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29th April 2014 • Volume 21, Issue 15 • Leader House, North Street, Swords, Co. Dublin. • Tel: 8•400•200 • info@northcountyleader.ie
Swords Celebrates Last weekend, the town of Swords turned the By Patrick Finnegan clock back 1,000 years to the year 1014, where residents were treated to some great free family Brian after him. Examples include, Boroimhe estate, Boru Court and Gael Scoil Bhrian Boroimhe to mention a Boru events. few. The Murrough Road, which runs from As Swords has a Rathbeale Road up to huge involvement Brackenstown Road, is in the story of called after Brian Boru’s Brian Boru, the son. He was also slain in County Council the battle and was hosted a Fire Parade waked at Swords and a Viking village Abbey, the only last weekend, to remaining part of mark the final which is the Round chapter in the Tower, along with story of Brian his father. Boru’s demise at Legend has it that the Battle of the Battle of Clontarf Clontarf. It seemed was the reason for the that the entire town had introduction of the some involvement in the events. Drummers Local election candidates for the Swords Ward, Councillors raven as the symbol of Gerry McGuire, Anne Devitt and Darragh Butler, together from Colaiste Choilm with County Mayor, Kieran Dennison, are pictured getting Fingal. The region had a joined in the fire parade into the spirit of the occasion at the torch lit procession on strong Norse tradition, and history states that through the streets of Swords Main Street on Friday last. a standard, held by the Swords on Friday, defeated Danes, contained an image of the raven. adding to the great atmosphere of the occasion. The town’s connection with Ireland’s most famous The two-days of family fun also included a Viking High King, includes a number of places being called Village in the Town Park at Swords Castle, that
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Paul Reid, Fingal County Manager, Tony Lambert, CEO Fingal Dublin Chamber, Kieran Dennison, Fingal County Mayor, Ethna Felten, Director Fingal's Economic Development Services and Oisin Geoghegan, Head of Local Enterprise Office are pictured at the Mayors Economic conference which was held recently. See our picture special on page 6.
included battle re-enactments, archery and falconry demonstrations, as well as an exhibition on “The Vikings in Fingal”, talks for children on Viking life, and hands-on activities on what it is like to be an archaeologist digging for ancient treasures and remains. It was heartening to see the great interest shown by the youngsters in this fascinating look back at our history. All the focus on the 1000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf has been on places and events that happened closer to the city centre, with the re-enactment of the battle last week, but Gerry Clabby, the Council’s Heritage Officer, told the County Leader: “Fingal too has strong links to the Vikings and Brian Boru was brought to Swords by monks on his way to his burial at Armagh, after his death at the infamous battle in 1014. To mark this important anniversary, the
Skerries Lads Complete Cycle For Charity By Jennifer McShane
Andrea Molloy, Sales and Marketing Manager of the Maldron Hotel, Dublin Airport, saw the opportunity to promote the hotel on North County Leader’s innovative website. Andrea is pictured here with Seán Fitzmaurice, IT Director, North County Leader.
Skerries lads, Peter Montgomery and John Walsh, have just completed their amazing 3000km Moments of Clarity cycle down the length of New Zealand, in aid of suicide prevention charity, Save Our Sons and Daughters (SOSAD). They cycled every day (for six weeks) and, incredibly, finished three weeks ahead of schedule. They decided to cycle from the most northerly point of the north island of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, to the most southerly point of the south island, Bluff, near Invercargill. They said they wanted to take on this challenge to to raise awareness and fundraise for Youthline and SOSAD, which is an Irish charity. Peter said that the main goal of the cycle for himself and John, was
to raise awareness about the importance of speaking out about depression. Peter recently said he has suffered from depression for about six years, but in the beginning he didn’t really recognise that it was depression, and the aim was to try to help end the stigma that they say is around this. In raising this awareness, they also wanted to get as many Facebook ‘Likes’ for the initiative as they could to help spread the word, and currently the count is at well over 400. Speaking to the County Leader about the cycle, they said: “The six week cycle was epic in many respects. There were tough times and easy, fun times. The country we cycled through is a beautiful one with very friendly people and outstanding scenery. The physical challenges we met were enjoyable to deal with. Overall we would like to remind people to speak out about their mental challenges, which are quite often a lot more difficult to deal with than physical ones.”
Council organised a weekend of activities in Swords that included a night time torch-light parade to mark the funeral procession and the handing over of Brian’s body to the delegation from Armagh. We also have a number of exhibitions in our libraries at the moment that build a colourful and interesting picture of how the Vikings lived in this area at the time of the Battle of Clontarf,” he said. Story continued on page 10 Picture special on page 24
Working For You Councillor
Gerry
McGuire Vote No.1 Tel: 087 2381980 e-mail: gerry.mcguire@fingal.ie