Malahide

On yer bike: Star Brendan lends support for local charity cycleIRISH actor Brendan Gleeson may be a global star but he still makes time to support local charities. The Malahide resident waved off 130 gardai from different stations as they set off on a charity cycle in aid

of St Francis Hospice.He wished all the cyclists the best of

luck in the event, which started at the new St Francis Hospice in Dublin 15 and then on to Kilkenny in one day.Full Story on Page 7

Local groups get big funding boost

MIMI MURRAY

LOCAL charities and volun-tary groups in north Dublin got a major boost this week when they were awarded funding through Dublin Bus’ Community Support Programme.

The grants ranged between €1,000 and €5,000. Amongst those who received funding was the Malahide Justice

and Peace Group, which was awarded €2,000, as was Malahide United Football Club.

Meanwhi le , Ba lbr ig -gan North Youth Club was awarded €1,000 while the Dublin All Stars Marching Band was given €2,000 and the Balbriggan Youth Serv-ice was awarded €5,000.

Full Story on Page 6

YOUR COMMUNITY • YOUR PAPER September 29, 2011

ALSOINSIDE: GALLERIES ....................10

MOTORS ........................19

BUSINESS .................... 21

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

ENTERTAINMENT ........ 24

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

Sports Awards: September nominees are announcedPage 29

Football: Sylvester’s set for return of championshipPage 32

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ENTERPRISE WEEK: The inaugural Dublin Food Forum See Pages 8 & 9

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2 MALAHIDE GAZETTE 29 September 2011

A PERFECT SETTING FOR FAMILY FUN

TRAVEL, PAGES 22-23

With a setting in rolling countryside and with views of a spectacular golf course, the five-star Heritage Golf and Spa Resort in Laois is a huge hit with families. Dawn Love reports.

A much-needed footpath will not be laid in Kinsea-ly due to lack of funds.

F ianna Fa i l C l l r Eoghan O’Brien asked that the council extend the footpath around the corner of the church at the junction of Chapel Lane and Malahide Road, Kinsealy, in the interest of safety.

“These works have been included on the works programme, which is funded by the National Disability Strategy Fund. However, no funding was received from this fund for 2011. The works will be carried out as soon as funding becomes available,” the council told a Malahide/Howth area committee meeting recently.

No funds to extend footpath

KINSEALY: WORKS

Members of Irish Transplant Team with RTE’s Vivienne Traynor and husband Justin Treacy from Skerries (centre) with Lenny Ryan

(Tallaght), Peter Heffernan (Skerries) Ben Gaughran (Skerries), Owen Kelleher, Colin White, Race Organiser, Irish Kidney Association

(Balbriggan), Harry Ward (Baldoyle), John Moran (Glasnevin) and Allsun Henderson (Castleknock)

Husband and co-workers help Vivienne support run

MIMI MURRAY

[email protected]

RTE Courts reporter Vivienne Traynor, from Skerries, had planned to take part in this year’s Irish Kidney Associa-tion’s Run for a Life to highlight organ donor awareness. But Vivienne, who donated a kidney to

her nephew just over two years ago, found the date of this year’s run – Sun-day, October 23 – clashes with another important event. It is the same day she is due to give birth to her baby.

Keen to support the event however, she enlist-ed the help of her hus-band, RTE Sports News presenter Justin Treacy. Justin is planning to take part in the Fun Run, if he is not needed in the labour ward that day.

Vivienne and Justin met athletes from the Irish Transplant Team at the ALSAA Sports Com-plex, Dublin Airport, this week where Justin hoped to pick up a few tips on training for the run.

He hopes to be joined in the Run for A Life by colleagues from RTE who, along with other journalists who work with Vivienne in the courts, have promised to do the run on her behalf.

Donating a kidney two years ago has proved no barrier to having a fourth child for Vivienne.

“One additional check up with my nephrologist was the only require-ment,” she said. The transplant of her kidney to her nephew, Martin, has been a huge success for both donor and recip-ient, she said. “Justin was hugely supportive around the time of the kidney donation and he had no hesitation in stepping in

for me to take part in the run,” she said.

The TV duo are used to working as a team, hav-ing previously presented news bulletins together on RTÉ Two both before and after their marriage seven years ago.

Run for A Life coin-cides with the European Day for Organ Donation and Transplantation, held in Geneva on the previ-ous day. The European campaign aims to high-light the increasing need for organ transplants all across Europe.

Those participating in the Fun Run will have the option of walking, jogging or running competitively in either a 3.4km, 6.7km or 10km event in Park

West, Dublin 12, com-mencing 12 noon. The day is open to all mem-bers of the general pub-lic. There will also be an option to enter a team of three in a 3 x 3.3km Team Relay Race.

R e g i s t r a t i o n ( t o include t-shirt and par-ticipant medal) will be €15 for adults and €10 per child, and a family of two adults and up to four children can regis-ter for €35. Teams (three participants) entering for the relay can register for €40. For registration and further details, log on to www.runforalife.ie

For organ donor cards Freetext DONOR to 50050 or LoCall 1890 543639.

DONOR AWARENESS: IRISH KIDNEY ASSOCIATION’S RUN FOR A LIFE

No-go forHolywell school crossingTHERE is no funding available for a pedestrian crossing at the school in Holywell estate, Fin-gal County Council said recently.

F ianna Fa i l C l l r Eoghan O’Brien asked that a pedestrian crossing be placed at the location in the interest of safety for both school-going chil-dren and for parents.

“The Traffic section has been liaising with the principal of the Educate Together School in Holy-well in order to determine the most appropriate measures necessary to ensure pedestrian safety. It is reported that cur-rently there are 90 pupils attending this school, the majority dropped by car.

“The principal was very interested in the Walking Bus Scheme and has undertaken to establish travel routes of pupils and will liaise with the recently formed Par-ents’ Association with a view to determining the level of interest in estab-lishing a Walking Bus Scheme.

“Work is due to com-mence on the permanent school building in January 2012, with a completion date of September 2012. When the new school building has opened, this matter can be revisited,” the council said.

COUNCIL: PEDESTRIAN SAFETY

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29 September 2011 MALAHIDE GAZETTE 3

Detailed list of local flower bed locationsFINGAL County Coun-cil gave a detailed list of its flower bed locations in Malahide at a recent area committee meet-ing.

In Malahide, they planted in Ard na Mara, Sylvesters Villas, The Green, the Grand Hotel, adjacent to the Tennis Club, Island View and Biscayne. In Portmar-nock, they planted in Martello estate and in Baldoyle Church, Dub-lin Street and Burrow-field Road in Baldoyle.

The council also pro-vides bedding plants, fertiliser and water- retaining gel for con-tainers and flower beds to residents groups and to Tidy Towns groups in Sutton, Baldoyle and Malahide.

PHOTOGRAPHY ‘Fear of it All’ takes third place

Malahide native snaps up big win in contestA MALAHIDE man has taken home one of the top prizes in the global epilepsy photography competition that took place on September 21, 2011.

Twenty-year-old James Leahy, a native of Mala-hide and a student at the Dublin Institute of Tech-nology, brought home the third prize in the prestigious international photography competi-tion that raises awareness of epilepsy.

James’s photo, entitled Fear of it All, finished ahead of over 300 entries from all corners of the world in the Internation-al Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE) photo competition Epilepsy Without Words.

“I have always been interested in design and photography. Since I was diagnosed with epilepsy at 13, it has helped me to express my feeling when I am angry or upset about having epilepsy.

“When I found out about the photo com-petition through Brain-wave – The Irish Epilepsy Association, I knew that I had to enter. I had just finished a project for my course at DIT and my mum recommended that I enter one of the photos I did for that called ‘Fear of it All’,” James said.

The photo expresses the feeling of anger and fear of having to go back to hospital because of epi-lepsy. The photo includes James’s MRI scan and some of his hospital iden-tification wristbands. It also includes a photo of James himself laid over the brain scan.

“I didn’t expect to win

of course, so, when I heard that I had finished third, I was overjoyed,” says James.

Peter Murphy, from Brainwave – The Irish Epilepsy Association, was one of seven judges in the competition. “We’re delighted to have an Irish winner in the competi-tion and we hope that James’s photo, as well as many of the others sub-mitted, will be useful in helping to raise aware-ness of epilepsy, which is an often misunderstood condition.”

Over 37,000 people in Ireland have epilepsy, making it the most com-mon serious neurologi-cal condition. Epilepsy is characterised by unpro-voked seizures involving abnormal electrical activ-ity in the brain. Seizures take many forms, differ-ing from one person to another, and are usually dependent on which part of the brain the discharge of electricity originates. Some of the more com-mon causes of epilepsy include head injuries, strokes, brain infections and birth defects. How-ever, in up to half of all cases, no cause can be found.

Epilepsy is a treatable condition and up to 70% of people can become seizure-free through medication or, in some cases, surgery. However, Brainwave estimates that a minimum of 10,000 people still have uncon-trolled epilepsy in Ire-land. For this group in particular, the condition is a source of major long-term, yet often hidden disability, and one that

can lead to stigma and discrimination.

James’s photo was recently displayed at the International Epilepsy Congress in Rome, an event attended by over 4,500 doctors and epilep-sy advocates from around the world. His artistic skills with the camera have earned James a well- deserved $500.

Having just returned from working in the US for the summer, he now plans to continue with his studies in visual com-munications at DIT and

to hopes to become sei-zure-free.

All the photographs submitted to the competi-tion, including the prize- winners are available to view on the IBE website, www.ibe-epilepsy.org. The IBE is an interna-tional organisation of laypersons and profes-sionals interested in the medical and non-medical aspects of epilepsy.

For more information on epilepsy, see www.epilepsy.ie the website of Brainwave – The Irish Epilepsy Association.

James Leahy brought home the third prize in the prestigious international

photography competition that raises awareness of epilepsy.

COUNCIL: COMMITTEE MEETING


Mental health service challenge

HSE: COUNCILLOR CALLS FOR REPORT

MIMI MURRAY

[email protected]

THERE are going to be challenges to manag-ing acute mental health admissions in north Dub-lin following the perma-nent closure of St Ita’s, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said this week.

Neither are there plans for a Crisis Inter-vention Unit within the Mental Health Services in north Dublin, the HSE told a Regional Health Forum.

Mayor of Fingal, and Labour Councillor Gerry McGuire, asked the HSE to report on the acute mental health services for north Dublin, hav-ing regard to the 50% reduction in the number of acute psychiatric beds from the current 48 beds to 24.

“With this in mind, will the HSE outline where persons who are seeking psychiatric in-patient treatment be accommodated and where emergency psy-chiatric beds will be provided, noting that all the other mental health facilities are operating to maximum capacity,” he said in a motion he had tabled at the Forum.

In its response, the HSE said: “The Mental Health Commission (MHC) imposed… the perma-nent closure of Acute Unit Male and Acute Unit Female in St Ita’s Hospital – Mental Health Services by no later than Septem-ber 18, 2011.”

Following the closure, “the NDMHS is using a vacant 25-bed unit and day service space at the Community Nursing

Unit, St Vincent’s Hos-pital, Fairview, and use a six-bed Psychiatry of Old Age Unit in Connolly Hospital for a period of six months.

“It is accepted that the NDMHS will have to manage within the alloca-tion of 30 acute beds - 24 general and six Psychia-try of Old Age – and that there will be challenges to manage the acute admis-sions for north Dublin, with this reduction in acute beds.

“To assist with this reduction in beds, the RDO has written to all

area managers in Dublin north-east and requested that all mental health teams have access to all acute beds in HSE Dub-lin north-east in emer-gency situations. This is but a reinforcement of current practice whereby consultants contact each other when an acute bed is not available in their own approved centre.

“The Executive Clini-cal Directors have been requested to engage rap-idly to develop a protocol which should be followed in such situations. The Executive Clinical Direc-

tor North Dublin will convene this group.

“A new out-of-hours nursing service has also been put in place. This will operate from Swords and Coolock and will be available from 5pm to 8pm, Monday to Friday and from 10am to 6pm Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays.

“It is further proposed to refurbish the exist-ing Admissions Unit at St Ita’s Hospital to meet the standards set out by the Mental Health Com-mission. The NDMHS will re-apply to the MHC to have the newly refur-bished acute admissions unit, re-registered as an Approved Centre.

“This will result in a unit containing 38 beds, 32 for General Adult Psychiatry and six for Psychiatry of Old Age.”

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‘The NDMHS will reapply to the MHC to have the newly refurbished acute admissions unit, re-registered as an Approved Centre’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Local duo offering top cooking tips

FOOD: INEXPENSIVE, TASTY AND GREAT MEALS

T WO e n t e r p r i s i n g Fingal residents, Tony O’Reilly and Lorcan O’Toole have teamed up to show aspiring home chefs how to cook inex-pensive, tasty and enjoy-able meals.

Tony is a professional chef and presenter with over 20 years experi-ence while Lorcan has a lot of experience, both behind and in front of the camera, but not a lot of cookery skills.

ChallengeTony has taken on

the challenge of teach-ing Lorcan how to cook and they are videoing the whole thing.

