blanch

All smiles: Celebrating the opening of a new furniture superstoreharvey norman CEO Blaine Callard and his executive assist-ant Natasha Gowran (above) stopped by Blanchardstown this week in advance of the opening of the store’s new furniture and bedding superstore.

The company have employed 15 more people at the store and two more at their warehouse with the opening of the new store. There is also a new train-ing centre and web design office above the new store.

School cuts fuel parents protest laura webb

ParENTs have protested outside the Dail in opposition to the gov-ernment reducing the number of guidance counsellors in schools.

angry parents from the Colaiste Pobail setanta Parents association are opposed to Minister for Edu-cation ruairi Quinn’s decision to reduce the provision of guidance counsellor allocations in second-

ary schools. They are particularly worried about the impact it will have on their school.

On Wednesday, November 28, they handed over postcard peti-tions signed by parents and stu-dents addressed to Minister Quinn, to Dublin West TD, Patrick Nulty.

Parents from the school believe a guidance counsellor should be made a full-time position.

Full Story on Page 3

ALSOINSIDE: GALLERIES ......................6

DUBLIN LIFE ...................11

OUT&ABOUT ..................17

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

SPORT ...........................27

Month XX, 2012

ST mOChTA’S: Fourth soccer club break-in could cost ‘thousands’ See Page2

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Wakeboard: Dubliner makes it into the world’s top 20Page 29

Football: St Philip’s win local primary schools titlePage 31

INSIDE: Saying goodbye at the Captain’s Dinner at Luttrellstown Golf Club P6

2 BLANCH GAzette 29 November 2012

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reserve the right to omit or suspend or alter any advertisement(s) in any of its publications. we also decline any responsibility in the event of one or more of a series of advertisements being omitted for any reason whatever, nor do we accept liability for any loss or damage caused by an error or inaccuracy in the printing of any advertisement. if your advertisement appears incorrectly, contact the Advertising department immediately, as responsibility cannot be accepted for more than one week’s incorrect insertion. responsibility cannot be accepted if the complaint is made more than two weeks after insertion. if one places an advertisement for more than one week and then cancels it after the first week, no refund or credit will be given for weeks cancelled. The advertiser undertakes to indemnify the proprietors against any liability for any civil action arising out of the publication of the advertisement or any other matter printed or published in the blanchardstown Gazette, Castleknock Gazette, Clondalkin Gazette, dundrum Gazette, dun laoghaire Gazette, lucan Gazette, Malahide Gazette and swords Gazette. The placing of an order or contract will be deemed an acceptance of these conditions.

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CriME Fourth raid on st Mochta’s worst ever

Mulhuddart councillor Mary McCamley (Lab) saw the damage and said it was ‘a sight to behold’

soccer club break-in could cost ‘thousands’thieves have ran-sacked the clubhouse of a local football club, causing thousands of euro worth of damage in the process.

st Mochta’s Football Club has fallen victim to vandalism for the fourth time this month, but the latest attack is being declared the worst , leaving the club clean-ing up a lot of damage and counting the cost of another theft.

Brian McCarthy, first team manager at st Mochta’s FC, said eve-ryone at the club has been “knocked for six” and are devastated by the latest attack at the premises.

Centre gets festive season off to a fair startMulhuddart Community Centre is getting into the fes-tive spirit by hosting its Christ-mas Fair.

staff at the popular centre are busy organising their first ever Christmas Fair on decem-ber 7.

the event takes place from 2 until 5.30pm and there will be an assortment of items on sale such as Christmas gifts and decorations, books, cakes, sweets and other attractive ideas for Christmas.

entertainment for the chil-

dren will also be provided. there will be face painting

and carol singing with light refreshments.

But the one thing that chil-dren will be queuing up to see is the one and only santa Claus at his grotto where a

surprise awaits them. there will also be a Christ-

mas party for five- to 10-year-olds on december 14 from 4.15pm to 5.45pm at Mulhud-dart Community Centre, where all children are welcome to join the party.

