory they are putting forward. But like anyone who approaches a book like this, you are going to want to know what are the names of these good bugs and where can I get them. Well, it’s actually all in the book. Tables are listed at the back and so are the references

they use.

The theory they put forward is still shrouded in mystery, as there are connections being made in the theory that can’t be seen as yet in practice.

However, it’s still a good read and one that definitely makes you pursue your own line of enquiry in terms of what you eat. The one thing that is proven in this book is that feeding your gut with fibre is a good start to a healthy life.

Dinan himself coined the phrase ‘psychobiotics’ to describe these bugs that are living in our gut that can have a feedback loop system with our brains and potentially open a whole new market for this venture.

If what Dinan and Cryan say is possible through this idea, then it won’t be long before we will be taking bugs instead of drugs. This book is available through your local library.

tions, momentum, receiving and completing the circle with lastly returning to reconnect with source

energy. She delves into mechanics of each and illustrates these steps in sections devoted to the separate elements which she explains in greater detail. She also provides toolboxes along the way as well as other supportive materials such as sample diary pages and useful planning tools such as life area wheels for the reader to clarify what needs tending to or balancing and map out where they need to manifest more of what they want.

McAdam has a clear and authentic voice and everything in the book is accessible and relatable.

She has warmth and her guiding wisdom and nurturing approach

are a gift that reaches across the pages. She gives effective and likeable advice about directing the mind and meditating, a f**k it philosophy that is very powerful against preventative anxiety and time wasting worry. As well as the ultimate manifestation tools.

Everyone who reads this book will get something powerful out of it. For many it will be a life-changing experience. Highly recommended. Tap into the wisdom, turn the pages and create miracles.

The Source by Judith McAdam published by Gill Books hardback €18.99 available at booksonthegreen.com

The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection; Scott Anderson with Doctors Ted Dinan and John Cryan. Published by National Geographic.

Above, from left: Doctors Ted Dinan and John Cryan.

Photo: Paul Carton.

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June / July 2018

The NewsFour Crossword Compiled by Gemma Byrne

Name:…………………………… Telephone:…………………

Address:…………………………………………………………

COMMUNITY ACROSS: 1) Main earner in a household (5, 6) 7) Label on the skin? (3) 9) Cover/Top (3) 11) Positivity (8) 12) Each (6) 13) Entertainment in the pub or round the campfire (4-4) 14) The food of love? (5) 15) Item, single element (4) 18) Triple vaccine given in two doses (1.1.1.)

19) Satisfy (4) 20) Active Sicilian volcano (4) 21) Harold, prize-winning British playwright (6) 23) The Eurythmics had a thorn in theirs (4) 25) Crush this tiny insect and you’ll be seeing red (9) 27) Thigh bone (5) 28) Louder (7) 30) North American deer (7) 32) Producing the desired result (9) 33) Attempted (5) DOWN: 1) Emission of light by living organisms (15) 2) Add-on (9) 3) You might reach a turning point on the way to

this place? (8) 4) Tactless (11) 5) Gave further info (10) 6) Tear (3) 8) Vegetable vendor (5, 6) 10) Feral Aussie dog (5) 16) Brief sleep (3) 17) X (3) 18) A half-note (5) 22) Nation of islands in the South Pacific (4) 23) More advanced in age or experience (6) 24) Spanish silver dollar (4) 26) Leader (5) 29) Consume (3) 30) Signal to begin (3) 31) Large university in south Dublin (1.1.1)

Page 19 SOLUTIONS FOR THE APRIL/MAY 2018 CROSSWORD Across (1) (1 across & 1 down) William Wordsworth; (3) Summer; (6) Rhododendron; (12) RDS; (13) Stracciatella; (14) Overestimating; (16) Voting; (17) Crooks; (18) Hoe; (20) Spa; (21) Two; (23) Angrier; (24) Initial; (25) Courgettes; (26) Utah.

Down (1) see 1 across; (2) Lid; (4) War; (5) Weasel; (7) Ourselves; (8) Orchestrating; (9) Existential; (10) Datun; (11) Obliteration; (12) Rainbowtrout; (15) Astonish; (19) Magpie; (22) Zinc.

Prize of €25 Book token. Post entries to NewsFour, 13A Fitzwilliam Street, Ringsend, Dublin 4 (above Clyne’s Butchers) by 18th July 2018.

The winner of our April/May crossword is A.G. MC Kean, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.

Page 20

PHOTO DIARY

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June / July 2018

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June / July 2018

PHOTO DIARY

Page 21

Page 22 n The SuperNatural Food Market ummer’s in full swing and it’s time to let the sun in whether it is shining or not! It is a blissful seasonal treat to indulge in the light floral flavours that come into abundance at this time of the year.

Fruits, nuts, edible flowers and refreshing drinks such as non-alcoholic ones with a herbal edge like elderflower cordial with sparkling water, chamomile infused homemade lemonade or pzazzy but light alcohols such as prosecco with added cherries, kirsch and amaretto while dozens of varieties of green leaves and delicacies such as asparagus, artichokes and fresh garden peas and beans are all to be savoured over the coming weeks.

Not forgetting that you can throw some fresh fish and lean meat cuts under the grill, in a pan or on the barbeque.

Eating al fresco is also a treat on any given day where we get weather that is either dry, bright or warm and especially so when all three occur together. These are great opportunities to put on a BBQ or cook light dishes, throw together some salads, serve some drinks and finish with something sweet and a cheese board and crackers.

It is perfect for two on the balcony or patio or informal get togethers with family, friends and neighbours or to prepare ahead or with leftovers and pack a picnic.

You don’t have to do much and, if it’s a larger affair, bringa-dish gatherings are made for the summer. (Our advice to the bringers: master your favourite dish and dazzle.)

We just can’t resist dessert (after salads) and we’ve found just the thing to keep us inspired: The Violet Bakery Cookbook from the London bakery and its owner Claire Ptak who made the sumptuous, mouthwatering organic elderflower and lemon curd, royal wedding cake for Harry and Meghan. The cake

S

FOOD

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The Culinary Corner

and indeed food menus were the star of the show as far as we were concerned. And all we followed was the cake news, obsessively, from the ingredients’ provence – (the eggs, elderflower, flour and lemons: local and Italian respectively; all organic) – to their quantities (immense.)

Her book is well worth a look.

And we’re firmly of the philosophy that a little bit of what you fancy is as good for you as the salads and sunshine we hope you will enjoy over the summer. As always, we encourage you to get to the local market and buy all your ingredients directly from the producers who grow and provide organic, clean, sustainable food, free from toxic agrichemicals and practices.

The idea of cooking lettuce may seem strange but hold your nerve and you will be enchanted with the result. You can char the leaves on a griddle pan or on a barbeque. A nice stiff, crunchy variety like cos works best or go for the delightfully tangy bite of chicory leaves if you prefer a bit of bitter, especially if you are adding sweet elements such as grilled red peppers or fruit into your salad. Great garlic-clogged dressings add serious kick. Tahini is a roasted sesame seed paste

that is high in iron, calcium, antioxidants and good fats. In ancient cultures and medicine, it is considered a giver of long life and prosperity Charred Gem Salad with Tahini Caesar Dressing.