E a c h we e k t h e y present a different dish using readily avail-

able ingredients, locally sourced where possible.

InvitingWhat’s more, they are

inviting anyone who wants to have a meal prepared in their home to contact them.

“We’ll be only too happy to come to any-one’s home and show them how to prepare a tasty meal.

“All they have to do is provide the main ingre-dients and let us video the event.

“We don’t charge anything for the lesson,” said Tony.

All their videos and many other recipes are available online on www.oreillysrecipes.com

Flights of fancy: Local airmen’s new skillsIT WAS certainly a busy week for north county Dublin aviators, as some of our very own, home-grown pilots brought their flight and command skills to impressive new heights.

Pictured this week after completing the Aer Arann

Command Development Course at the airline’s Santry headquarters were (from left) Captain Mark Lowry, from Kinsealy, Ross Concannon, from Malahide, Aer Arann’s chief executive, Paul Schütz, and Captain John Broy, from Clontarf.

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ITSA Malahide is a fantastic family friendly bagel store & coffee shop located right in the centre of Malahide on New Street. They have designed a spacious store with customers in mind and in the process have created a really great local meeting place with a friendly vibe.

A selection of signature bagels, salads, soups, smoothies and homemade goodies is on offer, made to itsa own recipes.

All their own food is produced in their central kitchen in Sandyford, so soups are extra tasty, goodies and cakes are made with natural ingredients and bagel fillings are always fresh and full of flavour.

Chat away in comfort as you sample fair-trade barista coffees and quality teas or even a glass of wine.

Visitors to the Malahide store should be sure glance upwards during their visit to

ensure they catch a glimpse of some of the other quirky touches that have been included in the funky, retro store design.

Kids are not forgotten at itsa, - they get their own special bagel selection, kid size treats & juices. A small kids play and activity area has also just been introduced recently - right outside in a covered patio area which is in full view of the main building.

The play area is stocked with a play mat and plenty of toys to keep young kids busy

while their parents can sit and enjoy a break and watch their children play.

An area close by is allocated as a buggy park and there are baby changing facilities within the café.

Customers can also enjoy the added bonus of the free wifi available

on site. N o n - t e c h i e s a r e

provided with a fully stocked bookcase with

plenty of interesting tomes to read in a quaint little reading nook within the store. Customers are encouraged to bring along their own favourite book to swap with one from the shelves.

There will be free face painting in itsa Malahide for the Halloween mid-term with a Fun Day on Saturday 29th October. itsa look forward to welcoming lots of new young customers on the day. www.itsa.ie. Tel: 01 8456744.

Family Friendly food and fun at Itsa Malahide

Taking the stress out of weight management

MIMI MURRAY

M A L A H I DE - b a s e d woman, Jacquie Han-son, owner and qualified counsellor of LighterLife Malahide and Maynooth, has helped the people of north County Dublin, Kildare and surround-ing areas shed over 1,173 stone in four years.

Before opening her LighterLife practice, Jacquie was a personal assistant and qualified aromatherapist. Jacquie discovered Lighter-Life through a friend in the UK and, after some research five years ago, found there were no LighterLife counsellors in the Republic. Jacquie travelled each week to Lisburn, a turnaround travel time of nine hours

to attend the programme. After completing her own weight-management journey and achiev-ing her goal weight, she was so impressed with the programme and the business model, that she made the life-changing decision to acquire the first franchise in Ireland and set up in Kildare and then Dublin.

Jacquie has expanded her business to north Dublin and has intro-duced an sssociate coun-sellor, Helen Creegan-Walsh into the business.

A business woman and former proprietor of four fitness clubs, Helen has been involved in the healthcare arena for the last six years. After her own LighterLife jour-ney, not only was Helen

very impressed with the business module, she was so delighted with her weight-loss and inspired by the programme that she trained to become a LighterLife counsellor.

Helen holds her week-ly morning and evening group meet ings at Orchard House, Swords Road, Malahide. The meetings consist of coun-selling in small, single-gender groups designed to help clients discover, address and understand the reasons behind weight gain, whilst devel-oping a new relationship with food.

“I’m delighted that, alongside Helen, we are bringing LighterLife to north Dublin. We are living proof that the pro-gramme works and both

Helen and I are looking forward to showing the people of north Dublin how they can reach their healthy weight-loss goals, thereafter manage their weight, and change their lives for the better,” Jac-quie says.

LighterLife takes the stress out of weight man-agement for clients, pro-viding two programmes – LighterLife LITE for those with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 and Lighter-life TOTAL for those with a BMI over 30.

Clients are happy once they have made their per-sonal commitment and even happier when they have reached their own personal goal, with the help of the weekly sup-port sessions and ease of the plan.

All Wright: The Global Part takes over local venueLIZ DUNNE and Natalie Rossiter look lovely in white at The Global Party at the Wright Venue recently. The event was just one of the world’s biggest parties that took place in 80 exclusive hand-picked clubs and venues around the world with the elite on the guest list. The Wright Venue was selected as the only venue in Ireland, with all proceeds on the night going to a selection of charities.

See Gallery on Page 10

HEALTH LighterLife counsellor changing livesWebsite for local ChamberMALAHIDE Chamber of Commerce is developing its new website and one of its main priorities is to ensure that all Malahide businesses are visible on the web.

“While we will highlight those who are members of the Chamber, we wish to list all businesses. Eamon Porter, John Byrne and other committee mem-bers are currently can-vassing businesses to ensure we include your correct data on the new site. If you want to submit data directly, please do so to [email protected]

“In addition to col-lecting information, the survey crew are soliciting your views on what the Chamber can do for you and what your priorities for business going into 2012 are,” Chamber Presi-dent Al Ryan said.

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MIMI MURRAY

FIFTEEN top travel agents from around Italy enjoyed a visit to north Dublin recently.

Their fact-finding trip was the grand finale of Tourism Ireland’s Irlan-da online training pro-gramme for Italian travel agents, designed to help them sell holidays to the island of Ireland. Each year, the top-performing ‘VIPS’ (Very Irish Peo-ple) are selected to visit Ireland on completion of their training.

Invited here by Tour-ism Ireland in Milan, the travel agents got to sample some of what north coun-ty Dublin has to offer, including a tour of Mala-hide Castle and lunch in The Bloody Stream in Howth.

Niamh Kinsella, Tour-ism Ireland’s manager in Italy, said: “As a reward for excelling in their train-ing on selling the island of Ireland, this group of travel agents got to visit north county Dublin. Familiarisation trips such as this are vital as influ-ential travel agents get to experience at first-hand the superb tourism prod-uct on offer in this part of Ireland; our aim is that when they return home, the travel agents will be better equipped to advise their clients when plan-ning and booking their holidays.

“Italy is an important market for tourism to Ire-land and Tourism Ireland has a busy promotional programme in place to grow tourism from this market for 2011, high-lighting the island of Ire-land as a fantastic holiday destination. The recently announced growth in visi-tor numbers from Italy of over plus13% for the first half of the year is wel-come news indeed and is an encouraging basis on which Tourism Ireland, together with our indus-try partners, will build in 2012.”

Travel agents visit Ireland

TOURISM: TRAINING WINNERS

Clean-cut: Youths get stuck inMEMBERS of JCI (Junior Chamber International) took part in a beach cleanup on Saturday, September 17 in the Burrow Beach in Sutton as part of JCI Ireland Active Citizenship Week. JCI Fingal is a leadership development organisation for people in their 20s and 30s and meet every month in The Grand Hotel Malahide. Pictured (back row l-r) are Katie Ryan, Aideen O’Rourke, Cormac Spencer, Eoghan Dockrell, Sinead Behan, Brian Smyth; (front row l-r) Jessica Ferguson, Philip Farmer, Joanna Michal-ski (President), Lizanne Kelly and John Sheridan. For more information visit www.jcifin-gal.com

Local charities benefit from Dublin Bus funding

MIMI MURRAY

[email protected]

SEVERAL north Dub-lin charities and volun-tary groups have been awarded with funding by Dublin Bus.

Dublin Bus gives grants to over 100 char-ities and community groups in the Greater Dublin Area, ranging from €1,000 to €5,000, under its Community Support Programme.

Malah ide Jus t i ce and Peace Group was awarded €2,000, Mala-hide United Football C lub was awarded

€2,000, Balbr iggan North Youth Club was awarded €1,000, Dub-lin All Stars Marching Band was given €2,000 while Balbriggan Youth Service was awarded €5,000.

A special recognition ceremony held in Croke Park was hosted by RTE Personality, Mary Kennedy, with spe-cial guests, Minister of State with responsibil-ity for Public and Com-muter Transport, Alan Kelly and chairman of Sunderland FC, Niall Quinn, who honoured the shortlisted groups

for all their hard work and their valuable con-tribution to their local communities.

Now in its eighth year, the event saw a wide variety of charities in the Greater Dublin Area receive funding under the scheme, including a Glenageary GAA club, a youth marching band from Swords and gospel choir in Dublin 1. To date over 1,100 various local community groups and charities have ben-efited through grants from this initiative.

Speaking at the event, Minister Kelly paid trib-

ute to all of this year’s winners saying: “I am truly delighted to sup-port the Dublin Bus Community Support Programme. Those who are being honoured today deserve the high-est praise for the work they have done for their community, which often goes unrecog-nised. They are the real heroes of Ireland and I sincerely hope that we always maintain a very strong community spirit and togetherness in our urban communities. This programme can help foster this.”

Commenting on the award winners, chair-man of Sunderland FC and Patron of the Com-munity Support Pro-gramme, Niall Quinn, said: “It is evident from the winning groups present here today that the recession has not dampened Dub-lin’s tradition of com-munity spirit. I have been involved with the Dublin Bus CSP pro-gramme as its patron since it began over eight years ago, and I have seen first-hand the dif-ference these grants can make to local commu-

nity groups whose work, though so important, often goes unnoticed. I want to congratulate all the grant recipients and commend them on all their hard work. This day is for you, you deserve it.”

Under the te rms o f the programme entrants submit a pro-posal with details about their organisation and the project they wish to have funded. Each application is then judged independently and grants ranging from €5,000, €2,000 and €1,000 are awarded.

EVENT: OVER 100 CHARITIES AND COMMUNITY GROUPS GET GRANTS

LOCAL shoppers rev-elled in the new River Island store that opened its doors in the Pavilions shopping centre last Fri-day.

This is an exciting step for the chain of cloth-ing stores, as it is the first newly-designed concept store to open in Ireland.

The store will stock women’s, men’s and

kidswear clothing and accessories, as well as the fantastic footwear range and all within a contem-porary fashion environ-ment. The store interior is designed in a “rough luxe” style with wooden floors, exposed ceilings, chan-deliers and a new LED fascia.

Commenting on the new store, Ian Hunter,

centre director: “We are delighted about the arrival of River Island, which brings an added dimension to the wide choice of fashion and other stores available to the consumer at Swords Pavilions. River Island is a strong retailer that consistently delivers the latest trends in fashion, great service and stand-

ards, and is constantly evolving its offer and look as the market place changes”

A number of jobs have also been created by River Island and this will add to the 100 new jobs already created in the last year within the centre.

This letting will further strengthen the line-up of key national and interna-

tional fashion traders at Swords Pavilions which includes Next, Zara, H&M, Mango, TK Maxx, A Wear, Jack & Jones, Vero Moda, Tommy Hilfiger, Pamela Scott, Mego and Best Menswear.

Since its acquisition in 2006 by property com-pany Chartered Land, Swords Pavilions has become one of Dublin’s

most successful shopping centres. Located adjacent to the M1 at Swords, the centre comprises over 80 stores and boasts an 11 – screen cinema complex.

The centre attracted over 11 million customers last year and continues to show growth this year. Swords Pavilions employs around 1,600 staff across all retail units.

River Island opens store in PavilionsRETAIL First newly-designed concept store to open in Ireland


LAURA WEBB

[email protected]

HE may be one of the biggest A-list actors to ever come out of Ireland, but Brendan Gleeson still makes time to support local charities, and waved off 130 gardai participat-ing in a charity cycle in aid of St Francis Hospice, a charity very close to his heart.

Brendan cheered on men and women from different garda stations, including Blanchards-town, when they set off last Wednesday, Septem-ber 21, to begin a char-

ity cycle from the new St Francis Hospice in Dub-lin 15 to Kilkenny in one day.

Now in its seventh year, the garda cycle is fundraising for St Fran-cis Hospices, with pro-ceeds going to St Francis Hospice in Raheny and its new complex in Blan-chardstown, beside Con-nolly Hospital.

Speaking to the Gazette this week, Brendan, actor and Malahide resident, talked of his admiration for the work the team in St Francis Hospice have done for many families, including his own, and

the work they continue to do.

Wishing all the cyclists all the best of luck, he said: “Fair play to them, there is 130 of them with wind right in their faces all along the way, it looks gorgeous, but it’s actually kind of blustery out there, so I wish them the best of luck. It is brilliant what they are doing,” the gentle giant said.