“there is huge dam-age [done to the con-tainers]… they broke into the first team’s dressing room, they took the water tanks, they ripped the fuse box off the wall so there is no power.

“they also broke in and took the lawn-mower and tried to take it out but they couldn’t get it out through the

gates. they also took all the first-aid gear, and the place was flooded.

“a lot of money has been put into these faci l i t ies . they are containers, but inside they are lovely. they have been fitted out with showers, toilets, a board-room and board table. a lot of effort has been put in with the help of fundraising.

“the last three times they have broken in they have got into the boardroom, they have burnt out a car and rammed the gates. last night was the worst.

“the effort people put in is not for me or the committee, it’s all

done for the kids who play football up there.

“We’re gutted. this is going to cost thousands - thousands we don’t have,” he said.

asked if this will affect upcoming games, he said the club isn’t sure.

“there are no show-ers or power… i don’t think this is a quick fix, and it won’t be fixed over night - we will have to wait and see.”

Mulhuddart council-lor Mary McCamley (lab) saw the damage and said it was “a sight to behold”, and that the committee will be “hard-pressed to return the clubhouse to the

way it was”. “ t h e p l a c e i s

destroyed. it is such a terrible indictment and measure of inadequacy of society that we can-not prevent these break-ins time and time again to a voluntary organisa-tion working day in, day out, to organise much-needed sporting facili-ties in their area,” Cllr McCamley added.

Gardai in Blanchard-stown are investigating the incident, and no arrests have been made to date. anyone with information should contact Blanchards-town Garda station on 666 7000 or their local station.

LAuRA [email protected]

29 November 2012 BLANCH GAzette 3

education 22,000 out off 66,000 completed

The Department of education has hired 50 additional temporary staff to help with delays in student grant applica-tions.

Of the 66,000 appli-cations to the Student Universal Support Ire-land (SUSI), there are

approximately 22,000 applications complete. Some 12,000 were either awarded or provision-ally awarded, and some 10,000 refused. 21,000 applications are with SUSI for processing and the remaining 23,000 are awaiting submission

of documentation by the student applicants.

According to a spokes-person for the Depart-ment of education, over 50% of students have made no response to requests by SUSI for required supporting doc-umentation regarding

their documentations. The spokesperson

went on to say that SUSI is aiming to achieve a target of 33,000 awards in total by the end of the year, and has hired 50 additional temporary staff to ensure all targets are met.

Staff hired to speed up grant process

Parents resist cut in school counsellors LAurA weBB

LOcAL parents have voiced their opposi-tion to a decision by the Government to reduce the number of guidance counsellors in schools by protesting outside the Dail.

Local parents from the colaiste Pobail Setanta Parents Association are opposed to Minister for education Ruairi Quinn’s decision to reduce the provision of guidance counsellor allocations in secondary schools. They are particularly worried about the impact it will have on their school.

They took their oppo-sition to the streets and

made their voices heard during a protest outside the Dail on November 28. They handed over post-card petitions addressed to Minister Quinn, signed by parents and students to Dublin West TD Patrick Nulty (Lab).

“colaiste Pobail Setan-ta opened its doors in 2008 to 44 students and now has 580 young peo-ple on its books. This is a huge increase in the student population… We have an extremely capa-ble and popular guidance counsellor who has been with us from the start,” a spokeswoman for the par-ents’ association told the Gazette.

“She also teaches main-

stream classes as well. At present, the demands on her time as a guidance counsellor are stretched to the limit and the prin-cipal cannot allocate any more hours to her due to the Department’s cut-backs.”

According to the asso-ciation, Section 9c of the 1998 education Act spec-ifies that students have access to appropriate guidance to assist them in their education and career choices.

The Department of education issued a circu-lar to school management stating that guidance pro-vision should be managed by schools from within their standard teaching

allocation and the Min-ister believes that this change will give schools greater autonomy in how they allocate resources to meet the needs of the students.