• 6 Little Gems or 3 Cos or chicory or other larger, crunchy variety • 2 slices (Tartine Bakery) sourdough • 1 tbsp olive oil (our preference Sunita Greek or Palestinian) • Maldon Sea Salt & Sonnentor Black Pepper • Zest of unwaxed organic lemon • 40g Parmesan Dressing Half or 1-2 garlic cloves depending on taste, crushed with falt of knife and chopped • 4 tsp of Sunita whole roasted or light tahini • 2 tbsp of Greek yogurt • 1 tbsp olive oil • Juice of 1.5 lemons • 2 tsp Dijon mustard • 1 dash of tamari (wheat free long aged Japanese soy sauce) Mix the dressing ingredients together and blitz to smooth in blender, adding the lesser quantities together of garlic, tahini and

lemon juice and then adjusting to taste with more if so desired and set aside. Cut the lettuces or chicory in half lengthways, then again into quarters. Tear breads into pieces, drizzle with oil, season and put into oven at 190-200ºC for 5-10 minutes until crispy. Griddle the leaves on each side until charred. Toss in dressing put on platter, scatter the croutons, grate the parmesan over, dress and season to finish.

The next recipe will hit the summer soiree spot—a lightas-air spelt almond cake. Whisk it up, scatter with cherries and watch them sink or swim. Spelt is lighter than wheat and many with wheat intolerance can eat it.

It doesn’t give any bloating and its B vitamins are more easily absorbed, as well as it being high in anthocyanins, which are super immune boosters. Almonds are, in every respect, the food of the gods and unbeatable in both health and flavour terms.

Makes one 23cm cake, which cuts into 8-10 slices Spelt Almond Cake • 175g butter, softened, plus more for greasing the tin • 175g light brown sugar • 2 eggs • ¼ vanilla pod, seeds scraped

June / July 2018

out • 125g ground almonds • 175g wholemeal spelt flour • 2 teaspoons baking powder • ¼ teaspoon salt • 200g halved cherries, or whole raspberries or blueberries • 200g peaches or nectarines, sliced • 2 tablespoons caster sugar, for sprinkling rose petals, for scattering on top (optional) Icing optional • 200g icing sugar • 1-2 tablespoons rose water 1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3. Butter a 23cm cake tin and line with parchment paper.

2. First make the sponge. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and very fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla seeds (pop the scraped pod into your Vanilla Extract, see page 228). Add the almonds and mix to combine.

3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt, then gently beat these dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixture. The mixture will be rather stiff but that’s ok.

4. Spread the cake batter into your prepared cake tin and smooth the top with a palette knife or spatula. Scatter the cherries (or raspberries or blueberries) over the batter, then press the slices of peach (or nectarine) down on top to get the fruit inside the cake batter a bit.

5. Sprinkle with the caster sugar and bake for about 60-70 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean and the top of the cake springs back to the touch.

6. Let the cake cool in its tin for about 15 minutes before turning it out onto a serving plate.

7. If using the icing, whisk the rose water into the icing sugar until smooth and runny. Drizzle over the cooled cake. Scatter with garden rose petals if you have them. This is best eaten on the day you bake it.

The SuperNatural Organic Food Market is open every Saturday 9am-3.30pm; supernatural.ie to find us on twitter @supernaturalU / FB & instagram thesupernaturalfoodmarket Above: Spelt cake photograph by Kristin Perers.

Below, left: Charred lettuce Salad by Matt Russell for the Guardian.

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Page 23

June / July 2018

Science Room We are pleased to announce that after a lot of hard work and effort we have finally finished our new Science Lab. The St Patrick’s 5th Class girls were the first to use the room with our Transition Year Students on May 17th to great excitement.

Our thanks to Community Gain Liaison Committee and Iris O’Brien Foundation for their help in this project which was co-funded with the CDETB. Our colour scheme reflects the blue of the water the room looks out onto and the grey of some of the buildings across the water in Dublin Port. All classes from September will be using the room!

Girls Soccer Team This was Ringsend College’s first year to enter the FAI School Girls Soccer Leagues.

As numbers have doubled in the school in the last five years, we now have numbers to enter official competitions.

The Junior Girls Soccer Team made it all the way to the semifinal but were defeated, unfortunately. They had a great run

Ringsend College news

with local girls Abbie Larkin, Danielle Holmes, Kerri Coughlan and Rebecca Maher being leading lights on the pitch.

It was a great start to what will hopefully be a long and successful relationship with the FAI School Girls Leagues.

Well done, girls!

Graduation On May 17th the current 6th Years enjoyed an emotional graduation night in Ringsend College Assembly area with their families and friends in attendance.

As the first group to undertake the newly-introduced Transition Year Programme two years ago,

they have enjoyed many happy days in the school in their six years.

The slideshow created by 6th Year student Niamh Faulkner showed the many great times they spent in Ringsend College.

All eyes down now for Leaving Certificate in June!

Careers Night There was a huge turnout at our recent Careers Night in Ringsend College. Our thanks go to Linesight, ECOCEM, CISCO Systems, ESB, McCann Fitzgerald, The Marker Hotel, Mason Hayes Curran, Google, Arup, Pfizer, Airbnb.

They were joined from the Further and Higher Education sector by National College of Ireland, Ballsbridge, Inchicore, Crumlin and Killester Colleges of Further Education. Our TY, 5th and 6th Yr students spend the time speaking to as many visitors as possible about their career opportunities and experience.

Thanks to all for the support.

Paris for the TYs! The TY 2018 Trip was to Paris this year. A great three days was had by the students and teachers, where they visited The Arc de Triomphe, The Eiffel Tower, The Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum and Euro Disney.

Pictured: Ringsend College Senior FAI School Girls Soccer Team.

Page 24

DCC NEWS & COMMUNITY UPDATES

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June / July 2018

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June / July 2018

DCC NEWS & COMMUNITY UPDATES

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DCC NOTES

COUNCIL

www.newsfour.ie

June / July 2018

For April and May 2018 Compiled By Paul Carton

APRIL On the 9th of April the South East Area committee meeting occurred with Brian Hanney as acting South East Area manager (SEAM) Tree Programme for 2018: Councillor Claire Byrne queried the SEAM as to the details behind why trees in Stella Gardens/Rosary Terrace are scheduled for felling and replacement, as she was concerned the new trees might change the streetscape of the neighbourhood.

Cllr Byrne was informed by the SEAM that four large trees have been selected for removal at these locations as they are deemed to be over-mature for the location, in excess of 45 feet in height, and are not in scale with the surrounding dwellings.

The trees are of mixed species including Limes (Tilia species) and Plane tree (Platanus acerifolia.) In time it is anticipated that the trees will be replaced with smaller-growing more suitable street trees e.g. Turkish Hazel (Corylus colorna) or flowering crab apple (Malus triloba.)

These replacements, says the SEAM, will be undertaken subject to a street survey for services and tree roots prior to the next planting season.

Waste: On behalf of residents on Marlborough Road, Cllr Frank Kennedy told the SEAM that the Panda Waste Collection Service were collecting outside times of permissible hours laid down in bye-laws and this breach oc-

curred on two dates in March.

Cllr Kennedy asked the SEAM as to what procedure is in place to deter or punish these breaches. The SEAM informed Cllr Kennedy that as outlined in the waste collection bye-laws any company found in breach of them will be fined or prosecuted. The SEAM assured Cllr Kennedy that the Litter Management Office will investigate and take action.

LED Replacement Programme for 2018 Councillor Frank Kennedy asked the SEAM to examine the lighting on the road at Ailesbury Road, as he says the quality is poor and deteriorating. The SEAM confirmed that 10 lights on this road have already been replaced with LED lights and that as part of the 2018 programme they will aim to do the rest. The SEAM also stated that routine maintenance will also be carried out on this road as normal.