Vital

St Francis Hospice is very close to Brendan’s heart, as both Brendan’s father and mother were cared for by the team at

hospice in Raheny. He says he admires the work that is done and believes fundraising, like the cycle to Kilkenny, is vital to help run much needed facili-ties like the hospice.

“It was a transforma-tion for me. I remember saying that it renewed my faith in human kindness, and that is absolutely true, because when my folks were going through it, they completely took the burden and they [the team at St Francis Hospice] are a remarkable group of people, they really are.

“Everything about the whole ethos of the place

is life-affirming, which is kind of odd when they are dealing with death all the time, but it puts out a new context, it is just pure kindness. They are brilliant professionals in terms of the expertise and how to allow people to pass through, it is unbe-lievable. I have nothing but admiration for them,” he said.

Visiting the new state-of-the-art hospice in Blanchardstown, he said he was amazed to see how it looks. “It is phe-nomenal, light, air and space, I was staggered by it. I have been trying to

get out during the sum-mer and I haven’t been able to, but being here today I couldn’t believe it, its phenomenal.

Embracing

“There is brightness, and a homely feel, there is no sense of doom and gloom, it is just embracing life the way it always does and it is making death a part of life instead of the way we kind of remove it at times; the whole build-ing is crying out in that kind of way. When you know the people who are going to be staffing it, it is an absolute jewel,”

he added. Finglas Garda Inspec-

tor Colm Murphy said fundraising for the day-to-day running of the hospices is vital and, over the years, the cycle has raised money for the Raheny hospice and now it is helping the D15 hospice. “It [fundrais-ing] is vital. The facilities are second-to-none and it is nothing more than they deserve to have, but obviously it takes a lot of money to keep it running so this is just, in some way, giving a little back to help with that process.”

Hollywood actor Brendan Gleeson cheered on men and women from different Garda Stations, including Blanchardstown

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‘There is brightness, and a homely feel, there is no sense of doom and gloom, it is just embracing life the way it always does and it is making death a part of life instead of the way we kind of remove it at times; the whole building is crying out in that kind of way. When you know the people who are going to be staffing it, it is an absolute jewel ’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Brendan Gleeson, actor- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Gleeson cheers on 130 gardai in charity cycle

BEST WISHES Funds raised will go to St Francis Hospice

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

LOCALMATTERS

Brendan Gleeson with Sr Margaret Cashman and

Ethel McKenna CEO, St Francis Hospice


MIMI MURRAY

[email protected]

FINGAL Enterprise Week got off to a flying start this week with the first ever Dublin Food Forum.

Hosted by Country Crest at their headquar-ters in Lusk, 200 guests from the food and agri-food sectors across the capital attended the inaugural meet-ing, organised by the Fingal County Enter-prise Board and the Dublin Food Chain to mark Fingal Enterprise Week.

Michael Hoey, found-er of Country Crest, was one of four key indus-try speakers alongside Conor Hyde, from the Dublin Food Chain, William Linnane, from Tesco and Michael Lauhoff, from Bank of Ireland.

The Minis ter for H e a l t h , D r J a m e s Reilly, gave the open-ing address, with the Minister of State at the Department of Agricul-ture, Food and Marine, Shane McEntee, giving the closing address.

According to Oisin Geoghegan, CEO of Fingal County Enter-prise Board, the event appealed to both estab-lished and emerging food sector businesses.

“The Dublin Food Forum was the first and largest event of its kind for the food sec-tor in the capital and it was one of the biggest events of Fingal Enter-prise Week.

“It gave start-up com-panies and more estab-lished businesses an ideal platform to share ideas, exchange infor-mation and build con-tacts with each other through networking.”

Country Crest, one of Fingal’s biggest success stories, is a major sup-plier of fresh and chilled foods to supermarket groups.

Hoey, who co-found-ed the company with his brother, Gabriel, high-

lighted the importance of the Irish food sector to the overall economy.

“The growing export market for Irish food demonstrates the cru-cial role that the sector plays in our overall eco-nomic recovery.

“Initiatives such as the Dublin Food Forum supports the develop-ment of the food indus-try, which in turn, will reap rewards for Dublin and Ireland,” he said.

The Dublin Food Chain is run in con-junction with the Irish Exporters Association and is supported by the four County and City Enterprise Boards in Dublin.

Fingal Enterprise Week, which is sup-ported by Fingal Coun-ty Council, Bank of Ireland and Newstalk and organised by Fin-gal County Enterprise Board, continues until Friday, September 30.

Joe Harford, chairperson Fingal County Enterprise Board; PJ Howell, Fingal CoCo; Paddy Lonergan, Bank Of Ireland; Oisin Geoghegan, CEO,

Fingal County Enterprise Board and Paschal McGuire, regional director, Enterprise Ireland

Caroline Keeling, Keelings Group managing director; Michael Hoey, Country Crest

and David Keeling

Fingal County Council Lord Mayor, Gerry McGuire

welcomes Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly TD

Fingal Enterprise Week EVENT Two hundred guests from the food and agri-food

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‘The growing export market for Irish food demonstrates the crucial role that the sector plays in our overall economic recovery.Initiatives such as the Dublin Food Forum supports the development of the food industry, which in turn, will reap rewards for Dublin and Ireland’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Michael Hoey, founder

of Country Crest- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Michael Hoey, Country Crest; Joe Harford, chairperson Fingal County Enterprise Board; Oisin Geoghegan,

CEO, Fingal County Enterprise Board; William Linnane, Tesco and Gabriel Hoey, Country Crest

Lisa Murphy and Gerald Kean, chairman of Country Crest

Cllr Ken Farrell, Cllr May McKeon, Paddy Mulligan and Deputy Brendan

Ryan

Ross McMahon, food consultant and Yvonne

Neeson, Country Crest Anne Flynn and Colm Flynn, P&C Flynn

Conor Hyde, Bullseye Food Marketing; Ciaran O’Connor,

Bullseye Food Marketing and Bryan Hynes, Irish Farmers

Journal

Ed Spellman, Dunhill Cuisine and

Rena O’Donavan, Cully & Scully

gets off to a flying start sectors attend first ever Dublin Food Forum

gazette group

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A Wright rocking global celebrationO

N September 16 and 17 one of the world’s biggest parties took place in 80 exclusive hand-

picked clubs and venues around the world with the elite on the guest list, The Global Party.

The Wright Venue was selected as the

only venue in Ireland, with all proceeds on the night going to a selection of charities. Super Star DJ Roger Sanchez performed to a capacity crowd on the night, which was highly anticipated with a host of socialites and celebrities arriving in their finery.

Dylan McGrath, master chef; Holly Carpenter, Miss Ireland; Ali-son Canavan, super model; Rosanna Davison, Wesley Quirke, actor Liam Cunningham,and model and DJ Nadia Forde, were those attending the amazing event.

Claudine Van Den Bergh and Ali Flood

Nicole Gallagher, Katie Harbison and Aisling Glynn

Elodie Richard, Guoda Merksaityte, Gerard Beshoff and Lisa Vickers

Kate McCormack and Holly Carpenter

Lisa Nolan and Faye Rooney

Jamelia Gaynor, Aisling Dolan and

Jesse Brennan Joanne and Nicola Pollard

EVENT Celebrities party in style for a great cause

29 September 2011 GAZETTE 11

Low-calorie diets (LCD) encourage you to eat less and to starve yourself, which

has some major drawbacks

Eating right food helps weight lossTHERE are approximate-ly 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. Taking this into account the Nation-al Institute of Health has recommended that to

lose one to two pounds per week, a weight loss programme should create a deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories per day.

Traditionally, we are

12 GAZETTE 29 September 2011

taught that, if you take in fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight, and while this can be true, often there is little consideration given to the nutritional value of those foods.

Low-calorie diets (LCD) encourage you to eat less and to starve yourself – this has some major drawbacks. It often encourages the body to store extra fat and break down muscle tissue; also the body quickly adapts slowing the metabolism to match your caloric intake.

Effective

These diets often focus on low-fat foods, but the truth is that it is not the fat in your diet that is making you fat! In fact, you need fats for a number of meta-bolic processes, including fat-burning.

The good news is you can actually turn your body into a more effec-tive fat-burning machine without the need to go hungry by simply eating the right foods in the right quantities.

When participating in a LCD, people are often advised to eat more carbohydrates (carbs), which are low in calo-ries. A lot of carbs are termed high Glycaemic Index (GI). Eating high GI carbs causes a spike in your blood sugar lev-els and, when your blood sugar rises, this causes the pancreas to respond by secreting insulin.

Insulin is the sugar-regulating hormone that works to store sugar in cells as fat. When insulin does its job well, sugars are quickly stored as fat, causing your blood sugar levels to plummet and leaving you hungry and tired. Ingested fats and proteins, however, do not

cause this same insulin response and so are more likely to keep your blood sugar levels balanced.

On a LCD, people will often tend to avoid proteins because of their higher calorie content. This means overlooking the fact that, to digest and absorb protein, your body has to use 25% more energy to break it down than it does for simple carbs.

This is known as the thermo-genic effect. Protein is also vital for building muscle and, if you want to stay lean and fat-free, then you want to keep the body “anabolic” or building muscle.

Your body is naturally designed to be lean – it’s not designed to be overweight, sick and unhealthy and, if you eat the right foods, your body will tell you when you are full so you won’t have to go hungry.

Optimum

Your diet should con-stitute a reasonable mix of proteins, fats and low GI carbs. Real foods that will keep your blood sugars in balance, and provide you with optimum nutrition, are those foods that can be found in nature. They can be either picked, gathered, milked, hunted or caught from the sea. In short, if it doesn’t run in a field, swim in water, fly in the sky or grow in nature then you probably shouldn’t be eating it!

Derry Temple is a qualified nutritionist and provides free nutritional guidance to his fitness cli-ents. This month, Derry is offering readers of The Gazette the opportunity to Bring a Friend along for Free to any of the DT Fitness Bootcamp cours-es. Visit www.dtfitness.ie for more info.

GazetteFITNESSFITNESSBrought to you by

Derry Templepersonal trainer and

pilates instructor

NUTRITION: LOW-CALORIE DIETS


GazetteMUSICMUSICVeneration is due for Clark’s third album

St Vincent’s Annie Clark on stage earlier this year

ROB HEIGH

It’s not often that you come across an act on the basis of a cover ver-sion. But when that act is brave enough to cover one of the most abra-sive and angular songs from one of the most abrasive and influential underground acts of the last 30 years and nail it, you know there is some-thing special about them, especially when that act is St Vincent.

Steve Albini’s Big Black were a corner-

stone of industrial hard-core before it became fashionable in the early Eighties, setting off an incendiary device built on melody, grinding rhythms and ferocious attitude. Their stand-out track from 1986’s Atomizer was Kero-sene, with its uncom-promising subject mat-ter and interpretation, was underpinned with a propulsive beat and guitars like a chandelier shattering on marble. For anyone to attempt to cover it is brave

enough, but to capture its essence of ennui and fury is hugely impres-sive.

Played out live in New York in may, Kero-sene in Annie Clark’s hands was as direct and bludgeoning as it was in Albini’s, and it pro-vided an insight into the direction her music was going.

Clark has been a member of the euphor-ic psychedelic rockers, Polyphonic Spree, as well as being a tour-ing par t of Sur f jan

REVIEW: A DYNAMIC AND INVENTIVE BREAKOUT ALBUM FROM NEW YORK-BASED SINGER

Stephen’s band. Emo types will have heard her work with Bon Iver on a track that appeared on the recent Twilight soundtrack, but don’t let that put you off (the Twilight connection, of course, not Bon Iver, who is responsible for easily the best record of the year so far).

St Vincent are Clark’s individual presence on record, and Strange Mercy is as individual and unique a record as you are likely to find.

Previous records , Marry Me and Actor, have illustrated Clark’s talent as a multi-instru-mental i s t , br inging woodwind and baroque

arrangements to the playing field, but her new record, Strange Mercy, meshes all the best elements of her pre-vious work while simul-taneously peeling the wallpaper with squalling guitar and synth figures that utterly surprise and delight.

There is a beauty in

the arrangements and a sometimes symphon-ic pop sensibility that is shifted sideways by the uncompromising accompaniments and production.

There is so much going on in every track that you are always on your toes while listen-ing, waiting for the next twist, and it’s an immense pleasure to say that of any release, especially faced with a selection of cookie-cutter one-note acts one has the pleasure of reviewing in any given week.

This is work of some immense imag ina -tion and skill, easily the best of St Vincent’s three records to date, and should give Clark some breakout suc-cess, especially if you go and buy Strange Mercy now, which you really should.

GazettePETSPETSBrought to you by Miriam Kerins of

the DSPCA

THE FACTS: TEACHING ANIMAL WELFARE IN SCHOOLS

Is having a classroom pet a good idea?WE’RE only a couple of weeks back into the new school term, and I’m inundated with calls from teachers asking my opin-ion on classroom pets.

And, while it’s to their eternal credit that these lovely educators are interested in ensuring their students see them as a model of responsible pet care and are willing to ask advice – my opinion is, and always will remain, the same when it comes to this subject: I strongly discourage classroom pets for many reasons.