The parents association actively oppose this deci-sion and are seeking its retraction.

The spokeswoman continued: “Families are going through difficult times, and such difficul-ties can and do affect students. A number of students attend counsel-ling at Pieta house. Our guidance counsellor pro-vides advice on personal well-being and mental health concerns as well as career guidance.”

colaiste Pobail setanta: move is oPPosed

thanks! Rhinos pay visitYOuNG patients at The National chil-dren’s hospital Tallaght were treated to a special visit by members of The Dub-lin Rhinos American football team, who are based in castle-knock college, to celebrate Thanksgiv-ing last week. Led by quarterback Joe Grey (10), Sandis Buiv-ids (back) and Zaq Wood were on hand to spread greetings to Adam O’Leary.


Hospice recalls old friendsThe first Tree of Life Ceremony at St Francis hospice in Blanchard-stown takes place next week to remember those cared for in the past and at present.

The special event will take place on Thursday, December 6, at 8pm.

The chaplain at St Francis hospice, Marie Gribbon, said: “This will be a gentle service of remembrance filled with the voices of the 11 O’Clock Mass Choir, Laurel Lodge, and tenor Joe Walsh. During the service, the lights of the hospice Christmas tree will be turned on to remember all those we have cared for, both past and present.

“The Tree of Life has grown over the past 17 years to become a spe-cial night for the people of Northside Dublin city and county.

“It gathers hundreds of people together and, traditionally, it begins the Christmas celebra-tions in St Francis hos-pice.

“In a way, it helps us to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. We are passing this tra-dition of this ceremony to St Francis hospice Blanchardstown and I’m sure it will become very important time for the community,” said Marie.

The ceremony con-sists of scripture read-ings, poetry, reflections and the singing many traditional carols

The hospice Christ-mas tree is made up of hundreds of lights, and these lights can be sponsored at €5 per light, either on the night itself or by contacting 01 832 7535 or going online www.stfrancishospice.ie, in memory of a loved one or for somebody experiencing difficulty in their lives.

Lights may be spon-sored from now until the end of December.

ceremonycorduff Vehicle returned undamaged

Ambulance is stolen LAurA weBB

A DuBLIN Fire Brigade ambulance was stolen outside a house in Cor-duff as medics attended to a call-out last week.

Gardai are continuing to investigate the circum-stances surrounding the robbery of the ambulance from outside a house and

are appealing for anyone with information to get in touch.

A spokesperson for the Dublin Fire Brigade con-firmed to the Gazette that an ambulance was stolen from the Corduff area at about 8pm on Wednes-day, November 21.

Paramedics were attending to a patient in

their home when the inci-dent happened.

The stolen ambulance was recovered a short time later after it was abandoned at Corduff Park.

“The ambulance was thoroughly checked, there was no damage to the ambulance and no equipment was missing.

Gardai are asking anyone with information about the theft of the ambulance to contact them

There was no need for a second ambulance to attend the incident and there was no disruption to the treatment of the patient,” the spokesper-son added.

Local councillor Mary McCamley (Lab) con-demned the act.

She said having recent-ly retired from Con-nolly hospital where she worked as patient services manager, she realises how critical the ambulance service is to patient care

and patient lives.“hopefully, this sce-

nario is not a prospect we would like to consider for the future and that it was just a one-off that will not be repeated,” Cllr McCamley said.

Anyone with informa-tion is asked to contact their local Garda station or the Garda confidential line on 1800 666 111.

At the time of going to press, no arrests had been made in connection to the robbery.

School marks 40 yearsWOrk was recently completed on a memorial garden at a Dublin 15 school to commemorate its 40th anniversary.

This year, Coolmine Community School have been promot-ing their milestone anniversary and, as part of that, they recently completed the refurbishment of the memorial garden at the front of the school.

The school plans to hold a memorial service for deceased members of the school community on Sunday, December 9 at 3pm.

