Santa with Cathaoirleach Mary Hanafin and Séamus Carroll (Manager Blackrock Village Centre)

Santa arrived into Blackrock on Sunday 27 Nov 2022 on his sleigh accompanied by a coterie of minders and assorted advisers.  Together with Cathaoirleach Mary Hanafin he performed the very important task of switching on the Christmas Tree lights.  The Blackrock Ukulele Group ably led by Paddy Quigley played and sang their hearts out to provide entertainment for the large crowd present.  Jim Kenny (Centra) oversaw the erection of the tree and provided much needed sustenance by way of freshly cooked mince pies.

Santa then made his way to the Blackrock Village Centre and met the many children who lined up to see him while his merry men on stilts entertained the waiting crowds.

The Blackrock Ukulele Group

Cllr Marie Baker, Cathaoirleach Mary Hanafin and Tom Feeney at the switching on of the lights

Barry Andrews MEP, Jim Kenny (Centra), Cathaoirleach Mary Hanafin, Cormac Devlin TD

Entertainment in the Blackrock Village Centre!

In April 2022, local Blackrock girl Alice Hayes’s world was turned upside down when she was diagnosed with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma. Two months ago, Alice’s family including parents Dylan & Norah, and big sister Laragh, launched a Go Fund Me appeal to raise €550,000 to get Alice a place on a clinical trial.  With the incredible support of the community, both families and businesses, in Blackrock and beyond, they have hit their target!

It is heart-warming how the whole community came together! Just some examples of what our Blackrock Community have done to raise money are listed below, many other fundraisers have happened throughout Blackrock and further afield.

• Blackrock Athletic Club held a massive event in Carysfort Park, joined by athletes Sarah Healy, David Gillick and others including some of the Irish women’s hockey team.
• Centra gave all proceeds from a promotion of Moo’d 99s – respect to Blaise for rocking the cow costume!
• Carysfort National School hosted a huge cake sale – where Ryan Tubridy made a guest appearance to help Alice judge the cakes.
• Carraig Tennis Club held a Halloween Tennis event while Blackrock Tennis Club hosted a coffee & cake morning.
• A brilliantly fun table quiz at Stradbrook Rugby Club was masterfully compered by Michael Jackson and Ryle Nugent.  Thanks for the prize donations, poster printing and additional help from many Blackrock businesses.
• The very talented artists at Little Apples Academy held an art exhibition and raffle.
• Many friends of the Hayes family took part in the Walk for Alice from Blackrock Park to Sandycove.

The Hayes family are keeping the Go Fund Me site open, and any additional donations will be held back, in case they are needed for Alice’s further treatment. Remaining funds will be donated to paediatric cancer support charities.

Please click here for more information and if you would like to support Alice and her family.

Teacher Sallie Ennis, Teacher Jerome Gantou, Principal Barbara Mulhall, Principal Bruno Bobkiewicz, Cathaoirleach Mary Hanafin, Councillor Brigitte Gauvin, Teacher Laetitia Muzard, Teacher Valerie Arnould, Tom Feeney at Hector Berlioz school in Vincennes

Cathaoirleach Mary Hanafin together with the Principal of Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School, Barbara Mulhall, and French teacher Sallie Ennis, joined by Tom Feeney Chairman of BBN, travelled to Vincennes this week to meet representatives of Hector Berlioz school and to set up a partnership between the two schools.  After a successful meeting with the teachers and the Principals, an exchange programme was agreed. The plan is that 30 of Stepaside ETSS TY students will be hosted by students in Vincennes in October 2023 and in return 30 of their students will visit Dublin and be hosted by the Stepaside students in February 2024.  This will become an annual event and a highlight for all Stepaside ETSS TY French students.

In advance of the first leg of the exchange, the Stepaside teachers brought over handwritten letters from their students so that the students of both schools could start writing to each other.  They also plan to share video introductions and to encourage the students to connect using social media.

The BBN is very pleased to support this great initiative as education links at secondary level was the one missing ingredient in the thriving partnership between Blackrock/Dun Laoghaire County and Vincennes.

DLRCoCo is joining with other local authorities to lead a new appeal for offers of unoccupied properties to provide temporary homes for those fleeing war in Ukraine.