Areas logged onto Asset Management System for repair: A major pothole in the middle of the road at the junction of Eastmoreland Place and Pembroke Road and damaged road surfaces on Belmont Avenue, Mount Eden Road and Donnybrook.

Schools: Cllr Kennedy requested a lollipop person at the new site of Shellybanks Educate Together National School in Roslyn Park, Strand Road. The SEAM said that the Road Safety Unit will

carry out pedestrian counts once the school has moved to establish if it’s warranted.

MAY On the 14th of May at the South East Area meeting Rose Kenny was back in the SEAM chair.

Tree Programme for 2018: Cllr Frank Kennedy informed the SEAM that trees along the Sean Moore Road, Ringsend had not been pruned in a while. The SEAM told Cllr Kennedy that they are pruned ‘almost’ on an annual basis, but that they provide a buffer for pollution and noise from that busy road and also as a defence against prevailing winds. The SEAM confirmed an inspection was carried out on these trees and that no additional

work was needed on the trees.

Traffic, Driving & Parking There are issues on Fitzwilliam Street in Ringsend regarding parking. At the underground carpark at the Bottleworks, residents who have spaces in there requested a yellow traffic box to prevent illegal parking there.

This was denied by the traffic advisory group. Beside that at Tesco, the loading bay parking spaces paint is fading and illegal parking is becoming a nuisance for deliveries and shoppers. The SEAM confirmed that if they are faded they will be repainted within 30 days of this meeting.

Down the road at Aikenhead Terrace two new bollards will be installed to prevent motorists using Fitzwilliam Quay and Dermot O’Hurley avenue for ‘rat runs.’

Waste: A ‘truck load’ of rubbish still remains at Sandymount Strand near the Merrion Gates despite residents’ best efforts of a clean up. Cllr Frank Kennedy requests the DCC to clear the rest due to a health and safety risk, to which the SEAM confirmed arrangements will be made.

Up at the entrance to the Irishtown Nature Park Cllr Paddy McCartan sees a need for a ‘big belly bin’ to be placed opposite the entrance to Marine Drive.

But the SEAM was content with the service the Irishtown Nature Park receives at present.

LED Replacement Programme for 2018: Havelock square near the Aviva Stadium, is to have its low pressure sodium lighting upgraded to LED this year and also receive two additional lighting poles.This work is scheduled to be done in the coming weeks.

Areas logged onto Asset Management System for repair: A large pothole outside the block of apartments at no. 49 Sydney Parade Avenue. Potholes on Mornington road. Northbrook Lane and its adjoining roads, footpaths and kerbs. A sunken road surface at 29, Havelock Square and its adjacent footpath.

Cycling: Cllr Frank Kennedy requested an immediate repaving of a small patch of cycle lane on the N11 between RTE and UCD and also asked the SEAM to prevail upon the relevant department of the council to introduce segregated cycle lanes with proper traffic lights etc. on both sides of the N11 on this route. Cllr Kennedy brought attention to a recent tragic fatality at that location and demanded a comprehensive repair as a matter of urgency. The SEAM confirmed that Road Maintenance Services will examine the cycle track and report back on the matter.

Above: No pruning needed.

Left: Keep it clean.

Photos: Eugene Carolan.

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June / July 2018

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Page 28

SPIRIT AND POETRY

Connecting to source

W

Beibhinn Byrne hen I enter Sinead McDonagh’s holistic treatment room on Anglesea Rd, despite it being a freezing cold March morning, it is flooded with light and warmed with the sun. It is instantly relaxing and peaceful.

The room is in her home but is a dedicated space, held apart, strictly for her reiki practice and treatments. A spare, large and clean space. The treatment bed sits in the middle of the room under a large crystal light fixture and there is a shelf with some angel card packs, crystals and candles. The walls are white and huge glass patio doors allow a vista on to the garden whichs forms a natural backdrop to the treatment room.

She invites me to sit in the corner with two comfortable chairs at a round glass coffee table to fill out a form for any details she needs to know. The usual list of any possible health conditions as well as contact details.

She inquires whether or not I’ve ever had reiki before and explains what the treatment is and is not. It is a very gentle energy treatment, Sinead uses her hands over the energetic field of the body (aura) that connects our physical body to our higher bodies that are etheric and non physical.

She can detect any issues in and/or see what needs her tactile communication which then removes blockages and heals emotional and physical issues.

Using her gift she connects with the n

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n Kathrin Kobus o celebrate Yeats’s birthday on June 13th there will be a poetry recital on Sandymount Green. The focus this year is on Lady Gregory’s son Robert on the centenary of his passing. This is the poem William Butler Yeats composed in that Summer of 1918.

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death I know that I shall meet my fate, Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love; My country is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before.

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, Nor public men, nor cheering crowds, A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.

It is the last of the three elegies Yeats wrote between March and June/July 1918 after Robert Gregory was killed in action in Italy during World War I. The other two are Shepherd and Goatherd and In Memory of Major Robert Gregory.

higher source and invites spiritual healing through specifically invoking higher energies or beings and asking angels and other pure energy to come and assist with clearing and cleansing the body and other parts of our being such as mind and soul. Before we begin she offers me water or a warm, organic herbal tea ahead of the session commencing. I prefer not to drink anything and am keen to get started.

I lie on the treatment couch and close my eyes. Sinead instructs me to just relax, clear my mind and try to not focus on any thoughts that may arise. I find it easy to keep my mind clear and relaxed but others may need to be more aware of their thoughts and bring their minds back to being clear to stay connected with the present moment.

Sinead does not play any music at my treatment and we do not talk. She begins by using her hands a few inches from my body and head and moves around cleansing my immediate energy field.

It feels warm and in some places I can feel a pulsating and in other areas an increased heat. She then begins to concentrate on certain areas – for me my solar plexus (in the front centre of my body) my heart as well as the crown of my head. When she works on my throat and head, at two separate junctures I see colours (an electric blue and a golden yellow) very clearly with my inner eye. They are definite and not connected to thought at all.

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I do not share any of this with her during the treatment. She lays her hands on other areas of the body (that later she explains to me are intuitive, that is she works where she feels called to in any session) and often, much to my surprise, I can feel a ripple of inner movement through the tissues and muscles where she works even though she barely touches me, in this case my entire left side throughout my hip and arm.

Exactly the same as when I have had

Poems in the park

The fourth one sometimes added to this collection, Reprisals, is a later addition, and one that Lady Gregory was not too happy about in contrast to the first three, which she had practically demanded from Yeats. The poet in return delivered three styled, composed classical elegies and glossed over the rather poor relationship he had with Robert Gregory, as documented in letters and diaries.

The event on Wednesday 13th of June is not a literary panel discussion about the specifics of the Cowley eight-line stanza or the rather fractious relations between Yeats and Robert Gregory regarding the Gregory’s home at Coole. It is just to acknowledge and commemorate Yeats’s lyrics and bring some of his poems to life by reciting them aloud.

“That is how poetry works best, that is

June / July 2018

acupuncture, except there are no needles involved this time. I had not expected to experience such a definite material reaction to something so subtle and ephemeral and I’m impressed. I experience some other spiritual visions and sensations during the treatment.

Afterwards Sinead shares with me what she saw and felt treating me. She does this without me saying a word to her about what I saw and felt and what she says matches exactly with what I experienced. She invites me to pick an angel card for a guiding message to meditate on and also gives me a tea to make afterwards.

Afterwards I feel light and refreshed.