Friends and relatives of those past pupils and staff are invited to attend the special event. Anyone plan-ning to attend should rSVP to [email protected]. This will allow the school to calculate numbers at the special ceremony.

If anyone is in contact with any families of a deceased past pupil, they are being asked to let them know of the event to which they are invited.

FastNews

THE 2012 captain and lady captain of Luttrellstown Golf Club said goodbye to their prestigious roles during the club’s

recent Captain’s Dinner. Aidan McCormack and Barbara Ardagh said their goodbyes and delivered their speeches to the club members, and welcomed Bobby Hawkshaw and Yvonne

Coghlan to fill their shoes for 2013. Over 90 people turned up to the Captain’s

Dinner, which is one of the highlights on club members’ calendars.

The night was an enjoyable event for all, and now Aidan and Barbara look forward to work-ing in the exciting year ahead.

Saying hello and goodbye

6 blanch Gazette 29 november 2012

Have you seen yourself in the Gazette? Buy photos online from only €6.99 at www.gazettephotos.comGazetteGaLLeRY

the 2012 captain aidan Mccormack with bobby hawkshaw, who will be taking over

his role for 2013. Pictures: Ronan O’Sullivan

Peter and colette Keogh with Gavan Mcalinden

George ardagh, colette Keating and Stacey ardagh

Incoming lady captain Yvonne coghlan with

barbara ardagh whose term is up

29 November 2012 blaNch gazette 7


Call our news team on 60 10 240 or email [email protected]

tell us about Your loCal event, Celebration or FunCtion

Got a story?

For many parents, the discovery that their child may be using drugs is likely to be a traumatic experience – so how can you address this?

sliding into the hell of drugs, debt and crime pHiLip jeNNiNGs

Safer Blanchardstown

Mary, the mother of a 13-year-old daughter, Sarah, was very upset, frightened and confused to discover that her lit-tle girl had become eas-ily roped in by someone she thought was her friend – let’s call them the Sleeveen Supplier.

Mary was aware of and approached the local family support worker for some help, support and advice. Unfortunately, the story Mary related was all too common to the sup-port worker and went as follows: Mary had found Sarah one evening on the doorstep in a pool of vomit and thought she was drunk.

Mary cleaned her up and put her to bed with the threat: “I will speak to you in the morning.” Next morning a very sheep-ish Sarah came down the stairs just as Mary was putting her soiled clothes into the washing machine.

as usual Mary searched the pockets of Sarah’s jeans and found about 30 bags of white powder. Mary was confused as she

parenting advice on facing a teen issue

didn’t have a clue what these little bags of powder were.

Sarah panicked when she saw her mother and wasn’t quick enough to think up a lie, or maybe she was relieved that her predicament was out in the open. Sarah broke down and sobbed as she told her mother the full story of how she had got roped into the drug scene.

It all started with her and her friends smoking hash and thinking it was great. When they started they were spending about €10 each per night, usu-ally Friday and Saturday night, when her mother thought she was at the cinema or in her friend’s house.

Sarah told her mother she had been smok-ing hash for about three months when she pro-gressed on to ecstasy tab-lets as these were easily

available and sure “every-body is doing them”(says the Sleeveen).

They always bought from the same person and after a while he asked them to bring a package to the next estate and he would give them their hash and tabs free.

The young girls thought it was great they were in with the “real boys” now. This began a pattern and the Sleeveen started to give the girls bigger pack-ages and then money. He then offered them some cocaine for free and he showed them how to snort it – “sure everybody is doing it”.

T h e g i r l s w e r e impressed because he was much older than they, everybody knew him and he had a reputation as a hard man. The Sleeveen then introduced them to friends of his and they started to use coke togeth-er as they fell deeper and

deeper into the trap being set.

One night Sarah and her friends where deliv-ering a package for the Sleeveen when they were set upon by a gang of youths. They were then beaten up and the pack-age was stolen.