And here is why:Classrooms can be

noisy and frightening places for animals and it’s difficult to look after any pet’s needs in this type of environment. This applies to all animals, including goldfish.

While pets are an excel-lent way to add enrich-

ment to a young child/teen’s education and development, I believe responsible pet care and animal welfare can be taught in schools without keeping animals captive.

Studying an animal in its natural environment should aim to cause mini-mal disturbance whilst maximising educational opportunity. So, why not set up bird houses and feeding stations around the school yard, but please continue the feeding pro-gramme throughout the year.

In my humble opin-ion, there needs to be an explicit animal welfare education rationale for using animals in educa-tion – and legislation relating to animals must be considered in the development of all pro-grammes of study.

Where animals are kept

in schools, proper provi-sion should be made for their physical and mental wellbeing.

I would strongly disa-gree with any school or college that may decide to use a classroom pet to increase their attendance figures with the under-standing that, if students don’t attend, the animal will not be fed or taken care of.

And yes, this scenario is hard to believe, but a teacher did suggest this to me as a way of bumping up attendance. I abso-lutely believe this to be an inappropriate approach because it gives a nega-tive impression of how the school/college views its responsibility for the welfare of animals within its care, which may have a detrimental effect on the students’ attitudes toward their duties in later life.

Schools have a duty of care to ensure proper provision is made for the welfare needs of any ani-mals for which they are responsible. This applies not only during school term, but also during the holidays.

However, I will say that, when giving an edu-cation talk or workshop, I often bring along my experienced and trained dog Belle, but only when she is completely happy to accompany me and when the situation/envi-ronment permits it.

I do this because, as an animal welfare officer, I’m trained in observing a dog’s behaviour and rec-ognising its specific needs and requirements. I also always adhere to an ani-mal’s five freedoms at all times. If I feel one, any or all of these five freedoms are in danger of being

Classrooms can be noisy and frightening places for any animal


compromised/breached, I do not allow Belle, or any animal, accompany me on an education talk.

Considering a class-room pet? Ask yourself these questions:

• Why do I want a class-room pet?

• Can I meet my educa-tional objectives without using a live animal in my classroom?

• Am I willing and able to take this pet home? (It’s important to under-

stand that your responsi-bility does not end when the school day ends. You must continue to take care of the animal outside of school hours, including weekends and holidays).

• Are my students mature enough to safely and humanely handle this animal?

• Does anyone have allergies that may become aggravated by the pres-ence of this pet?

• What will I do if

health concerns arise in the future?

• Am I willing to pro-vide routine/emergency veterinary care?

• Am I prepared to deal with students’ questions should this animal die?

• Does my classroom provide adequate space for housing this pet?

• If there’s an accident involving this pet will my school accept liability?

• In the event of a school evacuation/emer-

gency, am I prepared to rescue this pet?

So, if your school thinks a classroom pet is still a great idea, then staff need to know their personal responsibility exists, irre-spective of whether the animal was purchased by the school or is owned by one of the pupils, teachers or parents.

If an animal’s needs are not being met whilst at school and beyond, crimi-nal prosecutions could, in theory, be brought against all persons over the age of 16 who had responsibility for that animal(s), includ-ing school staff.

My advice would be to contact the Dublin SPCA and check out our free humane education programmes and find out how you can help your students support us in our battle to save animals’ lives. The operation of the country’s oldest and larg-est animal rescue shelter requires lots of help and, if you feel you can offer it, please email me at [email protected]

For more info log onto www.dspca.ie or email me at [email protected]

REVIEW Bord Gais Energy Book Club and Other People’s Money

BANKERS behaving badly is a sore subject in the current economic climate, but it’s one that is only beginning to attract the literary atten-tions of novelists. One of the best such novels has just been published by the prize-winning, London-based South African writer, Justin Cartwright.

O t h e r P e o p l e ’ s Money tells the story of an upper-crust, fam-ily-owned private bank, Tubal & Co, which gets into trouble when it

deviates from its age-old mission of looking after the toff’s money and diversifies into the murkier world of invest-ment banking. Family patriarch, Sir Harry, has suffered a stroke and is recovering in his villa in Antibes. This leaves his son and new chairman, Julian Trevelyan-Tubal, free to take the sort of liberties Sir Harry would never have coun-tenanced.

Julian has lost the bank a packet on a dodgy hedge fund and now, in

an effort to sell the bank behind Sir Harry’s back, he needs to pad the balance sheet, moving money around to make it look more saleable to the Americans poised to purchase the house of Tubal. Sound familiar?

Things begin to go awry when a regular endowment to Artair MacLeod, the first hus-band of Sir Harry’s wife, Fleur, becomes one of the first casualties in the makeover of the bank’s finances. A local paper takes up the story

and attracts the atten-tion of a whistle-blower eager to dish the dirt on Julian and his nefarious scheming.

With Sir Harry near death, the urgency to sell the bank and resolve the succession brings out the worst in a memorable cast of characters, which includes the trophy wife, the black sheep, the scorned but faith-ful secretary and the memorable Artair who, however buffoonish, represents the enduring

v a l u e s of art while the bar-barians are at the gate. There’s also an intrigu-ing Irish theme involv-

ing Flann O’Brien and Daniel Day-Lewis.

This is a cracking satire on a topical sub-ject and it’s beautifully observed. Enjoy!

For lots more book reviews and to keep up-to-date with the latest literary news, become a member of the Bord Gais Energy online book club, bordgaisen-ergybookclub.ie where you’ll find great recom-mendations for hours of entertainment in a good book!

Bad bank yarn a familiar tale in these times



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GazetteBEAUTYBEAUTYEssential make-up I

T’S a magic ingredient that can lift a com-plexion, leaving you with healthy, flushed

cheeks and, this autumn, there is an array of beau-tiful blushers out their to suit every skin type.

One of the prettiest is by Lancôme’s Global Make-up Director, Aaron de Mey, who says that, when he set about creat-ing the classic skincare company’s new autumn essential make-up col-lection, he wanted it to represent the staples of a chic, sophisticated wom-en’s make-up arsenal – red lips; brown-lined sculptures, defined eyes, groomed brows and fluffy lashes, neutral-coloured

make-up with metallic hints layered over matt sculpting, defining pow-ders. A return to simplic-ity and sophistication ...

“It allows me to show a glamorous, graphic, sophisticated make-up style: Brown-lined eyes with shades of taupe, red-painted lips and red or sparkly, black nails... very femme fatale,” says de May.

The collection’s blush-er Maison Lancôme is so pretty, you will almost be afraid to use it.

Designed like a vin-tage postcard, the very essence of Paris has been captured in this season’s blush palette. The silhouette of the Eif-

fel Tower, the typically Parisian Art Nouveau streetlamp lighting, the cobbled pavement out-side the historical House of Lancôme at 29, rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, make this palette a true work of art.

Aaron’s top tip: “Use as an overall cheek blush with a large, soft, fluffy brush, keeping it high and central on the cheek-bones. It adds soft, sheer colour and definition to the face by illuminating the cheekbones.”

Maison Lancôme Blush €45.00

Meanwhile, from Yves Saint Laurent, their Blush Radiance will leave you with a half-matte, half- Lancôme’s Maison Lancôme blusher (top left) and Yves Saint Laurent’s Blush Radiance

satin blush that captures the light and transforms it into colour.

There are six delicious shades to choose from including Impetuous Beige, Celestial Mauve, Brazen Plum, Incandes-cent Orange, Mysterious Red and Spellbinding Violet.

All about Blunt

She almost stole the show in The Devil Wears Prada and now British actress, Emily Blunt, has been announced as the new face and ambas-sadress of Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium fra-grance.

Blunt has become one of the most popular and respected young actress-es working today. From the unforgettable, career-minded secretary in the award-winning comedy, The Devil Wears Prada, to her dramatic portray-al of the young queen in the biopic, The Young Victoria, it’s easy to see why her performances have earned her a ream of fans throughout the globe. Both perform-


GOT A STORY?WE WANT TO KNOW!

Call our NEWS TEAM on 60 10 240 or email [email protected]

Edited by Dawn Love

for autumn season

ances earned her Gold-en Globe and BAFTA nominations. TV gave her one of her finest roles, playing Natasha in Gideon’s Daughter, for which she won a Golden Globe award for

best supporting actress.Blunt has starred

alongside such pres-tigious actors as Meryl Streep, Benicio del Toro, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks, Julia Rob-erts and Anthony Hop-

kins. And, in the next 12 months, she will be seen alongside Ewan McGregor in Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, opposite Joseph Gor-don-Levitt and Bruce Willis, in Looper, and

British actress, Emily Blunt, has been announced as the new face and ambassadress

of Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium fragrance

with Jason Segel in Five Year Engagement.

Speaking about her new role with Yves Saint Laurent she said: “I am very honoured to have been chosen to be the face of Opium by Yves Saint Laurent.

“I have huge admira-tion for the House of Yves Saint Laurent and feel that this House has always truly understood the expression of ele-gance – its mystique and its indescribable power.

“It is a really excit-i ng expe r i ence t o embody this legendary fragrance, which has stood the test of time without its allure ever being diminished. Being a part of this new cam-paign and being able to tell the story of this very evocative fragrance is a real thrill.”

Mary to ‘campaign with passion’THIS is my first week as a for-mal candidate for the Presidency, thanks to the support of a range

of councils across the country. The fact that this endorsement came from a huge cross-section of society, including councillors of almost all parties and none, was deeply gratifying. Anyone aspiring to the Office of President must be a unifying force.

Deciding to run for President is a major decision for any citizen to take. Deciding to seek that job in succession to one of the most admired and respected holders of the office, President Mary McAleese, was an even tougher one.

As someone who has served since 2004 on President McAleese’s Council of State, I have seen up close the passion, energy and conviction she has brought to the office. She has set the bar high for her successor. She has shown how the Presidency can reflect and embody all that is good and noble about our people.

Over the past months I have been develop-ing my vision of how my Presidency could work to rebuilding pride at home and restor-ing respect for Ireland internationally.

It reinforces the reality that I come to this campaign as a truly independent candidate: an independent candidate with no party political affiliations or political baggage.

I have no political background or celebrity status.

Instead, I come to this campaign with a

strong record of getting things done and working with ministers and public repre-sentatives from all parties and none – not only here at home, but also across the EU. My career as an advocate for those who have been excluded and marginalised has been about quietly and effectively build-ing coalitions and alliances to achieve our goals.

Now, that I have secured that place on the Presidential ballot paper, I will spend the next six weeks campaigning with passion and vigour to bring my message to every vil-lage, townland and community across this land, from Aughrim Street to Ahascragh and from Malin Head to Mahon.

We have had something of a phony cam-paign over recent months, focusing more on celebrity and the fortunes of political parties than on the role of the Office of the Presi-dent. The Presidency is much more impor-tant than that.

Now that the closing date for nominations has passed and the choices we have to make emerge, I believe the time has arrived for the real debate to begin.

That debate should be about the type of Presidency our people need today. It should be about the values we wish to see reflected in Áras an Uachtaráin, and about the way in which the Presidency can work to repair Ireland’s reputation on the international stage.

The message I take into this debate is clear and straightforward – as President I will take a role in restoring pride in our country at home whilst rebuilding respect for Ireland on the world stage.

Mary DavisPresidential Candidate

OPINION Candidate’s Presidential visionGazetteContacts

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GazetteMOTORSMOTORS

THERE is new com-petition for the D segment of the car market, with the

arrival in recent weeks of the high-specification and keenly priced Hyundai i40. Given the specifica-tion and the performance of the car, it’s sure to be a real challenger for the cur-rent segment market lead-er, the Toyota Avensis.

The specification of the new i40 is impressive. There are some useful features on board, all at a much more affordable price that should put the entry 115bhp model on the road for a competitive €24,950, before delivery

charges.I drove an early edition

of the new Hyundai i40 at a dealer launch last May. Recently, I’ve had time to give the new i40 a longer test drive and get a feel for the car’s features, econo-my and performance.

There are two engine options for the new i40, both of which are based on the 1.7-litre turbo-diesel engine. There’s a choice of 115bhp or 136bhp and they each give reasonable driving power. I had the more powerful 136bhp version on the road in the higher priced Executive specifi-cation. That meant that I had the full specification package, with little left from the option sheet.

The higher-power car delivers more in terms of acceleration pace, but there is as always a com-promise in fuel economy and CO2 rating. The

entry model has a more sluggish pace with a 0 to 100km/hr rating of 12.9 seconds. The more powerful 136bhp version shaves about two seconds from this while only mar-ginally affecting the fuel economy figures.

Hyundai claims that this car’s value is hugely about running costs. The rated economy figure is 18.1km/litre (5.5l/100km) for this higher-power car. That should mean getting over 1,250km from a full 70- litre tank of diesel.

I didn’t achieve that level of economy, but was close to 1,100 km. That’s

still a good performance for a lively and comfort-able big car that weighs in almost as heavy as a Ford Mondeo estate.

Irrespective of engine choice, the cars have a low CO2 rating, 115gr (€104 annual tax) for the lower-power version and 135gr (€302 annual tax) for the more powerful car. Add that to the economy performance and run-ning costs will be low.