When I look in the mirror my eyes are very bright and clear and bluer than usual. I feel unburdened and carefree immediately afterwards. Later that day I feel tired and relaxed and make sure I get into bed early as Sinead advised. I sleep extremely deeply.

In the weeks following, events and opportunities just seem to flow seamlessly and I feel very open yet strongly protected.

A presence Sinead had specifically called in to do that.

I highly recommend Sinead. Her ability to connect with and facilitate her clients connecting with source is remarkable. Her Reiki treatments are the ultimate energy healing and stress buster. A private reiki treatment is €70 or book three sessions for price of two Phone: 087 8671843.

Photograph Sinead McDonagh: Reiki and Feng Shui Master and Healer. how Yeats created it, there are stories that he drove his sisters mad with when walking or marching through the house shouting the verses and the words out to get the rhythm right,” explained Anthony Jordan, the organiser for the event. He told NewsFour how the celebration of Yeats Day came about in the first place. “Years ago, I took some of our students out to Sandymount Green for poetry readings, recitals.

Some passers-by listened. So it just became an annual event at the anniversary of Yeats’s birthday.”

The former but now retired principal of the Enable Ireland school in Sandymount has also written a number of biographies about W.B.Yeats, Maud Gonne, Major John MacBride, Sean MacBride and various other illustrious political figures, including Winston Churchill and W.T. Cosgrave.

This year, he has invited students from Scoil Mhuire, Lakelands girls’ primary school to participate. They will step up on the pedestal and perform two poems. Anyone interested can join in to discover her or his lyrical muse or be content to be in the audience on the Green.

Yeats Day will be celebrated on 13th of June on Sandymount Green from 10.30 am onwards. Anthony Jordan can be contacted,Tel: 087/2076272.

Pictured: Charles Lysaght and other speakers on a previous Yeats Day.

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June / July 2018

EVENT

Page 29

New counselling and psychotherapy facility opens

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Eoin Meegan ewsFour went along to the launch of the new Bath Avenue Counselling facility situated over the Capital Credit Union on Bath Avenue.

The centre will serve the community by providing counselling and psychotherapy, jointly run by directors Eamonn Boland and Valerie Kilkenny.

Among those attending were local Senator Kevin Humphreys (Lab), Chris Andrews TD (Sinn Féin), and Cindy O’Connor, Chief Clinical Officer, Pieta House, along with family members and close friends.

The centre will provide a comprehensive range of therapeutic services in a professional, compassionate and supportive manner.

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Its aim is to provide a centre of excellence working with individuals, couples, families and adolescents.

The multi-disciplinary team will offer a range of specialised approaches to counselling and psychotherapy (talk-therapies) that deal with a variety of psychological, social, emotional and workrelated difficulties, including depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, suicidal ideation and self harm.

The facility has four counselling rooms and a larger room which will be used for group sessions, workshops, and presentations in relation to the counselling and

psycho-educational services on offer.

The building is bright and airy, situated between Sandymount, Ballsbridge and Ringsend, and has a feeling of home about it.

Both Eamonn and Valerie have a deep passion for their work. With almost twenty years of practice in child and family therapy behind them, they bring a wealth of experience and professionalism to the new venture. They are both experienced psychotherapists and supervisors who have practiced in both the private and public sectors.

Eamonn sees the counselling

process as one of “containment”, a sacred space between the counsellor and the client. When working with young people he told me, “we are not here to tell you what to do, but to walk the road with you”.

He went on to say, “our research to date suggests that we all need someone to talk to, someone who listens and someone who understands. It is our aim to provide a safe, respectful and confidential space where people can tell their story, talk about their experiences and develop their emotional and psychological growth”.

He described the acquisition

of the new premises at 13 Bath Avenue as “an exciting development and a dream come true”, and thanked the manager and staff of the Capital Credit Union, over which the new Counselling Centre is located, for “their support in accommodating a smooth transition into the building.”

We wish them every success in their new venture.

Pictured centre, from left: Eamonn Boland, Valerie Kilkenny, Daniel O’Mahony, Louise Brennan and Colm Early (PCI) at the launch of the new Bath Ave Counselling Centre.

Above left: Cindy O’Connor.

Above right: Senator Kevin Humphreys.

Photos: Eoin Meegan.

SEAN MOORE AWARDS

Page 30

Among the politicians present at the Sean Moore Awards were Councillor Paddy McCartan (Fine Gael), Senator Kevin Humphreys (Labour) and Councillor Dermot

Lacey (Labour). The speech was by Roisin Ingle, author and Irish Times journalist. Roisin is the daughter of Ann Ingle, who also has a long association with NewsFour.

Donal Slevin (Martin Hennessy collected award)

Sean Moore Awards 2018

Pierce Rooney

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June / July 2018

The award winners are pictured below and on the following page.

Photos: Eoin Meegan and Kathrin Kobus.

Geraldine O’Connell

Sue Cross

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June / July 2018

Ringsend Girl Guides

Con and Ann O’Rourke

Anthony O’Reardon and Sean Brennan

Sean Moore Awards 2018

Phyllis Ennis accepting the Jack Torpey Award on behalf of the Iris Charles Centre

SEAN MOORE AWARDS

Page 31

Catherine Kelly

Linda Dunphy

Senator Kevin Humphreys and Cllr Paddy McCartan with Pat Orr and Noel Murphy

Dean Coleman

A Sean Moore Award was also collected on behalf of Charlie O’Callaghan Conor Dodd

Michael Larkin

TRIBUTE

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Mam: Nora Lacey

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By Gerry and Brian Lacey am was born on 29 June, 1930, the feast of saints Peter and Paul, as she often said. As a child she was wild, impudent, stubborn and very independent.

Whatever about St Peter, St Paul mightn’t have been too amused by that cheeky female. Those were the nicer words used about Mam by her elder sister Imelda yesterday when we were reminiscing; I couldn’t repeat in a church any of the other words Imelda used. Thankfully Mam didn’t pass on any of those traits to her children. As everyone knows, we are all very quiet, shy and retiring people.

By all accounts Mam was very intelligent and one of the stories in the family tells how her eldest sister Lana’s first date with the man who would later become her husband was ruined when Lana had to leave early to go home to hear Nora on the radio. She was taking part in an Irish language Tráth na gCeist.

Nora was only 10 at the time and she won the quiz. She always loved everything Irish and in the last few months, although her use of any language had been severely damaged by her stroke, we used to tease her by saying that we wouldn’t bring her to Donegal for a trip until she improved her Irish pronunciation. Her stroke nine years ago left her invalided in several ways but perhaps the most frustrating thing from her point of view was that she, effectively, lost her ability to speak coherently. But, pecu-

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n Kathrin Kobus t the turn of the year, the list for the Community Gains funding was published.

The amount lined up for St.Patrick’s Community Football Club and Crusaders AC stood at a combined €1.6 million.

The funding will be made available to build an extension at Irishtown Stadium that will serve as a clubhouse but will also be accessible for other local community groups. Both clubs’ applications had been unsuccessful previously, so they were encouraged to join together with their plans.

NewsFour wanted to know how the money allocated to them will now be spent and asked their respective representatives. Derek Bowden is the chairman of St. Pats, the oldest sporting club in the Ringsend/ Irishtown area and says, “We plan to start a proper senior women’s soccer team. At the moment the girls can play competitively with Cambridge FC up to the age group of 14/15 and then they have nowhere to go. We want to change that. Women’s soccer is getting ever more popular and we will support that. This new clubhouse will allow our members

liarly, she didn’t lose her ability to sing.