They weren’t too badly hurt but when they went back to their Sleeveen “friend” he lost the plot and accused them of lying and told them they must get him his money back...or else. So the Sleeveen came to an arrangement whereby they had to deal drugs for him for noth-ing until their debt was cleared.

Sarah’s mother went to confront the Sleeveen and he told her he would burn her out of her home and hurt her daughter if his money was not paid. The Sleeveen also warned Mary if she went to the gardai there would

be trouble. Mary was so terrified of the Sleeveen that she ended up bor-rowing €3,000 to pay the Sleeveen off.

Mary and Sarah’s story is so typical of how young people are being fooled into becoming carriers and eventually cash cows for the Sleeveens of our community. Frightening-ly, it could be anybody’s daughter who falls into this trap and it is happen-ing in many communi-ties.

For residents living in Fingall estates, call the out-of-hour Confidential Freephone Number 1800 333 444.

Safer Blanchardstown’s office numbers are 890 5406, 890 5017 or 890 5410. all other residents call the gardai on station number 666 7000, Com-munity Garda Office 666 7020. For more informa-tion, log on to www.safer-blanchardstown.com

SAFER Blanchardstown is a key initiative of the Local Drugs Task Force (BLDTF) set up to tackle the underlying issues of

drugs misuse and its associated anti-social and criminal activity. Recently, we published an article in the Blanchardstown Gazette relating to how young people get drawn into drugs misuse and the effects this can have on the

extended family and wider com-munity. Here, they speak about the potential consequences of intimidation of a family. The names of those involved have been changed to respect confi-dentiality and identity.


Bristol-based company Action Hero will perform

dublinlifeGa

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three-night microfestival to give a taste of FringeThe Lir Academy, on Grand Canal Quay, in association with the Dublin Fringe Festival and the British Council, are present-ing Forest Fringe – a three-night performance festival in Decem-ber.

Forest Fringe was set up in edinburgh in 2007 as a space for artists and performers and has built a strong reputation as a creative, not-for-profit, artist-led

organisation since then.Forest Fringe performs at the

edinburgh Festival each year and, in 2010, began organising microfestivals to allow the shows to move to other venues.

Dublin’s December micro-festival starts with performance group, Action hero, featuring daredevil artists from Bristol in the Irish premiere of their show, Watch Me Fall.

Also on the bill will be Dan Canham, the winner of best male performer at Dublin Fringe Festi-val 2012, who will return to Dub-lin with this dance-theatre.

Fringe Festival nominee Veronica Dyas will be reviving her solo performance of In My Bed. Also on the Forest Fringe programme is artist, performer and writer Tim etchells with a new installation piece, and 2011

Dublin Fringe winner Amy Con-roy in hotForTheatre.

Another Irish premiere, Kieran hurley’s hitch, will be staged, depicting a journey from Glas-gow to the G8 summit in Italy in 2009.

Forest Fringe runs from December 13 to 15, and shows start at 7pm at Lir Academy. To book tickets see www.fringefest.com/programme/forest-fringe.

schools P14diary P12 asdFsdaF P27business P16

lir acadeMy: action hero to KicK oFF eVent

let dublin Gazette newspapers take you on a tour of the news and events taking place across the city and county this week, as well as the latest from our schools

Children invited to help celebrate 200 years of A Christmas Carol classicDUBLIN’S children’s cultural centre, The Ark, is celebrating the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens by staging their version of A Christmas Carol in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

The condensed play lasts for 45 minutes and is performed by award-winning actors, Aaron Monaghan and Bryan Burroughs, who are responsible for the adaptation of the clas-sic Christmas parable.

In the hands of Monaghan and Burroughs, Dickens’s tale of goodwill triumphing over greed is playfully stripped back to its bare bones and retold using only the duo’s physical and vocal skills, as well as a lot of hats, scarves and fairy lights ... and a coat rack.