The appeal is for offers of houses, apartments, or holiday homes for use as temporary accommodation for those arriving from Ukraine (60,000 so far this year). Ideally, properties would be available for at least six months. Property owners can offer homes at offerahome.ie or by contacting the local authority in which the property is located.

Owners can expect to be contacted by the local authority within 5 working days of making an offer and an assessment of the property will be carried out shortly after. In addition, the person who offers the property will be able to check the status of their offer at any stage through the website. Local authorities will also match suitable properties to Ukrainian beneficiaries and can support with licence agreement and other arrangements.

David Martin, Eoin McGuirk, Donal Cassidy, Igor Pashchenko, James Curran, Valeria Sofia, Jamie Kennedy, Caimin Browne, Peter Bredin, Georgina Loughery, John Sheehy, Tommy Gavin and Ray Murphy taking part in Run the Line

Blackrock Athletic Club came together recently to raise essential funds to help 9-year-old club member Alice beat cancer. On the day they were joined by leading athletes such as Fergus McFadden, David Gillick, Sarah Healy and the Irish Women’s Hockey team. The initiative raised over €66,000 and the club says a massive thank you to the whole community involved.

63 members took part in the Dublin City Marathon, a huge turnout and a great day of celebration for the club. Others took part in marathons further afield in New York and Cape Town with many more planned for 2023. It was also a record turnout of Blackrock A.C. members who took part in Run the Line.  Blackrock A.C. younger athletes competed at the National Evens Cross country championships in Donegal.

Blackrock Tidy Towns Group took part in the National Spring Clean in April and the World Ocean Day in June.  They work with the 29^th Dublin Blackrock Scouts, local businesses, and the County Council.  This year they again entered the Tidy Districts County Competition and were honoured with a Litter Warden’s Award.  Our congratulations to the Group.

Blackrock Tidy Towns is a small but dedicated group of volunteers led by Cllr Marie Baker who maintain year-round activity with clean-ups, graffiti cleaning, clearing away weeds by hand & tackling overgrown areas, and they do not use any chemicals.  This year they planted the area around the Cross on Main Street with bee friendly plants that they hope will be in situ for years to come.

Blackrock has been entering the National Tidy Towns competition since 2008.  Every year marks have increased.  This year Blackrock scored 316 points – the national winner scored 366, so there are areas for improvement.  Blackrock’s entry ran to 49 pages and covered community involvement, biodiversity, sustainability, tidiness, a description of our streets, parks and landscapes and our residential areas.

If you would like to know more about the Tidy Towns Group, please email them at Blackrocktidytowns@gmail.com.   You can also check them out on their website – Tidy Towns website

Chief Superintendent Matthew Nyland introducing the Exhibition

This Centenary Exhibition which ran up to 2nd December 2022 at DLR Lexicon gave an insight into the founding of An Garda Síochána and how An Garda Síochána developed its own style of policing in Ireland since the foundation of the state and in particular focuses on the county of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

The exhibition highlighted how An Garda Síochána has contributed to building a safe and peaceful society, and how members of An Garda Síochána forge strong relationships with the local communities in which they work and live.  Below is some interesting information on Blackrock.

Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council have been awarded the Great Town 2022 award by the Academy of Urbanism. The Great Places Urbanism Awards are the Academy’s primary platform for recognising and celebrating outstanding examples of good urbanism across the UK, Ireland and Europe.

Dún Laoghaire was chosen by the Urbanism Awards for the Coastal Mobility Cycle Route and Village public realm project; connecting urban villages, bathing places, walks and parks along the coast. See the full report here on why Dún Laoghaire was chosen as the winner

We would like to welcome Poulet Bonne Femme to Blackrock!  It is another significant addition to our growing list of eateries.

1. BUSINESS OWNERS OF BLACKROCK
   I am looking to rent a nice bright roomfrom which to run my small beauty business. Can any of you help me? You can contact me by phone/email.  Dara – daramlong@gmail.com 087 6601451
2. The Frascati Singersare having their annual concert in St. Andrews Mount Merrion on Sunday 11 December 2022 at 4pm.  Ticket enquiries can be sent to frascatichoir@gmail.com

DLR PPN Ezine – Out Now!
Find out what is happening in the DLR County community together with information on supports within the community, funding, consultations and more. Check out the Funding section for information on funding available to community groups to support them with energy costs. Click here

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