Mam loved singing and had been a member of several choirs, including one called the Roly-Polys! In recent years, we often sat for hours with her singing: songs from the shows, the old Latin hymns and the songs in Irish she learned at school.

She could hardly speak at all but she made up for it by being able to sing in at least three languages!

On the day her sister Lana died we brought Mam to visit her in the Royal Hospital, here in Donnybrook. It was very early in May and, although she couldn’t say very much, Mam bid goodbye to her sister by singing ‘The Queen of the May’.

Mam had only one job before she married: in the office of the Leyland factory on Mill St in the Liberties. They made golf balls and Mam claimed to have met all the stars of Irish golf in the 1940s. She continued to be interested in golf long afterwards.

Then she met a young man not long up from the country, Tommy Lacey. She used to say that he was her only ever boyfriend.

They married when she was only 19 and he 21. The rest as they say is history.

Nora was devoted to Tommy but certainly never let go of her independence, and family bliss didn’t reign all the time.

Like for so many people in the 1950s and 60s, life was fairly difficult and money was very scarce for such a big family. But as kids we certainly never had any concept that we might be poor. I often say that I

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didn’t grow up in a house but in a community centre, as Mam fed half the kids in Donnybrook as well as her own large family. This required a great deal of ingenuity and on one occasion I even became a bit famous myself by managing to make 17 sandwiches out of one banana.

Our family originally came to live in Donnybrook to be near the cerebral palsy clinic on Sandymount Avenue which was attended by our invalid sister, Deirdre.

Deirdre, who became totally paralysed at 3 months of age, lived at home with us until she was 14; but then became too much to manage. My mother was heartbroken when it became necessary for Deirdre to go into a residential home, and this created an institution in our family called Deirdre’s Sunday. One Sunday a month

we would all be brought (maybe ‘dragged’ would be a better word) to visit Deirdre; first in Baldoyle and then on the Navan Road. To be honest, as kids we hated that but my mother was not going to let us forget that we had another sister.

When times were difficult, as well as looking after her own family Mam took a number of jobs outside the home. She also helped various other people. For example, she struck up a friendship with a traveller woman who used to come to the house regularly so that Mam could write letters for her. When she was in her 60s and 70s Mam bought a little motorbike for herself so that she could get around independently to her various activities. We, of course, dreaded the thoughts of this great-granny speeding along the Stillorgan Rd. She loved to travel and she and Tommy managed to get to see a great many parts of the world, especially when visiting the members of her by then far-flung family.

In recent years she looked forward very much to going to Lourdes with her sister Imelda each year. We used to say that she was just glad to get away from the rest of us.

On one level Nora was a very traditional Irish mammy. But she had fiercely independent views and was one of the most liberal people I ever met.

In Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and The Stars, a song says: The chestnut blooms gleam through the glade Nora, a robin sang loud from the tree.

When I first said I loved only you Nora, and you said you loved only me.

Sharing good for clubs

to come together after their games and chat and socialize.”

He emphasised as well, “The new facility will include a physio room, office, a storage space, four fully functional dressing rooms, a ref room and a kitchen area and a multifunctional room that can be booked for various community-related activities, but, firstly, it will be in use for the St. Pats and their members, young and old.”

He and treasurer Patrick Healy spent the last two years working and fighting to get the project of the ground. “It is not another community centre, but the community of Ring-

send and Irishtown will be welcome to use it, of course. Now the plans are with An Board Pleanàla. Before we applied we contacted, and got the support from, the local schools, primary and secondary level and from the Senior Citizens’ Complex at Cambridge Court in Cambridge Road and so on. The building will be wheelchair accessible. Once we get the planning permission, work could begin, hopefully this September.”

St. Pats will occupy the bottom part of the building, Crusaders AC, the running club will operate the first floor facilities. Their juvenile

June / July 2018

section needs more space to accommodate their members. “When we came here we had just around 100 members. That’s grown to 700, and of those, 300 are in the juvenile section alone. There is a waiting list of the children who want to join,” Said Michael McGovern, speaking for Crusaders AC. The track is used to capacity on the Saturday morning sessions, in particular. That’s fine during the spring and summer months, yet come autumn and winter, plus the occasional bad weather day all year round, it is apparent the space on the first floor will be needed to allow for

training to continue.

“Upstairs will be a long, wide, unrestricted space with a robust flooring, intended to be suitable for as wide as, a range of activities as possible. Also, the building will be identical in outlook to the existing stadium. The same architect is involved.”

Furthermore, the reception area of the stadium, built nearly twenty years ago, will get a make-over too, so that no one can just sneak in the gym or onto the track when it is busy. The only access will be the key.

Summer 2019 is the time-frame envisaged for the new-look Irishtown stadium, with new reception, new building attached and new facilities. Once that is done, St. Patricks’ attention will turn towards the pitch, which is, at the moment, unplayable for their league games.

“We’d like to play back here in the stadium for sure. But we’ll wait and see how that goes.” NewsFour will surely follow up how the project is going and will be there when the first steps towards actual construction is being undertaken.

Photograph: Kathrin Kobus.

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June / July 2018

LOCAL NEWS

David celebrates 100

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n Eoin Meegan any congratulations to local man David Crowe who celebrated his 100 birthday on the 28th of April last with family, friends and well-wishers in the Sandymount Hotel. Although born in the cottages in Harold’s Cross, David spent most of his life in Bath Avenue.

A former runner with Donore Harriers, David took part in races throughout Europe.

He is still fit and active and does press-ups every morning, putting many a younger man to shame! A non-drinker and non-smoker all his life, David attributes his good health and longevity to keeping active every day.

David lived through the making of history, including Irish independence and the formation of the New State. He recalls a time when he was very young, when the Black and Tans

kicked down the kitchen door in Harold’s Cross and took away two workmen, who were later shot. Years later, he worked in England and saw first-hand the destruction in both Birmingham and Coventry of the bombings carried out by the Luftwaffe. David has seen many changes in his long lifetime, most of which he believes were for the good.

A master plasterer, David is skilled in the highly specialised craft of Georgian moulding. His work got him involved on the set of many films, including John Boorman’s ‘Excalibur’. He worked in Ardmore Studies and over the years rubbed shoulders with many stars, including Maureen O’ Hara and John Wayne.

Not phased by modern technology, David has spoken to relatives on Skype, and only recently took his first selfie. A lifelong member of the Pioneer Movement of Ireland, his advice is “keep active every day and get up early in the morning.”

Sadly, David’s wife, Kitty, passed away eight years ago. He is the proud father of six children, Seamus, Elisabeth, Rose, Ann, Catherine and David, and many grandchildren.

We know everyone had a wonderful day that sunny Saturday, and we wish David many more years of health and happiness.

Photo: Eoin Meegan.

Page 33

Golden chips

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n Kathrin Kobus ational Fish and Chips’ day is just behind us. The last Wednesday in May is the designated day by Ithaca and participating takeaways offer everyone’s favourite combo of fish and chips for a reduced price, some do half price offers, other round it off to an even five or six euros, at any rate you got a special deal.

Gone are the days of eating the chips and fish out of old newspapers. Gone now as well are chips burnt to a crispy crunch, according to new EU laws that came into effect mid April. It is Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, that defines acrylamide as the culprit in food stuffs such as breakfast cereal, the toast and pastry/bakery items, the baby and infant food, coffee (roasted beans and the instant variety), the potato crisps, and of course chipper chips.