Cautionary taleTold with an unbridled passion for this most

famous cautionary tale, experience A Christ-mas Carol’s unforgettable characters and enduring Christmas spirit.

If you are interested in getting into the spirit of Christmas past, present or future ahead of the big day, here’s your chance.

The show runs in the Ark at 11a eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 with a range of family performances on Saturdays, December 1, 8, 15 and 22 at 2pm and 4pm, and a variety of schools performances every Tuesday to Friday from December 4 to 21 at 10.15am and 12.15pm.

The show is for children aged eight and over, and from third to sixth class.

Tickets for the family performances cost €10, or €8 concessions (adults and children require tickets) tickets for the schools per-formances cost €6.50, or €4.50 as concessions for DeIS schools and those travelling from outside Co Dublin.

Schools and groups should call 01 670 7788 to book. Saturday performances can be booked online at www.ark.ie, or by phone.

fastNews

12 BLANCH gAzette 29 November 2012

Return of festive station is music to our ears

Ronan O’Brien, owner Clothing.ie, Keith Shanley, chairman, Christmas FM, with emma

Hunt-Duffy, CSR and marketing manager eBS, Lloyd Byrne, director ISPCC

It’s that time of year again and we at Gazette towers can’t wait to have some festive tunes jingling down the air-waves!

Christmas FM is hit-ting our radios once again this year having gone live on November 28. sponsored by EBs

and Clothing.ie, the fes-tive station brings sea-sonal cheer to thousands of radio listeners around Ireland.

the station is staffed entirely by volunteers to raise awareness for this year’s chosen charity, IsPCC Childline.

Director of Christmas

FM Walter Hegarty-said: “A loyal following of thousands of fans around the globe and across the nation listen to Christmas FM on the drive to and from school, at work, or just as a backdrop whilst wrapping their presents and getting all festive.”

Chr i s tmas FM i s broadcast to 60% of the population across Dub-lin, Kildare, Cork, Lim-erick and Galway.

It is also available anywhere in the world online at www.christ-masfm.ie.

FRee FAMILy ARt HOLIDAyOv E r t h e f e s t i ve period, the National Gallery of Ireland is hosting its 48th annual Christmas Family Art Holiday.

t h e a r t h o l i d ay includes family ar t workshops, tours for adults and music in the Atrium.

All events are free and children, accompanied by parents, should bring sketchpads and colours to the art workshops.

t h e p r o g r a m m e begins on thursday, December 27 with an art workshop by artist Clare Henderson from 3 to 4pm in the Lecture theatre.

On the same day, there will be a gallery

tour from 3.30pm to 4.15pm and a musi-cal trio in the Atrium will add to the elegant atmosphere from 4pm to 4.30pm.

On Friday and sat-urday, the same format applies, with artist Don Conroy giving the art workshop on Decem-ber 28 and Louise Nei-land on December 29, followed by the gallery tour and the musical trio’s performance to finish off.

For more informa-tion, log on to www.nationalgallery.ie or call 01 663 3505.

CHRIStMAS ON tHe SquARetHIs December 1, a very special pop-up shop will appear for one day only on Merrion square in Dublin 2.

Christmas on the square is a design expe-rience which will be set in the olde world magic of the Georgian square and give shoppers an opportunity to meet the makers of all the beauti-ful Christmas goods on sale.

this exclusive fair is being presented in asso-ciation with the Irish Design shop and has

a selection of the very best in Irish design for special Christmas gifts this year.

Gif t ideas include knitwear, homeware, stationery, wall ar t, artisan food-stuffs, and there will be plenty of special Christmas treats given to custom-ers throughout the day, all accompanied by old-style festive choral music sung live.

Christmas on the square takes place on December 1 on Mer-rion square, Dublin 2 from 10am until 6pm, and admission is free.