The interior of the new i40 is modern, while remaining functional and easy to use. Setting radio stations and the car’s Bluetooth mobile phone system is easy – I like that

ease of use feature. The car looks and

drives very well. It’s easy to drive and get comfort-able, with good seating and easy adjustment.

The entry price for the Hyundai i40 at €24,995 is very keen. That gives you good value, with modern styling and a five-year unlimited mileage war-ranty that alone is worth a lot. Moving up to the Executive option adds just €1,500 to the price. You get more features and more power, while the economy difference is minimal, and that’s why I believe this will be the most popular model.

Hyundai’s new gem in i40

NEW ELEC-TRIC VEHICLE AMBASSADOR: FOLLOWING a nationwide recruit-ment campaign in July to find a number of electric vehicle ambassadors, Renault has announced seven new recruits, including Ciaran O’Mahony, who will be based at Bill Cul-len Motor Group Airside.

Ciaran will be dedi-cated to the Renault range of electric vehicles and will help to build awareness and assist customers in making informed choices.

While the seven new EV Ambassadors will be experts in their field, the entire Renault network will be fully trained to sell electric vehicles.

Based in key dealerships around the country, these ambassadors will play a crucial part in the launch of Renault electric range of vehicles, which will see the Kangoo ZE arriving in November, followed by Fluence ZE in early 2012. Also in 2012, Renault will launch the Twizy, an urban two-seater quadricycle and the ZOE, a stylish com-pact hatch.

“Interest in the roles was very high and a huge number of applications were received,” said Sandra Rea, Electric Vehicle Project Manager at Renault Ireland. “These new recruits will be responsible for a number of tasks in the electric vehicle area.”

RoadRoadSignsSigns

AT THE Opel Ampera’s international media presentation in The Hague, Netherlands, last month, more than 1,000 journalists had an opportunity to assess the vehicle prior to its launch at the end of the year. One of the tests in the event’s Eco Drive Contest involved optimising the Ampera’s driving range in pure battery-powered mode by using an energy-efficient driving style.

According to the car’s technical specifications, it is possible to cover a distance of up to 80 kilometres in pure

electric drive mode on a single charge of the 16 kWh lithium ion battery. The results achieved in normal road traffic conditions were extremely convincing. Journalists who tackled the Eco Drive challenge successfully completed the 73 km test route on battery power and nearly a quarter had sufficient power left to cover at least a further 10 kilo-metres, according to the vehicle’s range indicator.

The most efficient driver could have driven a total distance of 95.3 kilome-

tres on battery power alone – roughly 15 kilometres more than the Ampera’s stat-ed maximum battery-powered range.

None of the participants risked run-ning out of battery power en route because the Ampera’s range-extender, a 1.4-litre gasoline engine, is used to generate power for the 111 kW/150 hp main electric motor if the battery becomes depleted. In this way, the four-passenger vehicle is the first electric car from a European manufacturer that is entirely suitable for everyday use due to

a total driving range of more than 500 kilometres.

Over 1,000 journalists gather to assess new Opel Ampera

Top speed: 180 km/hr

0 – 100km/hr: 12.9 sec

Economy: 23.2 km/litre

(4.3l/100km)

CO2 emissions: 113g/km

Road Tax Band: A (€104)

Warranty: 5 years

Entry Price: €24,995

SPECS: HYUNDAI I40 1.7D


The Opel Ampera. © GM Corp

The i40 combines stunning good looks with impressive economy, as MICHAEL MORONEY found out when he took it for a recent test drive

The new Hyundai i40 has a good size and solid feel to it, with the benefit of a full-size spare wheel and a high specification on the entry model at a competitive price

GazettePROPERTYPROPERTY20 GAZETTE 29 September 2011

Local amenities on their doorstep include Rathcoole Park, and there are primary and secondary schools with-in walking distance.

Some of the excel-lent Peyton house fea-tures include B1 energy ratings, no manage-

ment fees, a choice of Nolan fitted kitchens with granite worktops, and central vacuum systems. There are 9ft ceilings in living areas and kitchen appliances are included if the sale closes on time.

Viewing is recom-

mended and the show houses are open on Saturdays and Sundays from 2.30 to 5pm.

For further details, contact Glenn Burrell in Finnegan Menton, on (01) 614 7900 or Redmond Auctioneers at (01) 4589833.

Rose Cottage, Porterstown is on the market for the asking price of €395,000

A Rose Cottage by any other name

The fine interior design at Peyton is reflected across the range of house types

THE Peyton develop-ment in Rathcoole village is presenting to the market a new set of large three- and four-bedroom semi-d e t a c h e d h o u s e s , available from only €255,000.

There is a range of house layouts and sizes from 128 to 190 sq m, suitable for first-time buyers, trading up or down, and large family homes.

C o n s t r u c t e d b y Blackchurch Homes, these exclusive houses have a top-quality fin-ish at a very affordable price in a convenient village location.

All of the houses have large bedrooms, spacious living rooms, generous bathrooms and en-suites, decent sized gardens, and pri-vate driveways for two cars.

RATHCOOLE: SEMI-DETACHED LIVING IN VILLAGE

SHERRY Fitzgerald, Castleknock, are bring-ing Rose Cottage, Por-terstown, Dublin 15, a four-bedroom detatched bungalow, to the market for the asking price of €395,000.

L o c a t e d o f f t h e Por ters town Road , this bungalow, which extends to 1,700 sq ft, lies on .33 acre and offers enormous poten-tial to extend further, subject to planning per-mission.

Al though requ i r-ing modernisation, the accommodation is both bright and spacious.

The accommodation comprises an entrance hall with a wooden floor, alarm panel and

large storage cupboard, a living room, which overlooks the front of the property, and which has a cast-iron fireplace, a kitchen with fitted wooden units, a dining room with a patio door to the garden and an utility room with a tiled floor, and is plumbed for washing machine and dryer.

The bedrooms in the property are all double rooms, and the master bedroom has a walk-in closet, with feature cast-iron fireplace and wooden floors, as well as an en suite that con-tains a shower unit, whb and wc.

The bathroom suite comprises a free-stand-

ing bath, whb and wc.

Exterior appealOutside, The gardens

are well maintained and benefit from a westerly orientation, and it also

Peyton is still the place to be in Rathcoole

CASTLEKNOCK: A FOUR-BEDROOM DETACHED BUNGALOW FOR €395,000 IN D15

offers a high degree of privacy. There is a dual access driveway to the front, which provides ample off-street park-ing.

The property has an

alarm and oil-fired cen-tral heating.

Rose Cottage’s loca-tion is convenient to local schools, shops and restaurants in Clonsilla and Castleknock villag-

es. It is within a short distance of Castleknock Golf Club and the Phoe-nix Park.

Viewing is recom-mended and can be arranged by contacting

Carol Anne Galvin of Sherry FitzGerald, in Ashleigh Retail Centre, Main Street, Castle-knock, on 01 820 1800, or via e-mail on [email protected]


Unlock positive energy with bio-energy healing

Peter Woods, former Minister for Health, Dr Michael Woods, and Paddy Dalton at the launch

ENERGY BILLSQ – I am thinking of revamping my home to avail of some

of the energy grants available. My energy bills are huge

and upgrading now can save me money, both in the

short-term through these grants and the long-term

from the savings on monthly energy costs. Can you let

me know what grants precisely are available and how

do I go about applying for them ? Paul - Wicklow

A - “Better Energy Options” is the new recently launched

revamped energy grant scheme and replaced three differ-

ent grant schemes – Home Energy Savings Scheme, Warmer

Home schemes and the Greener Homes scheme. Here are

some of the grants available.

• Solar panel water heating system - € 800

• Heating control upgrades - €400

• Upgrading to a high-efficiency boiler – € 560

• Cavity wall insulation - € 320

• Building Energy Rating (BER) grant - €80 ( you must get

a BER rating as part of the application )

You apply to the Department of Energy via the Sustainable

Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) who administer the grant

schemes. You must also use a registered SEAI contractor

to do the work and complete a declaration of works, while

all payments are paid after completion of the works not

before. Contact details are [email protected] or www.seai.ie/

betterenergyhomes or Lo-call 1850 927 000

SUB PRIME LOANSQ – I have a € 240,000 loan with a sub-prime lender

taken out six years ago. At that time, I had missed a

couple of repayments on my car loan and my adviser

said the mainstream lenders would not consider me

for a loan. I did not really understand the consequenc-

es – all I wanted was a home for my family. I have main-

tained the repayments every month but am now begin-

ning to feel the pinch – my interest rate is 7.5% and I am

paying €1,678 per month at the moment. I could save

over € 600 a month by moving to a high street lender.

What are my chances ? David - Clontarf

A - The Irish Credit Bureau (ICB) in Clonskeagh Dublin 14 is

a lender’s first port of call to check your credit history.

Missed payments stay on record for 5 years but if you have

kept the nose clean these past five years, then you may

have a case to swap back to a normal lender. The whole idea

of sub-prime was a kind of purgatory – you did your pen-

ance but after a while, you were allowed to come back into

the fold.

Here is your checklist to see if you qualify with a high street

lender :

1. Check with the ICB to see if your credit record is now clear

2. Ensure the loan-to-value is less than 80% - so the valua-

tion of your home should be in excess of € 300,000 based on

your € 240,000 mortgage

3. Your joint income should be between € 53,000 to € 60,000

or the same amount if the only earner in the home.

4. You will need P 60, pay slips and status enquiry form along

with 12 months current account bank statements AND your

sub-prime loan statements plus any other current loan

statement

Contact John with your money questions at jlowe@

moneydoctor.ie or visit his website at www.moneydoc-

tor.ie. John Lowe, Fellow of the Institute of Bankers, is

founder and managing director of Money Doctor

ANSWERS TO YOUR PERSONAL FINANCE QUESTIONS

GazetteBUSINESSBUSINESS Supported by AIB

ON Thursday, September 22, bio-energy experts, Celtic Healing, opened their Dublin treatment centre at the Sands Hotel in Portmarnock.

The centre will now be open every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8am until late.

Bio-energy healers have been unlocking positive ener-gy and clearing energy sys-tems for scores of celebrities and sports people all over the world. Firm devotees include Kylie Minogue, Liz Hurley, Donna Karan, the Duchess of York and her daughters and, of course, Michael Flatley is Ire-land’s best known bio-energy success story.

After being plagued by a mystery virus for two years, Irish dancing supremo, Michael Flatley, was com-pletely cured. Not because of a good dose of vitamin C, yoga or osteopathy, but, intriguingly, thanks to a bio-energy healer. Bio-energy healing has also been winning a big following among sports people plagued by injuries.

“Having seen the wide variety of ailments that have been healed with Bio-energy

therapy, I am delighted to be opening this healing centre in Dublin.

“Healing without drugs, sur-gery or painful manipulation is something that most people want,” said Peter Woods of Celtic Healing.

Bio-energy healing is an effective, holistic technique for the treatment of physical ill-ness, emotional blocks, mental obstacles and spiritual issues. It is based on the understanding that each of us is a complex, interactive energy system.

Historical records document energy healing over 3,500 years ago and Bio-energy is what the life force in humans is referred to as. When we get a blockage in our energy system, the ener-gy stagnates and this leads to illness and/or discomfort.

Guests at the launch includ-ed former Minister for Health Dr Michael Woods, acclaimed author Bernadette Bohan, Today FM DJ Tony Fenton, personal trainer to the stars Paul Byrne and wife Siobhan, beauty guru Triona McCarthy and Miss North County Dub-lin, Rebecca Maher.

A standard course of treat-

ments with Celtic Healing is five sessions and this is effec-tive for 95% of clients. Treat-ment takes place in a relaxed environment, on a one-to-one basis, with each session lasting approximately 30 minutes. A client record is taken, includ-ing medical history.

Treatment is non-invasive, with minimal physical contact. Clients remain fully clothed, except for their shoes. The therapist may give advice on energy balancing techniques, diet and exercise. Bio-energy can help with all ailments - arthritis, asthma, ADHD, migraine, insomnia, back pain, stress, ME, eczema, psoriasis, acne, IBS and bowel prob-lems, acid reflux and digestive problems.

Bio-energy has also been very effective as a comple-mentary therapy for people suffering from cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. An ailment is a symptom. The energy blockage is the root of the problem. The therapist will clear the blockage and the body will start to heal itself.

Bio-energy is a comple-mentary therapy and works

in conjunction with conven-tional medicine but it can speed up healing time on all injuries, sports, accidents, minor and major.

It is especially effective after operations and proce-dures in hospital and can help lessen pain and dis-comfort pre- and post-med-ical intervention.

“The body has very power-ful healing abilities. The doctor puts a cast on a broken limb but the body heals the bone. A cut scabs up and heals of its own accord.

“These are just a couple of obvious examples of the body’s own ability to heal itself but by clearing blockages from the energy system, it allows the body to begin the healing process,” said Paddy Dalton of Celtic Healing about his bio-energy technique.