Acrylamide, only discovered in 2002, obviously has existed since mankind began to cook and therefore occasionally burnt their food. Now these mandatory measures are in place for food operators all over the EU to reduce the acrylamide levels in their products. Acrylamide forms when the amino acid asparagine reacts with any natural sugars present in the foods during production processes like frying, baking, roasting.

For the humble potato that means the starch levels have to be reduced before hitting the frying fat, and that’s achieved by washing it. This is standard procedure in the two chippers NewsFour visited before this year’s Fish and Chips Day. Leo Pagnani from Presto Takeaway in South Lotts

Road was mildly surprised when asked about the new regulations and not worried at all. “We get our potatoes in wholesale. We do the prep, all here in the shop, in the back, by hand – the peeling, I mean.” Presto’s potato of choice is the Golden Marquee because that gets transformed into the right golden colour of the finished chip.

Nunzio from Ferrari’s in Ringsend/Thorncastle Street names Jolly Rogers as his current favourite potato. Wholesale bags of 25 kilos are piled in the back rooms of the shops. The average day might see four bags of potatoes totalling 100 kilos go through the process of peeling, washing, cutting and frying.

Presto Takeaway has a queue out of door on match days at the Aviva of course for the customers who are hungry FAI or IRFU fans coming or going to a game. For Fish and Chips’ day Nunzio expected a fivefold increase from the usual day. “Half a ton, yes… That’s twenty bags.” The chips at his shop get fried not in oil but in beef tallow to achieve the right golden colour and fluffy consistency.

The queue outside later on Wednesday 23rd and the orders that came flying in proved him right. But seen as not every evening can be a chippers / takeaway day; here’s one big tip if you do fry your own chips at home: Don’t burn them to a frizzle and enjoy the BBQ season!

Photo: Kathrin Kobus.

Page 34

Railway Four Nations Elders

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our players from Railway Union HC are played for Ireland in a Four Nations Tournament (Scotland, Wales and England) in Three Rock Rovers HC, Grange Road. Three players were chosen in the Over 65s and one player playing in the Over 60s.

This was a huge achievement. The success and participation of these players at international level caused great support and interest at club level and NewsFour are delighted to congratulate and celebrate this very worthwhile achievement at Railway both at local and national level.

SPORTS

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June / July 2018

The Railblazers R n Kathrin Kobus ailway Union is a big club catering for various sports and for all ages. Prime among them is hockey. There are five women’s teams, five men’s teams, two veterans’ teams, a thriving junior section and then there are the Railblazers.

Aoife McCarthy and Margaret Shaw, both coaches at the club had something new in mind when they took up an idea from Monkstown about nine months ago. “The Railblazers first came about last summer,” said Aoife, “I saw that other clubs had set up para-hockey teams. Margaret was interested too so we put our heads together. I work with children with disabilities, so have a special interest in inclusion, particularly in sport as the benefits are endless. It is a small group of eight that come regularly on Thursday afternoons to practise on the astro pitch. The age gap between them ranges from 10 to 18. That is not a hindrance, because the training is supportive and not competitive.”

Everybody involved has been learning from the experience and changes and adaptations to the schedule have been,

gradually, coming along. “In the beginning we had a very structured setup; we started by saying hello, we did a warmup, we practised skills, then played a match, and we all said goodbye before we left. As the weeks and months have gone on, we have less structure. The group know each other so well by now that we don’t need introductions! In terms of drills and skills, this has developed naturally in line with the children’s abilities.”

Newcomers are always welcome and have only to bring gum shields and shin pads. The hockey stick will be provided for the training. It starts with teaching basic skills like how to hold the stick and block a ball, but evolves into techniques of tackling, passing, the normal things you would expect to see in a training session.

“I guess this group is so important as we provide a ‘mainstream’ sport (that many of the players’ siblings and parents play) but in an adapted and supportive environment that supports each child at their own personal level of ability.

We have seen many benefits to each child in terms of their verbal, their motor and their social

skills.”

There are four primary coaches, Aoife, Margaret Shaw, Karen Morrissey and Kevin Corcoran. They are supported by Eimear Linehan, Lianne Murray, Riona Norton and Rob Abbott, so that the training with their charges can take place one to one if necessary.

Of course, the long summer holidays are just about to begin, the planning is already under way for the next term. “We plan to continue with the Railblazers next season and hope to have open sessions for potential new members, but also have sessions with our mainstream colts group so that the Railblazers and the colts can meet their fellow clubmates.

They’re such a fantastic group that you cannot help but feel joy and pride after each session.”

Firstly, however, the Railblazers and similar groups from the Three Rock Rovers and Monkstown HC will be part of the Irish parahockey team that travels to Barcelona at the end of June.

Photograph courtesy of Railway Union.

Fans on the march to Aviva

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n Kathrin Kobus

he last Sunday in May saw a flow of blue and red topped people heading towards the Aviva Stadium.

Mostly the crowd was blue, however. Leinster played the Pro 14 final against the Welsh Scarlets. Parking spaces close to the Aviva were maxed out more than an hour before the start of the game.

Some of the younger fans in Bath Avenue came up with an idea to make some extra pocket money from the marching masses descending on the entry gates at Londonbridge road.

Nikolai, John and Mila had

sorted out some mini racing cars, for 40 cents apiece, but the money spinner for them was the lemonade.

But surely Fans in Blue or IRFU Green later celebrated the Leinster double of winning both the

Champions cup and the Pro14 titles in one season with something a little stronger when the hosts won convincingly by 8 points – 40 to 32.

Above: Geraldine O’Brien and Eoghan Farrell trying some homemade lemonade.

Left: The Bath Pub was packed.

Photos: Kathrin Kobus.

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June / July 2018

SPORTS

Page 35

Club in great shape for summer

new club house and a new club m a n a g e r, t h a t ’s h o w L a n s d o w n e Te n n i s is getting ready for a t r u l y b u s y s u m m e r.

Maria Kilkelly joined them officially in the last week of April. After more than two decades as a tennis coach in her hometown of Castlebar in Mayo, she has been working for the past five years with Te n n i s I r e l a n d a n d h a s been liaising with basically all the tennis clubs around Dublin.

Now she has committed as the fulltime club manager in Irishtown. “ Te n n i s r e a l l y r u n s i n m y f a m i l y, i n a w a y.

My mum played tennis, so did my sisters.

There was never any other sports that I really considered,” she told N e w s F o u r , “ We s p r e a d the word in the local schools both primary and secondary level.

From Marian College we have the TY students c o m i n g h e r e r e g u l a r l y.

N o w, i n M a y w e h a d f o r the first time this midterm mini-camp up and running.”

For the youngest part i c i p a n t s i t ’s n o t y e t the handling of the racket and hitting the ball over the net with accuracy that is the

important thing. The A B C o f a g i l i t y, b a l a n c e and coordination is the focus. And the fun.

“Agata Odachowska is our club coach and in charge for the coaching programmes for all members, young and s e n i o r. ” Eleven all-weather courts are available to them. The club ran a trial membership throughout May and hopes to attract newcomers to its place. Anyone interested in picking up a racke t a n d g i v i n g i t a t r y, might earmark a Thursday evening or Saturday morning. “Thursdays we run the social tournament night. New possible members can simply turn up and sign i n o n t h e n i g h t . I t ’s only five euros. There are some prizes to win and pizza to eat, afterwards.”

The same goes for Saturday mornings beginning at 10.30 am only the goodies on exchange are biscuits and cookies instead of pizza as a snack option afterwards.