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our advertising dept in our lucan head office on a number of dublin

Gazette titles. Experience in newspaper

advertising sales is preferable. Full clean

driving licence and own car required;

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if you can work on your own initiative

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29 November 2012 Gazette 13

feature

Gazette

Jedward will star in the Dublin Bus Christmas panto,

Jedward and the Magic Lamp, at the Olympia theatre

Pantomimes aplenty for ChristmasTis the season to be jolly, and what better way to make it even jollier than a trip to the theatre to see this year’s Christmas pantomimes.

Dublin is getting ready to shout “He’s behind you”, and watch familiar faces dress up in elabo-rate costumes as they star in the shows. This week, the Gazette takes a little look at some of the pantos that are grac-ing city stages in the run-up to Christmas.

This year, the Gaiety Theatre is taking a look at the classic tale of Cin-derella, but giving it a panto makeover.

There are two nasty, bullying ugly sisters, a quirky fairy godmother, a handsome prince and single glass slipper, all

the ingredients needed to complete the story of Cinders finding hap-piness and seeing her dreams come true.

This panto is spon-sored by Tayto and runs for six weeks from December 2 to January 13.

standard tickets are priced from €25 and are on sale now from usual outlets nationwide. For more information, see www.gaietytheatre.ie.

At the Tivoli Theatre, the Cheerio’s Panto is snow White and the Adventures of sammy sausages which opens to the public on Decem-ber 18.

This show stars TV3 presenter Alan Hughes as sammy sausages, singer Niamh Kavanagh

as the Evil Queen and Brian Dowling as the Mirror. Nadia Forde will star as the Good Queen, while iTV superstars finalist Niall sheehy plays Prince Charming. The show also introduc-es Molly Lynch as snow White.

The Cheerios Panto snow White and the Adventures of sammy sausages opens Dec 18 with previews from Dec ember12 and runs until January 13, 2013. Tick-ets cost from €15 and are now on sale from The Tivoli Theatre at 01 454 4472 or on www.tivoli.ie

Meanwhile, ireland’s most energetic twins, Jedward, star in the Dub-lin Bus Christmas panto, Jedward And The Magic

Lamp, at the Olympia Theatre from Wednes-day, December 19 to January 6.

The show features an all-singing, all-dancing cast of over 100.

The script is written by

scriptwriter, broadcaster and journalist Fiona Looney.

Tickets for this show cost from €25 and are available now through Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.ie

FusiON sundays World Christmas markets are set to start this year in New Market square in Dublin.

Fusion sundays is Dublin’s only ethnic bazaar and has a wide array of international stalls, ethnic food, live music and entertain-ment for the children.

The market will celebrate many different Christmas traditions, with over 30 stalls selling fare from around the world. There will also be a Laughteryoga session, African dancing and several other workshops running throughout the day.

The market will be held from 11am until 5pm on sunday, December 9 at the Dublin Food Co-op, 12 New Market square, Dublin 8, and subsequently every second sunday of each month.

travel

Ethnic bazaar set out stalls for Christmas

14 Gazette 29 November 2012

dublinlifeGaze

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As pArt of the recent relaunch of the Dublin Gazette Newspapers, we are reaching out to all the schools in our catchment areas to become a closer part of our community than ever before.

schools are the beating hearts of communities – one of the last places around which a commu-nity can gather. We are calling on budding writers and photographers from all of our schools to help fill the pages.

In order to encourage the next generation of journalists and snappers to get involved, we are partnering with Harvey Norman to present the Dublin Gazette Newspapers Cub reporter and Cub photographer of the Year awards.

For further details, contact me, rob Heigh, news editor at [email protected], or telephone me at 01 601 0240.

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erica o’sullivaN

Fingal Community College

ON MONDAY, Octo-ber 12, Fingal Commu-nity College held an art exhibition, curated by transition year students, displaying the Junior Certificate art, craft and design projects of 2012.

The exhibition was followed by an awards ceremony.

Projects from art, home economics, wood-work and metalwork were displayed in the school hall, and there was a competition for the best project in each subject.