Celtic Healing Clinics are now taking place at the Sands Hotel in Portmarnock, Co Dublin on Tuesday, Wednes-day and Thursdays from 8am until late.

Call 01 8390344 for appoint-ments or see www.celticheal-ing.ie.

HEALTH: CELTIC HEALING OPEN DUBLIN TREATMENT CENTRE

A perfect setting for family fun at Heritage

DAWN LOVE

THERE were two main highlights for me when it came to the five star Her-itage Golf and Spa Resort in Laois. Set amidst roll-ing countryside and a spectacular golf course, it’s easy to see why it has become a huge hit with families.

Quite simply, there is plenty to do and some-thing for every member of the family to enjoy. Firstly, for the golfing enthusiasts, there is a spectacular Steve Balles-tero’s golf course.

And, if teeing off isn’t your cup of tea, then the 5km private walking track, which encircles the championship course, is ideal for everything from a fast-paced run, to a gen-tle stroll after dinner.

The accommodation

(we stayed in a family suite) was also spacious and comfortable, while the health club comes with a 15m leisure pool (a little on the cool side for my taste) and fully- equipped fitness studio.

But for me, the ultimate treat was the Heritage’s stunning and award-win-ning spa. Using products from the luxurious and organic Pevonia Botani-ca range, loved by Holly-wood big names such as Sharon Stone and Susan Sarandon, there is a mul-titude of treatments to choose from.

My therapist was Grace, and I’d highly rec-ommend asking for her if you do happen to visit the spa. After chatting to me and taking a good look at my skin (which is combination, to be exact), Grace decided on

a Pevonia Prescription Facial (€85) which lasts for one hour. This can be tailor-made to suit your skin type and, to be frank, it was divine. Along with using products that were tailored to suit my com-plexion, she also concen-trated on stimulating my lymph system.

After this, I enjoyed a total Back Ritual (€85), which also lasts for one hour. Essentially this is a specialised back ‘facial’, which cleanses, polishes and thoroughly massages the back muscles.

Floated

I literally floated back up to our room after-wards and, I must admit, I have become a firm fan of the Pevonia range, in particular its De-Aging Saltimousse Papaya-Pineapple scrub and the

De-Aging Body Balm-Papaya Pineapple, since our break at the Herit-age.

But, as I said, there were two main highlights for me when it came to our stay and, after a thorough-ly relaxing spell in the spa, dinner at Sol Oriens Ital-ian Restaurant & Steak-house was next up.

I’d heard about Sol Oriens before went down to the Heritage for our stay. Friends had said it was perfect for dining out with a toddler in tow and, indeed, it is the ideal venue for more relaxed dining, with its open kitchen and classical Italian theme.

My husband and I are big fans of Bruchetta Al Pomodoro (€6.25) so we both opted for this as a starter. It came on crispy, sourdough bread and was topped with delicious, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, red onion and extra virgin oil.

Next up, Dylan chose the Grilled Sea Bass Fil-let served with Beurre Blanc (€22). This com-prised a fillet of sea bass, topped with fresh toma-toes, red onion, coriander and extra-virgin olive oil served on a bed of mashed potato, and he loved it.

I chose the Filleto Manzo (€26) – a 10oz Irish fillet steak grilled and served with sautéed mushrooms and onions, all of which also came

with creamy mashed potato.

For dessert, we both had Panna Cotta, the classic Italian desert that completed a perfect evening.

Breakfast was also deli-cious. We had just walked the 5km track around the golf course and were more than ready for a hearty feed. I opted for a croissant and porridge, while Dylan had a full Irish. Our toddler, Harry, had a mixture of both and was clearly in his ele-ment as the restaurant staff fussed over him.

All in all, it was a relax-ing family stay with the advantage of just being within an hour of Dublin city centre.

For further details on special offers and prices at The Heritage Golf and Spa Resort, Killenard, County Laois, you can call 057 864 5500 or visit www.theheritage.com

With a setting in the rolling

Virginia Pumpkin Festival to attract festival fans from all over Ireland over the Bank HolidayTAKING place over the October Bank Holiday Weekend, October 28 to 31, the fifth-annual Vir-ginia Pumpkin Festival is Ireland’s most unique and quirkiest event, attracting festival fans and pumpkin growers from Ireland and overseas to celebrate pumpkin season.

Visitors will be kept entertained by the Pump-kin Weigh-in Competition, Ireland’s largest fancy dress party, a sensational samba band, artisan arts and crafts, and music from headline act, The Waterboys, on Saturday night.

Hotels.com has some great deals on offer in and around Virginia, so get pumped and make sure not to miss out the festivities.

WHERE TO STAY

Lakeside Manor Hotel (three-star) – Virginia

Prices start from €100 per room per night from October 28 – 31 on hotels.com

Situated on the shores of Lough Ramor, the Lakeside Manor Hotel is the perfect haven for a relaxing family break. If you have time to spare after the festival, you can go horseback riding, catch a play at the local theatre or relax in the walled garden hotel bar.

Headfort Arms (three-star) - Kells

Prices start from €120 per room per night, from October 28 – 31 on hotels.com

Located just a short drive from Virginia, this hotel is complete with a spa and golf course. A family run property, the Headfort Arms is an intimate property perfect for a relaxing weekend away.

Cabra Castle Hotel (four-star) - Kingscourt

Prices start from €110 per room per night, from October 28 – 31 on hotels.com

This beautiful four-star manor property is com-plete with a golf course, tennis courts, spa, restau-rant and lounge. A babysitting service is available on request and guests can avail of complimentary breakfast every morning.

All prices are subject to availability at the time of booking.

FastTravel

GazetteTTRAVELRAVEL22 GAZETTE 29 September 2011

One of the large, sumptuous suites

countryside and views of the spectacular golf course, the five-star Heritage Golf and Spa Resort in Laois is a huge hit with families

Relax and unwind the night before your flight from Dublin Airport at the Hilton at Clare Hall

MIMI MURRAY

ON a recent trip abroad we decided to be ultra- indulgent, or very sensible, whichever way you choose to look at it, and spend the night before our flight in an airport hotel.

The Hilton is situated just minutes away from Dublin Airport in Clare Hall. The hotel has underground parking, so we decided to leave our car there for the duration of our trip at a reasonable rate.

The hotel is really comfortable and boasts a bar and restaurant, which seems to be filled with locals, as well as transient guests.

Our bedroom was really comfortable and quite spacious with a very comfy bed.

We dined in the hotel and were very pleas-antly surprised to see that the menu was quite adventurous and to our liking.

After a smoked salmon starter and lots of delicious homemade breads, we chose from the grill – a fillet steak with bearnaise for me and a striploin for my husband. Both were very well cooked and came with loads of delicious extras. The wine list was very good with plenty of choice and we retired to the bar for an after dinner drink. Staff were ultra-attentive and really pleasant. The manageress said they are very much like a big family, and that includes a lot of the regular business guests who spend weeks at a time at the hotel.

After a very restful night, we had a scrummy breakfast with loads of delicious breads, pastries, fruit and coffee on offer, as well as a decent selection of cooked breakfast. We checked out and waited for our minibus, which had us at the airport terminal within minutes.

After a fun-filled four days in Spain, we returned home and our minibus was waiting for us at the designated spot. It was just a case of hopping in our car and making the journey home, relaxed and far less exasperated than normal.

TravelBriefs

Edited by Mimi Murray


WE HAVE 146,000* READERS EACH WEEKADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESSYOUR BUSINESS TO OUR READERS CALL 60 10 240


The pool area

The spa experience

Junior Suite living area Afternoon Tea by the fireplace


GazetteENTERTAINMENTENTERTAINMENT

An impishly creepy taleThere’s not much light relief in this tale of basement-dwelling

creatures trying to get a child to let them out to play with her KATE CROWLEY

WHERE is it? It’s around here somewhere, I just know it ... Readers! (Yes, both of you.) Have either of you seen my Gone Fishin’ sign?

Frankly, despite the soft, gentle arctic winds of autumn gusting across Dublin at the moment, I’ve never felt more like hangin’ my Gone Fishin’ sign on the back of my Gazette Towers’ throne, grabbing a jar of wigg-lin’ earthworms and sit-tin’ down at the banks of the Liffey, thanks to the decidedly poor offer-ings marchin’ up to our screens, this week.

Faced with the likes of Cane Toads: The Con-quest, and Shark Night 3D – not to mention the return of Katie Holmes – this has never seemed like a better week for me to master my Sudoku skills.

Still, for the purpose of this week’s review, there’s no place like Holmes, so

let’s take a look at her lat-est film, Don’t be Afraid of the Dark.

Here, presented under the guiding hands of pro-ducer, Guillermo del Toro – the filmmakers have turned in a creepy hor-ror. (Personally, I tend to think that most films with Ms Holmes turn out to be a horror, but I digress.)

Following a gruesome, scene-setting intro, we flash forward to the present day, where a down-on-his luck archi-tect, Alex (Pearce) moves into a creaking, crum-bling, gothic pile with his girlfriend Kim (Holmes)

and his daughter, Sally (a terrific performance by Madison).

In time-honoured fash-ion, the long abandoned house has a gruesome, if forgotten past – remem-ber the intro, folks? – but all Alex can see is the chance to do a nice refurb job on the house, and get back on his feet, while at the same time the gals can bond.

Because, of course, where better to hole up with a withdrawn child and a new girlfriend for some quality family time together than in a creepy old house?

It’s not long before curious Sally discovers that the house is full with the kind of mysteries that you tend not to see listed on property websites – including a secret, sealed-up basement, and a mys-terious fireplace that Sally seems to think has some... things... living in it being chief among such points.

Of course, if a bright kid tells you that there are tiny, creepy monsters living in the fireplace she found in a secret base-ment, all set in the kind of house that Norman Bates would pass by to stay in a motel instead, you should probably believe them.

Also, of course, Alex doesn’t believe Sally, who can not only hear the mysterious, tiny creatures in the fireplace endlessly whispering and calling to her to let them out and “play”, but can glimpse them, and see their mali-cious handiwork, which they revel in – as long as there’s plenty of darkness

around to hide in.It’s not long before the

creatures have escaped and are loose around in the house, where – cru-cially – it’s perfectly clear that, yes, the creatures are very real, and dangerous, and that a crunchy, deli-cioussss child would be jusssst lovely, thank you.

Oh, if only the family had listened to the griz-zled groundskeeper, who warned them about the house!

With Kim gradually coming around to believ-ing Sally, yet Alex dismiss-ing their fears, the scene is set for a showdown: house versus humans. The only problem is, they should all be very afraid of the dark ...

Sure, we’ve all seen house-of-horror shows before – I used to have to review Changing Rooms, after all – but this is a creepily enjoyable addi-tion to the genre. Maybe next week I’ll be Gone Fishin’ instead.

Sally (Bailee Madison) has just what every child needs – a creepy old house, malignant imps living in its secret basement, and a camera to

help prove they’re real (with a flash that might keep the light-senstive creatures at bay) in this interesting new horror

GoingOUTGoingOUTMILL THEATRE 01 296 9340 Ger Carey Live

THE workings of the teenage brain are a mystery – unless you’re Ger Carey, whose comic show proves that he knows what it’s like to be a teenager. Aimed at young people between the ages of 15 and 18, his one-man show is set to help teenagers laugh at themselves and the complexities of their lives. Ger also says that grown-ups are welcome. Catch Ger’s show at 11.20am on Thursday, September 29, with admission costing €10 (teachers free).

DRAIOCHT 01 885 2622Brian Kennedy

FOR Brian’s many fans of his singular voice and singing style, this is a show not to be missed, as he can be relied on to croon through some of his many hits. Well-known as a leading singer, he is, perhaps, lesser-known as an author, proving that he’s a man of many talents – however, his singing skills will be to the fore at 8pm on Thursday, September 29 in Driaocht’s Main Auditorium, with tickets priced at €22/€18 conc.

PAVILION THEATRE 01 231 2929Faith Healer

BRIAN Friel’s striking play, Faith Healer, takes to the Pavilion stage, ready to bring the audience on a journey across Scotland and Wales with a faith healer and his companions, as he meets the sick by forests and mountains. But are Frank’s miraculous cures real, and what is the price the afflicted must pay? See this dramatic production of Faith Healer on Friday, September 30 or Saturday, October 1, at 8pm, with tickets priced at €21/€19.

FILM OF THE WEEK: Don’t be Afraid of the

Dark (16) 97 mins

OUR VERDICT:WHO would have thought that a long-abandoned house could be full of creepy secrets? With famed intellectual-horror director, Guillermo del Toto, having a helping hand in the film, this feels more like a scaled-down Pan’s Basement rather than Pan’s Labyrinth, but that’s no bad thing. We’ve all seen this kind of film before, and yet, it’s an enjoyable enough creepy tale to follow.

Director: Troy NixeyStarring: Guy Pearce, Katie Holmes, Bailee Madison, a grizzled groundskeeper, a creepy house, and murderous goblin things


SHANE DILLON

I HOPE that the zombies found at the top of the charts recently enjoyed their brief time in the sun, because one thing’s for sure – once Gears of War 3 was released on XBox 360, Dead Island (see panel, right) had about as much chance of staying in place as a Locust footsoldier facing Marcus Fenix.