Whereas these activities are directed at those trying out a new sport to stay f i t a n d h e a l t h y, t h e c l u b will be also be hosting two large competitive events this summer

for more serious players. One is the Junior Championship for Irel a n d ’s u p c o m i n g t e n n i s players aged between U12 - U18 during the last week of June.

“The players will have to qualify in the national rankings to take part. They have to be in the top 100. And in August from the 11th 18th we will also host the Senior Open, East of Ireland,” said Maria M a r i a K i l k e l l y ’s r e f ereeing qualification will surely come in h a n d y, i f o n l y t o s h a r e her knowledge and experience. “I went to Hamburg about two years ago for the course and I am the only one in Ireland (so far) who has the International Te n n i s F e d e r a t i o n r e f eree qualification.”

A d d i t i o n a l l y, there i s t h e r e g u l a r D LT L (Dublin Lawn Te n nis League) during the summer evenings. It is c l e a r , L a n s d o w n e Te n nis Club has big plans for the future to get more people, young and old, through its doors. The club house has been renovated recently and the function room can be booked in advance for social or family events.

Wi t h t h e s u m m e r h o l i days about to begin, the tennis club joins other local sports organisations with their own holiday camps. These

will run in the first two weeks of July between 9.30 - 2pm, for children from five years old upwards.

For more information just go along Londonbridge Road to L a n s d o w n e L a w n Te n nis club and pick up a leaflet, or contact the club by phoning 01 668 0219, or email info@lansdowneltc. com Above: Fun at the midterm break tennis camp i n M a y.

Left: New club manager M a r i a K i l k e l l y.

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n Kathrin Kobus

SPORTS

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June / July 2018

Lansdowne wins the treble

ansdowne FC dominated the Ulster Bank Rugby Division 1A league from start to finish, sitting in the top spot early on and losing only two games in February and March.

Here we look back at their last three games of this season played on home soil. For their last official league game, Lansdowne played not on the Aviva back pitch but on the main venue.

It was a quiet affair, first playing the bottom team, Buccaneers, who were already relegated. It took Lansdowne less than four minutes to run through the first try, then they sat back and only added to the score line more than twenty minutes later.

With the last play of the game before half-time, Buc-

caneers got a penalty and put three points up on the board for a 14-3. The second 40 minutes played out much the same as before. A quick try, converted brought another seven points.

Lansdowne stepped back another gear after the third try, and the fourth try came unconverted. Buccaneers were allowed to score in the last minutes. The final result was 26-17.

Obviously, thoughts were already on the upcoming semi final and the Bateman cup. Both games saw them facing the two teams that had managed to beat them in one league game.

Cork Constitution wanted to hold on to the trophy in the All Ireland Cup final, but the Bateman Cup now officially came back to Lansdowne Road after a wait of 87 years.

Lansdowne ran in five tries

during the game on Temple Hill and Scott Deasy was the man of the match. A week later, the semi final against Garrowen saw them facing the other team that had beaten them this season. The first half showed exactly how the team from the South had managed that. 8-6 was the slender lead after an unconverted try that Lansdowne took into the break, having just fought off another strong push

by Garryowen before the half time whistle.

That changed in the second half, just as it had happened the week before in the Bateman Cup final. The tries came in quick and fast and Lansdowne was well on the way to the Division 1A final on May 6th.

It was a truly, sunny scorching day at the Aviva on May 6th when Cork Con’s and

Lansdowne met for the final time to bring the 2017/18 season to its end. Tries were sparse.

Both sides only traded penalties and Lansdowne was lucky to go into the half-time water break with a 9-9 dram.

Seven minutes later, after the restart, Scott Deasy kicked the fourth penalty over and for the first time the Bateman Cup the winners were in front that afternoon. It lasted for less than 90 seconds because Cork Con’s replied with the first try of the game when Brian Hays put the oval ball down and Cork extended the lead to five points with a further penalty ten minutes later to 12-17.

In the heat of the first summery Sunday of the year, the Lansdowne pack pushed Tyrone Warren to put the ball over the line, got their try they needed

plus the all-important conversion. 19-17 it said on the display and twenty minutes were left to play. No more points were added for either team. Lansdowne could officially lift the Division 1A title of the Ulster Bank League.

One other trophy was left to be lifted and that happened on May 9th. It was curtains after a 53-22 win over Terenure in the Leinster Senior Cup showdown.

Three trophies at the end of an extraordinary, record-breaking season for the club’s history annals.

The challenge for the next one now stands to perhaps pull even with Shannon and win the UBL title back to back. But for now, rugby takes a summer break.

Photos: Michael Lansdowne FC.

O’Brien,

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C

June / July 2018

n Felix

O’Regan lub members, supporters and friends turned out in large numbers again this year to participate in the Darkness into Light walk in aid of Pieta House.

Although the start and finish point this year was not at the club in Sean Moore Park, that did not deter the Clanns ‘family’ from showing their support in any number of ways. “Over the years, it has been particularly satisfying to see Clanns members and supporters involved in community-wide activities and social events,” states Club Chairman, Bernard Barron.

“The Darkness into Light walk is one such particularly important event. We were delighted to be supporting it on the ground locally again this year.”

U8s take to the Croke Park pitch Our U8 footballers participated in the Littlewoods Ireland GAA Go Games in Croke Park. Under the guidance of Oliver Murphy, Alan Gallagher, Rade Arsenovic and Conor McAleavey, Clanns fielded two teams and each played a friendly match on the Croke Park pitch against Bray Emmets and Naomh Fionbarra.

Against Naomh Fionbarra the boys had a great start, but then allowed the opposition back into the game to score five unanswered goals. But Clanns came

SPORTS

Clanna Gael Fontenoy

Clanns see the light off and on the pitch

back after half-time to score six goals and two points. Meanwhile, team two faced some stiff opposition in Bray Emmets, but in similar fashion they were able to hold out against them.

It was a dreary, wet and miserable day so the boys (and supporters) were glad to hear the full-time whistle so they could retire to the shelter of the Hogan Stand and have a go at lifting the Cup. U15 girls top Division 1 Our Division 1 U15 girls footballers have claimed victory in all of their matches this season

so far. In their most recent fixtures they played Castleknock away and produced a very strong performance to secure a win on a score line of 9-9 to 1-7.

Next up was St Judes at home; and again the girls delivered a superb attacking performance and another very comfortable 15-11 to 3-2 victory. They are currently sitting joint top of Division 1 with three games remaining and unbeaten so far.

Hopefully, they will carry their fine form into the remaining matches.

Anything our Division 1 team can do, our Division 5 team can equal. Playing St Monicas home and away recently gave the girls two games over a short period of time. The home fixture resulted in a fine 4-10 to 0-4 win. The away match was a little tricky, but the girls showed their superior skill set to win again on a score line of 9-8 to 4-2. At the time of writing, the team remains unbeaten and is sitting on top of their Division with a small number

of matches remaining.

Winning ways for minor footballers With a number of victories under their belt, the Clanns minor football team occupies a very creditable position half way up what is a very competitive Division 2 league table. Their most recent outing showed that it was back to winning ways with a very impressive win over Naomh Mearnog, Portmarnock. Played in sun-drenched Sean Moore Park, the game was well controlled by Clanns; they played some exciting football and produced some excellent scores from a range of players. Rohan van den Akker had his best game in a Clanns jersey in some time, dominating play around the middle third, running at the opposition at every opportunity and scoring a really impressive 2-2 from play. Rory O’Kennedy, Evan Caulfield, Karl Morgan, Josh Tilson and Conor Pugh also had very fine games, while Donal Byrne in goal remained as

Page 37 rock solid as ever in preventing any goals.