For those who don’t know what either a Locust footsoldier (or a Marcus Fenix) is, the Gears of War (GoW) series follows a dwindling band of des-perate human survivors on Sera, a world that’s quite similar to our own.

It’s similar, except for the fact that humanity’s facing extinction, with a mass horde of Locusts (a subterranean race of

murderous creatures) having overrun most of the planet, leaving behind ruined cities, utter devas-tation – and millions of happy gamers, all follow-ing a supersoldier, Mar-cus, in his footsteps, band of brothers in tow.

An XBox-exclusive title, Gears has established itself as a key franchise for Microsoft’s gaming fans, and this latest addi-tion, while not exactly a revolution, certainly builds upon many of the already highly-polished strengths that fans relish in the series.

A day before it hit the shelves on its world-wide launch date, I called in to the GoW3 launch party in the centre of Dublin, where hordes of Gears fans were entranced by the hordes of Locusts filling the screens, with

Gears guns for the top

GazetteGAMINGGAMING

single-player and multi-player missions playing out across the venue.

GoW3 certainly looked terrific (which gameplay videos on social plat-forms are already ably proving), while, away from the busy single-player storyline screens, the multiplayer rounds

were providing plenty of concentration amongst Gears fans – and occa-sional laughter, too.

This, claimed as the third and final part in the Gears trilogy, has been hailed as an emotional way to end the series, packed with punchy set-pieces, spectacular vis-

tas, intense action and, as always, Gears’ strik-ing world of “destroyed beauty”, as ravaged cit-ies and foul landscapes are traversed. So far, so Gears, so great.

I’ll be returning to Gears soon, with a more detailed look at its single and multiplayer modes.

Tipperary Hurler, Padraic Maher, and Leinster and Irish Rugby Player, Shane Horgan,

fight their way past merchandising to be among the first to play Gears of War 3

Market needs more Vita-lityWITH Sony’s hand-held gaming division now firmly locked in a pincer movement with Nintendo on one side, and Apple on the other, the stakes have never been higher for its revamped PSP – the Vita – to kickstart its handheld fortunes.

Despite the PSP having decent power, my own experience has been that they’re rarer than hen’s teeth around Dublin, and, indeed, with it proving tough to find an okay range of PSP games in most Dublin stores, it remains to be seen how well Sony can hit back with the Vita.

With even Ninten-do’s recently launched 3DS slumping in the markets, Sony isn’t the only player praying for some Vita-lity to return to the struggling hand-held console sector.

Another weebyte

Dead Island is found to be a hitSEEING as I briefly mentioned it recently, there’s no harm in adding that Techland’s multi-platform title, Dead Island, promptly shuffled its way to the top of games’ charts in many markets, mark-ing, perhaps, an unexpectedly strong success for the adult title.

Its flaws are many, including being a game that very much merits its Cert 18 rating; some quite unsa-voury character designs and scripting; a particularly badly developed and executed plot; simply dread-ful voice-over work; some teeth-grindingly infuriat-ing control issues and broken game logic, and –

Well, despite all of the many things wrong with the title, it also seems to get a lot of things right, with its gory graphics, frequently frenetic action, and occasionally very pretty scene setting (with beautiful beaches and jungles that surpass both of the Far Cry and Crysis series) proving a hit with gamers, hungry for something a little different.

Certainly not a title for children, its open-world setting and multi-mission, RPG-like tactics show that there’s still plenty of life in the zombie genre ...

Bytesandpieces

ng; a particularly


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GazetteSPORT29 September 2011 MALAHIDE GAZETTE 27

sport@gazettegroup.

com

UP to 1,000 canoeists from Ireland and abroad will take part in the Great Outdoors Liffey Descent on Saturday, October 8.

Originally due to take place in mid-September, the event was postponed due to low water levels.

The Great Outdoors Liffey Descent is one of the biggest events of its kind in the world and is

not for the faint-hearted. The 28km course com-bines long, flat water sections, swift currents, 10 weirs and numerous rapids, a heavily wooded section and a long por-tage around Leixlip dam. Paddlers will need skill, stamina and courage to complete the race.

The ESB will release 30 tonnes of water from the Poulaphouca Res-ervoir to coincide with the race. This brings the river up to flood level

and transforms small rapids and gentle weirs into foaming white water.

Started back in 1960 as an inter-club event, the illustrious Great Outdoors Liffey Descent kayaking race now attracts paddlers from many parts of the world and is a major event on the international calen-dar. The race will play host to some serious marathon competitors, but the majority of par-

LIFFEY DESCENT: ICONIC ANNUAL CANOEING EVENT RESCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER

The Liffey Descent will hit the water on October 8 with over 1,000 participants picking up their paddles

Descent back on track for 2011’s vintage races

ticipants are recreation-al paddlers whose main aim is to complete the course.

Speaking this week, Karl Dunne, of the Canoe Union said: “This event is one-of-a-kind. The atmosphere on the day as competitors

approach the start line at Straffan is second-to-none.

“A mixture of nervous anticipation and friendly banter is abundant. It is a brilliant event to have on the Irish kayaking calendar and we hope that the success of pre-

vious years will continue for the 2011 event.”

The event is renowned for its Irish party atmos-phere but also guaran-teed good conditions. That’s thanks to the ESB which releases 30 tonnes of water from the Poulaphouca Res-

ervoir to coincide with the race.

This brings the river up to flood level and trans-forms small rapids and gentle weirs into furious torrents and foaming white water walls.

To register, visit www.liffeydescent.com

SEPTEMBER STARS: SEPTEMBER STARS: This month’s Dublin This month’s Dublin Sport Awards nominees Sport Awards nominees announced announced Page 29Page 29

GazetteSportSport


LEINSTER LEAGUE 2AMalahide RFC 38

Clane 10

[email protected]

MALAHIDE opened their Leinster League campaign last Sunday with a tough home fixture against a Clane side who finished fifth in the division last year and proved to be a feisty opponent to break down, in spite of the tale that the final score may appear to tell.

After an early shower had passed, conditions were pretty much ideal for a good open game of rugby, and Malahide set about the task of start-ing the campaign on a high.

Clane seemed to set-tle first and had the better of the opening exchanges but the early part of the match saw

both defences on top. Malahide started to

work their way into the game and, eventu-ally, managed to gain some controlled pos-session in the visitor’s territory. When Clane were caught offside, full back Rory O’Driscoll stepped up to give the home side the lead.

Clane fought back immediately and, when Malahide were penal-ised for a breakdown infringement in front of the posts, the scores were levelled.

As the game started to open up a little, the home side held the upper hand, but a number of soft turno-vers never allowed them to keep the pressure required to earn the game’s opening try.

However, two fur-ther penalties from

O’Driscoll did push the home side into a 9-3 lead.

As the half drew to a close, Malahide attacked once more, with scrum-half Neal O’Keeffe breaking from the base of the ruck. As the ball was moved through the hands, centre Mick Fitzmau-rice found the space to force his way over and, after O’Driscoll’s con-version, Malahide now held a 16-3 lead.

Clane responded by spending the remain-der of the half pressing the Malahide line, but the host’s defence held firm and they managed to maintain their lead until half-time.

Dream startMalahide made a

dream start to the sec-ond half when, almost

straight from the kick-off, flanker Eoin Crow-ley came into the line to create the extra man and his pass put Rory O’Driscoll away to score the try of the match.

Clane, to their credit, had not given up and they responded quickly when Malahide lost control of their own scrum five metres out.

The Clane back row forced their way over, and the conversion brought the score to 21-10.

However, with the help of a strengthening breeze at their backs, Malahide were able to keep the game in the Clane half.

The pressure told on the 60-minute mark when hooker Anthony Colbert touched down after a well-controlled

maul from a lineout. Shortly after, No 8

Keith Harrell pounced on a loose ball over the Clane line to secure the bonus point for the home team.

With the score now at 33-10, Malahide contin-ued to play some good rugby, with centres Mick Fitzmaurice and Richie Forbes combin-ing, for Forbes to touch down for the game’s final score.

While the home team scored some great tries it was the defensive work of the likes of skipper Eamonn Glee-son, Niall Crookes and Wayne Hilder in the first half that really laid the platform for the win.

Next up for Malahide is a trip to Ferbane next Sunday to face West Offaly Lions.

A Hide-flying start

RUGBY: MALAHIDE OPEN CAMPAIGN WITH CONVINCING WIN

Malahide were on top form once they had moved through the gears in the first half of their Leinster League match against Clane

Local team loses out in final of national contestLOCAL softball team, Batpak, from Swords, were defeated in the final of the National Club Softball Championships that took place at ALSAA sports grounds last weekend.

In the competition by virtue of their suc-cess in the Brian Walsh Cup, Batpak have also represented Ireland in the European Club Championships in the past and brought a lot of experience to bear in the competi-tion.

They met Dodder Dynamoes in the final, and Dodder had built up momentum from their earlier games that proved too much for Batpak in the end, who didn’t bat as well as they had done in their matches to that point, and won out 17-7.

Dodder Dynamoes will now have the opportunity to represent Ireland in the Euro-pean Co-Ed Slow Pitch Softball Champion-ships in 2012 and will be hoping to repeat their success in the European Club Champi-onships in 2009.

FastSport

Malahide host special camp for HalloweenMALAHIDE United are hosting a special Halloween soccer camp between November 1 and 4.

The camp, which costs €65 for participants, will train attendees in soccer skills as the new season gets into full swing between

10.30am and 3pm.Attendees who

book before October 7 can order tickets for Ireland’s match against Armenia for only €35 for one adult and one child ticket, and everyone who attends will receive an FAI soccer ball.

Spaces are limited to 100 only, and for more information, see www.malahideunited.com.

in association with


FastSport

FORMER St Columba’s student Ian McKinley drew his alma mater in a couple of tough draws as he and Shane Horgan con-ducted the Leinster Senior and Junior Devel-opment Cup and Shield draws last weekend.

The Rathfarnham school will face up- and-coming St Fintan’s HS, Sutton in the second round of the McMullen Cup, while their Junior side will face St Patrick’s Classi-cal School, Navan, in round one of the Duff Cup.

In the senior development cup, Lucan CC have been pitted against Firhouse CS in the second round, which will be played on Octo-ber 12. On the same date, Castleknock CS will face Celbridge’s Salesians College while Oatlands play Portmarnock and Malahide CS face Drogheda Grammar.

At Junior level, Castleknock CS face Colaiste Choilm, Swords on October 10.

Schools learn opponents in Development Cup

WELCOME to the 2011 Dublin Sports Awards, as we mark our local sportsmen and women’s September sport-ing achievements across the capital and, indeed, across the nation.

We’re delighted to once again be able to celebrate the finest achievements in Dub-

lin sport, with some huge efforts at local levels coming to our attention in a variety of well-known, and some, less prominent, sports.

Every form of sporting achievement, at any level and in any sport, is valuable and gives an indication of the diversity of sporting commit-

ment there is around our fair city at all times of the year.

Let us know!Let us know about your

achievements in sport, so that the Gazette can tell the rest of Dublin — and give you, or your team, a chance of being one of our monthly stars.

Contact us on 01 601 0240 or [email protected] to tell us all about your suc-cesses, and follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/gazettesport.

You can also check out the latest stories from Gazette-Sport at our new website, www.gazettegroup.com

STARof the

MONTHDEIRDRE RYAN

DUNDRUM South Dublin

athlete Ryan secured her

berth at the 2012 London

Olympics, jumping the A

standard in Daegu when

she claimed the sixth

place in the high jump

world championships this

month.

MOSES IKPEFUA

KNOCKMITTEN runner

Moses won the Under-

8 boys’ 60m title at

Athlone in the national

Community Games’ finals

early in September,

defeating opponents from

around the country in

style.

NICOLA RYAN

LUCAN resident Ryan

became an Australian

Rules’ world champion

when she helped Ireland

to claim the inaugural

women’s International

Cup in Melbourne with

a 39-8 victory over

Canada.

TEAMof the

MONTH

2011 DUBLIN SPORTS AWARDS - SEPTEMBER NOMINEES

ST BRIGID’S

A LAST-gasp free finally

put St Brigid’s junior B

footballers into seventh

heaven when they claimed

the championship title

against St Finian’s of

Newcastle following an

epic final earlier this

month.

DUBLIN FOOTBALLERS

THE sons of Dublin foot-

ball finally achieved their

potential on the national

stage when they put 16

years of hurt behind

them to lift the Sam

Maguire trophy at Croke

Park in front of a jubi-

lant home support.

ST SYLVESTER’S

ST SYLVESTER’S celebrat-

ed their first All-Ireland

hurling title a little over

18 months after claim-

ing the Leinster Junior

championship title when

they won the St Jude’s

Junior 7s Shield in mid-

September.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Ford offer top travelling prize for Ireland fans FORD, official vehicle supplier to the FAI, are offering football fans in Dublin the chance to win an exclusive VIP package to the Republic of Ireland’s eagerly anticipated European Championship crunch qualifier against Armenia at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday, October 11.