Many of the players made the journey the next day to Parnell Park to see their team colleague, Conor Hennessy, debut for the Dublin minor team in their championship match against Louth.

He played very well throughout the sixty minutes in a game which Dublin won comfortably.

Record results for U16 hurlers Our U16 hurlers are flying in the league and currently share top spot in the table as they reach the half-way point in the season. Following a well-earned draw away to Castleknock in their first outing, they took on visitors, Kilmacud Crokes, in Sean Moore Park. In a very evenly-contested affair they seemed to have done enough to clinch victory, only for the visitors to score an equalising point to level the game at the very end on a score line of 2-12 to 4-6.

But better was to come in that this was followed by a great onepoint victory over Ballyboden St Endas; followed in turn by a comprehensive victory over Na Fianna. The lads will be aiming to keep up this fine form to the end of the season.

Clockwise from top to centre: Clanns minor footballers – back in winning form.

Clanns U8 football team graces Croke Park with team mentors Alan Gallagher and Oliver Murphy.

Division 1 table toppers – Clanns U15 girls’ squad Clanns people supporting Darkness into Light – left to right: Declan Darcy (Dublin Senior Football Selector), Maria O’Dea (Dublin minor footballer) and Conor Hennessy (Dublin minor footballer).

Photos courtesy of Kathrin Kobus, Brian Moran and Roger McGrath.

SPORTING HISTORY

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n Gavan

Bergin hilip Albert Meldon was born in Dublin on December 18th 1874, but he spent much of his childhood years in England, where he took to playing cricket and football.

After school, Philip returned to Ireland to study at Trinity College in Dublin, where he continued to play cricket and football and it became apparent that he had a lot of ability in both games.

In 1897, Philip gave a spectacular display of his sporting skills when playing cricket for Trinity. It was in a game against a visiting team of top professionals and internationals. He bowled brilliantly and utterly bamboozled their batsmen, including their captainthe legendary WG Grace, one of the greatest and most famous cricketers of all time.

Philip was no mean cricketer

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June / July 2018

PHILIP THE FIRST

and he went on to play FirstClass Cricket for Leinster, Ireland and MCC. But he was even better at football.

He was a centre forward with nifty pace and a booming hard shot. who first came to prominence with the Trinity College football club, Dublin University AFC, which was one of the first football clubs ever formed in Dublin. It was established in 1883, at a time when most organised football in the south of Ireland was played between teams representing British Army regiments, hence the nickname ‘the garrison game’.

The Irish Football Association was formed in Belfast in 1880 and Ulster remained the centre of football in Ireland for many years. Even when the Leinster FA was formed in 1892, and Dublin University was one of the five founder clubs, the southern association was still seen very much as the poor relation of Irish football.

In the early years of the Leinster League and Cup competitions, Army teams remained strong contenders for trophies, and teams like the West Kent Regiment and Royal Berkshire Rifles still provided much of the opposition, at the time that Philip emerged as a top player in the late 1890s.

But more local clubs were

rising to compete against the garrison teams, spreading the popularity of the game among the Irish people. In the south city area of Dublin, football became very popular and several vibrant clubs were formed, such as Shelbourne, Tritonville and the Sandymount club, Freebooters. This was the club that Philip joined and he helped it to become a famous team and a serious contender at local and national level.

It was while playing with Freebooters during the 1898/99 season, that Philip had his best year in football and his excellence earned him selection for the Leinster provincial team. He made his debut against London Wanderers at the Catholic University Ground in Sandymount, and played a fine game to help Leinster win 5-2, a highly impressive result in their first ever international match.

He kept his place when the team travelled to London to play Millwall FC on Easter Monday 1899. It was the first time a Leinster team had played in England, and they performed extremely well in a 2-2 draw, with Philip playing particularly well again, showing that he was a footballer of genuine class who had the ability to succeed against tough opposition.

Soon after those games, Philip was judged ready for a chance to be tested at the highest level and was selected to play international football for Ireland. He definitely deserved the opportunity, but it was not straightforward. The Ireland team of the time consisted exclusively of players from northern clubs and the Irish Football Association had always been reluctant to select from southern clubs. Despite the poor results of the team in its recent history, there was no likelihood that a Dublin based player like Philip would get picked for his country, no matter how good his form had been.

When the 1899 British Championship began, the Ireland team was once again made up entirely of players from northern teams. But, when Ireland lost their opening match that year against England, by a score of 13-2, something had to change. And sure enough, when Ireland, wearing their jerseys of St. Patrick’s Blue, walked onto the pitch for their second

match of the Championship, against Wales in Belfast on March 4th 1899, in the team, at outside-right, was Philip Albert Meldon.

Even so, with the Irish team’s record of only one win in sixteen, the Irish players and supporters must have been fearing the worst as the teams stepped out to face the Welsh.

The game kicked off in a crisp and bracing breeze. The Freeman’s Journal reported that Wales “attacked hotly, their striker almost scoring with a header in the very first minute, but then Ireland had their turn with a shot against the crossbar.”

Philip got quickly into the game, drawing an early foul, and from the resulting free kick, he sent a beautifully accurate pass to his left winger, who whipped in a first time cross into the box for his striker to head it, fast and straight but whizzing by a whisker, over the bar.

It was a grand attempt and Ireland pressed on, with Philip “putting in some fine runs.”

Wales, continually threatening to wrest back the initiative, kept the Irish defence on their toes and the game unfolded as a seesaw affair. In the last stages of the first half there were two good attempts by the Welsh, followed by a pair of dangerous tries from Ireland, each of which forced the Welsh goalkeeper into outstanding saves to keep the match at 00, which was how it stayed at half-time.

When the match restarted, Philip was again swift to get in the thick of it, putting in “a pretty bit of work” on the right as he played a ball to his centre forward, who brought it down the line before sending it back to Philip, who had continued ahead on a darting run forward, getting himself clear of the defence just outside the box to take the pass in his stride and with his right boot smacking the ball fast and straight into the back of the net.

It was, said the Freeman’s Journal, “a clinking goal which gave the keeper no chance, and brought about cheering from the crowd which was better imagined than described. Ireland did not ease off, they played up with renewed vigour, and the Welsh team had a pressurized

time of it. Meldon showed remarkably fine form, putting in very fine shots and was a prominent feature for the remainder of the game.”

That one super goal by Philip was enough for Ireland to win a furious and frantic match and, when the final whistle sounded, he was carried shoulder high off the pitch by jubilant Irish supporters.

It certainly was an exceptional debut match, and might have seemed to augur a long and fruitful international career for Philip. In fact, he played only one more game for Ireland and was soon out of the game altogether.

Philip left Trinity with his BA degree and embarked on a long military career, where he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery Regiment in 1900. He served with distinction in the Boer War and the First and Second World Wars and was awarded several medals, including the DSO. He died in London in 1942.

Philip Meldon spent a short time in football, but it was long enough for him to earn his place in Irish football history as the first, in a very long and distinguished line of goalscoring Dubliners for Ireland.

No Dublin man before him had scored even a single goal for the Irish team.

Of course, since then many players from the city, from Jimmy Dunne and Bob Fullam to Paddy Moore and Robbie Keane, have scored glorious goals for Ireland. But Philip Albert Meldon will always be remembered as the first.

Clockwise from top: Philip Albert Meldon.

The Meldons were a famous cricketing family. the Meldon coat of arms family-crest.

Irish Football Association original crest in 1880.

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SMALL ADS AND NOTICES

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