Ford will look after the transport to and from the game for the winner and his/her friend by supplying a Ford

vehicle and personal chauffeur to pick them up on the day of the big match. The prize also includes a night’s accommodation in a Dublin hotel with pre-match dinner included, a pair of tickets to the game, and a chance to meet the players in the players’ lounge following the final whistle, as well as chauffeur-driven transport back home the following day.

To enter, fans just need to email [email protected] and let Ford know of a great journey they’ve experienced to a previous football match.

GazetteSportSport


FastSport

Summerfest set for next weekendTHE 2011 Tesco mobile SARI Sum-merfest, the largest intercultural soccer tournament in Ire-land, is set to take part this year at the Garda and Camogie Sports Grounds, in Phoenix Park on September 10 and 11 from 11am to 5pm each day.The Summerfest will also coinciude with the CONCERN kitefest, where kite flyers from around the world will dis-play their kites and give kite workshops for children.The two-day festival also includes a wide array of entertain-ment for all the family.

For more informa-tion, see www.facebook.com/sar-ireland.

Castleknock Celtic seeking ladies talentCASTLEKNOCK Celtic FC’s ladies and girls section are recruiting new talent to the cllub for the soccer season start-ing later this month.

If you were born in 1996 or earlier, visit the club’s website at www.castleknock-celtic.com, and pass on your name and contact details in the How To Join section provided on the site.

The club are also looking to recruit girls born in 2001/2002 to play soccer in the Dubli-Girls Soccer League.

[email protected]

LOCAL motor-racing rising star, Gary Thomp-son, brought the cur-tain down on his Japa-nese Formula 3 season with another National Class podium finish at Sportsland, Sugo, last weekend, before expe-riencing a day of frus-tration and bad luck on Sunday.

The up-and-coming local racer had high hopes for one of his best events of the year before travelling to the fast and flowing Sugo circuit, which topped off a season of racing in Japan.

Qualifying suggested

just as much, even if a small mistake on his final run left him fifth in a top six covered by a mere 0.2 seconds.

Fortunately, Thomp-son’s l ightning fast star ts have become something of a special-ity this season and he was once again quick to react when the lights went out for race one on Saturday, vaulting from fifth to challeng-ing for second by the first corner.

Although unable to make the move stick, he slotted cleanly into third from where he kept the leaders honest throughout at a circuit short on overtaking

opportunities. But, in a weekend that

perhaps characterised his season as a whole, the 19-year-old endured a day to forget less than 24 hours later.

Sunday’s raceSunday morning’s

race once again wit-nes sed another o f Thompson’s stellar get-aways, this time the Avi-ation Display and Cebu Pacific Air-backed Dub-liner making second his own before being blocked by an accident ahead.

Having lost a position in the confusion, and keen to quickly make amends, a slight mis-

take was all it took to pitch the car into retire-ment.

At least the final race of the weekend would offer Gary an opportu-nity to end his season on a high note, especial-ly after qualifying third courtesy of his best lap in race one. Frustrat-ingly though, his race would ultimately start from the pit lane after the car’s starter motor failed en route to the grid, leaving Thompson to finish sixth.

Speaking after the race, Gary said: “I’m happy to have added another podium to my tally for the year but, overall, it wasn’t the

weekend I’d hoped for. “Once aga in our

strong pace has gone unrewarded and I’m obviously gutted about what happened in race two.

“I don’t make many mistakes like that – it was a result of just push-ing too hard to make up for losing the place gained at the start.

“Now it’s a case of going away over the winter, working hard a n d c o m i n g b a c k recharged.

“F ina l ly, I ’d l ike to thank the SGC by KCMG team and my sponsors for all their e f for t s throughout 2011.”

Thompson rolls to end

MOTOR RACING: LOCAL DRIVER ENDS SEASON IN SUGO RACES

Local driver Gary Thompson managed a podium place in the last races of the season at Sugo in Japan

Sam on his travels: All-Ireland trophy visits schoolTHE students of St Michael’s House Special National school got a rare treat last week when their school was visited by Dub-lin captain, Bryan Cullen, and the Sam Maguire trophy.

The school, in Golflinks Road, Hacketstown, has 29 children with intellectual disa-bilties in the school.

A DEPLETED Fingal were unable to build on their Neville Cup victory as they fell to a sec-ond successive defeat in the Leinster league campaign as reigning champions Glenanne took a 2-0 victory from Tallaght last Saturday, Gary Shaw striking twice in the second half.

It was a dogged tussle, with the Glens enjoying lots of possession in the first half, running up 19 circle entries on the stats sheet but were not able to sully Eoin Connelly’s clean sheet.

For Fingal, Gary Sharman was added to their long-term injury list when he dislocated his shoulder last Sunday and it meant Fingal were down to the bare bones, with skipper Nigel Grothier, Tom Manning and Derek O’Gorman all out.

Shaw confirmed the win on the final whis-tle when he got his second.

Fingal fall to league defeat to Glenanne

in association with


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

CLUB NOTICEBOARDST SYLVESTER’SSYLVESTER’S ladies move on to the

Leinster semi final against Mullina-

vat, next Sunday, October 2, in

Broomfield after their fantastic

eight-point victory over St Anne’s of

Wexford.

The ladies section also put in their

annual best foot forward with

another very successful ladies 7s

competition on Saturday in a sunny,

fun-filled Broomfield.

The intermediate hurlers lost their

championship semi-final match by

four points to a very good Naomh

Barrog side.

The junior hurlers won their semi-

final against Raheny after extra time

by one point in an absolute cracker.

The minor A football team drew

their championship match against

Ballyboden.

The minor hurlers play O’Toole’s

in the championship next Sunday at

11am in Blunden Park.

The entrance to the club was look-

ing great in beautiful blue and just

in time for last week’s celebrations

thanks to club chairman Eddie Sul-

livan who provided the hard labour,

and the generous sponsors who

provided the hard cash. Well done on

great job and leading by example.

Next Saturday and Sunday are the

dates for the sponsored cycle for the

great Nicky Cleere.

Lotto: Numbers drawn were 9, 11, 16

and 22. Patsy McGuirk was a Match-

3 winner.

The jackpot is now €3,700. Enter at

www.stsylvesters.ie.

INTER HURLING C’SHIPSt Sylvester’s 2-8

Naomh Barrog 0-18

[email protected]

S T S Y LV E S T E R ’ S bowed out at the semi-final stage to Naomh Barrog in Lawless Park last Saturday evening to end their impressive run in the competition,

Coming just 18 months since they progressed from the Junior grade, the Malahide men pushed hard for another promo-tion this term, especially in the wake of their All-Ireland 7s’ success in the build-up to the tie.

But they found Bar-rogs too classy in the final four tie and never truly got out of the blocks.

Starting slowly, the Kilbarrack men built a 0-5 to 0-3 lead before pulling clear by half-time, building an eight-point advantage as their half-forward line aligned their sights on the posts.

Syl’s improved after

the break, getting a goal back through Tom Reddy while Martin Ormonde and Russy Cleere also got on the mark as the half-back line became more prominent.

But not enough scores were taken during this time and, while a second goal accrued from a free, time was not on their side as Barrogs held out for a four-point success.

The club’s minor foot-ballers, though, produced a decent showing against a fancied Ballyboden St Enda’s in the first series of games in their A cham-pionship, drawing nine points a piece.

It sets up a tough, four-team group to progress with St Jude’s running up a comfortable victory over Ballinteer St John’s in the day’s other game.

It was entertaining fare, though, as the lead swapped from side to side as Boden came back from a two-point deficit with some high-quality scores against a blustery

wind.Syl’s initially strug-

gled to use that wind and, following a missed free, went into the break down by a point.

However, going against the conditions seemed to work for the Malahide side as they took control for much of the second half.

The half-forward line of Conor Meaney, Conor Mullarkey and Fionn Cahill seemed to drop back a little and bolster the midfield to good effect.

Conor Quinn rose to prominence in the half-back line to help out the energetic Kevin O’Flynn

and John Peacock. Finishing off moves,

though, proved an issue and Boden capitalised on the lack of scoring to almost nick the tie, clocking up four points in a row to edge ahead at 0-9 to 0-8.

But Cahill held his nerve to kick a confi-dent late free and tie up the game. Next on the agenda is a trip around the M50 to Ballinteer on October 8 where a win would see the side advance their chances of reaching the knock-out stage.

The group concludes with a home tie against St Jude’s.

HURLING: STRONG PROGRESS AT INTER LEVEL

St Sylvester’s impressive run in the Intermediate hurling championship came to an end against Naomh Barrog

Syl’s depart inter after great run

THE Sam Maguire will make an

appearance in Fingallians on Friday,

October 7. Further details to follow.

Our football and hurling academy

recommenced on September 10,

with over 150 children attending.

Our academy sees both boys and

girls of four- to six-years-old par-

ticipate in 45 mins of hurling, fol-

lowed by 45mins of Gaelic football.

We currently have over 25 parents

actively involved in assisting in the

implementation of the clubs acad-

emy and a number of whom have

recently commenced the Foundation

Award Programme that provides

parents with the essential tools to

assist with academy sessions.

Fingallians’ GAA academy takes

place every Saturday morning from

10 to 11.30am in the club.

Well done to the Fingallians senior

ladies who were narrowly beaten in

the quarter-finals of the All-Ireland

Senior 7s. The club wish to thank

Naomh Mearnog, who hosted the

Senior 7s.

The second annual coaching forum

will take place on October 29 (Bank

Holiday weekend). Following the

huge success of last year’s pro-

gramme we have secured the serv-

ices of Paudie Butler, Philip Kerr and

Barry Horgan. Further details to

follow.

The latest race in the Dublin cross-

country league took place in New-

bridge House and well done to the

competitors who represented the

club.

FINGALLIANS

FINGAL RAVENS

DUBLIN County chairman, Andy Kettle,

will have Sam Maguire and, hopefully,

some Dublin players at our clubhouse

this week.

Our duck race and cross-country

challenge was postponed last Sunday

due to the weather, this will be re-

arranged at a later date.

Well done to our minor team, who

had a good win over Castleknock in the

championship on Sunday morning.

The U-14s were unlucky to lose by a

point to Round Towers, and a speedy

recovery to Matt Garrigan who frac-

tured his wrist.

Hard luck to our U-15 team who were

beaten in their championship game

against Fingallians.

Also hard luck to our ladies team who

were beaten by Clontarf in the cup.

Senior team play championship next

Sunday at 4pm next Sunday.

Junior A team play Parnells at 11am

next Sunday in St David’s.

Junior D team play Cuala in Roles-

town, time to be confirmed.

Anyone who would like to receive club

text alerts please text your name and

number to 086-1765932.

Well done to the New York Dublin team

who won the intermediate champion-

ship on Saturday evening.

Ga

zetteSPORTALL OF YOUR MALAHIDE SPORTS COVERAGE FROM PAGE 27-31 SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

STEPHEN FINDLATER

[email protected]

ST SYLVESTER’S manager Gabriel Bannigan says that his side is in good shape to peak for their Dublin senior football championship third-round date.

The competition has been in abeyance since May as the Dubs’ All-Ireland success left the club scene on hold until its epic conclusion.

But now Syl’s are a fortnight away from a huge north Dublin clash with either Raheny or Parnells the next in line in the next fortnight, a tough battle no matter who makes it through.

The Malahide side must take on the battle without the services of Shane O’Connor and Dave Galvin who have been ruled out for the season, but the return of Michael McCarthy is a major boon as Bannigan explains.

“There’s an extra pep in [McCarthy’s] step with an All-Ireland medal in his pocket,” Ban-

nigan told the Gazette. “It’s great to have him around; the whole squad were thrilled for him to have been part of the Dublin setup and to have won the All-Ireland. He’s certainly added to training since he’s come back in.”

As for the preparations, Brannigan’s side has not played a competitive match since meet-ing Trinity Gaels in mid-August but, after four high-level challenge matches against top sides from outside the county, he is in upbeat form.

“It’s the way we planned it, looking to main-tain our form throughout the summer without training too hard. In the last few weeks, we’ve been stepping it up for the championship and I’m happy with how we’re coming along.”

Taking the direct route through the cham-pionship, Syl’s have already defeated Parnells this term but Bannigan says they are still a threat with plenty of top stars like MJ Tier-ney, Colm Begley and Stephen Cluxton in the mix.

That level of quality means that they will be a challenge and so the Syl’s boss is wary to pick a favoured next round opponent.

“I’ve no preference at all. I know that’s what every manager will tell you but whoever it is, we’ll take them on their merits.

“We beat Parnells earlier but their league form has been significantly better than earlier in the season. Apparently, they have added a few more inter-county players from outside Dublin but, whatever they have, they have to beat Raheny and I expect them to put it up to them.

“Whichever one comes through, hopefully we’ll be ready for them. Since playing out last league game against Trinity Gaels, we’ve played four challenge games against top teams from outside Dublin.

“They are only friendly games but we would have performed well. Certainly I would be happy with our form.”

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St Sylvester’s senior footballers are set for the next phase of the senior championship against Parnells of Raheny

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