Transition year stu-

dents Jodie Morris and Saoirse Traynor intro-duced the exhibition, which was officially opened by Julie Clarke, arts education officer, Fingal County Council.

Refreshments were served by the transition year catering team.

trophiesThe winners in each

category were awarded trophies, and they were named as Donna Foger-ty, art; Megan McK-eown, home econom-ics; Damien McGlynn, metalwork and Kyle Maguire, woodwork.

The parents of stu-dents who submitted

a Junior Cert project were invited to see their son or daughter’s work, and to hear the winners being announced.

Fif th class pupils from the Old Borough National School, Swords Educate Together, Holy Family National School and St Colmcille’s Boys School were invited to join the fun, and were highly enthralled by the quality of the artwork.

The students would like express their sin-cere gratitude to all who helped make the event such a success.

The exhibition would not have taken place without the generos-

a brush with great artexhibition: awards follow showcase of students’ work

ity of sponsors, Philip O’Neill Photography, Pat O’Farrell School Uni form Suppl iers , Woodgrey Ltd, Elliot Engineering and Zara McDonnell Boardman.

The principal, Mrs Sharon McGrath, con-cluded the exhibition with the announcement of plans for an annual art exhibition at the col-lege

Megan McKeon and principal sharon McGrath

Donna Fogarty


Gazetteschools

aisliNG O’FiachaiN

and Julia RyaN

Sixth Year, Notre Dame

ON WEDNESDAY, November 13, our school hall was transformed into a wacky, wondrous, world of science.

Throughout the room, our tansition year and sixth year students had set up amazing experi-ments to let the invited

primary schools in the area get a close-up, hands-on approach to science.

We didn’t think it was possible that this year’s Science Fair could sur-pass the success of last year’s, but it ended up being even better!

Here is what people thought of our Science Fair ...

Alison and Katie, from

Holy Cross National school, said: “We really liked the Yop experi-ment.”

Ali, from the Muslim National School, thought it was “amazing and the best school trip of the year”.

Jamie Murphy, from the Divine Word Nation-al School, found the giant bubble experiment to be “a bit nerve-racking, but

very good”.A teacher from the

Muslim National School had nothing but positive things to say about the fair. “It was excellent – I feel bad for the students who didn’t get to go.”

experimentDiane, from Holy Cross

National School, said the giant bubble experiment was “really fun – I didn’t

realise I was in a bubble until it popped”.

Sarah, a student of Notre Dame Junior School, loved the slime experiment, and found it “cool, disgusting and sci-entific”.

Lisa Walsh, Prep 6 teacher, Notre Dame Junior School said it was: “A wonderful, interactive hands-on experience for all the children.

“They absolute ly loved it, and said it was the highlight of science week.”

Ryan, Rathfarnham Parish National School, said that “seeing how things work is fun and exciting”.

Ms Byrne, another teacher from Notre Dame, thanked the stu-dents of Notre Dame, as “the fair wouldn’t have

been such a success with-out the help of the transi-tion year and sixth year students”.

As you can see, eve-ryone had a wonderful time. Now, we just can’t wait for next year’s fair!

The students of Notre Dame would like to thank the science teach-ers for all of their hard work, as it truly was a day to remember.

Bubbling with enthusiasm for teststhe experiments set up were all popular, but the giant bubble (right) was a particular hit with students, thanks to its fun, hand-on way of showing a scientific principle at work

16 GAZETTE 29 November 2012

DUBLINLIFEGAZE

TTE

BUSINESS

FASTBUSINESS

Blanch-based PayPal wins Employer of the Year award

FOREST Enterprises Ltd (FEL), a national forestry company with its headquar ters in Lucan, has scooped the Leadership Award at the ActionCOACH Busi-ness Excellence Awards 2012, along with a merit award in the Best Team category.

FEL has been in busi-ness for more than 20 years and has become a recognised leader in forestry management in Ireland.

The Leadership Award was presented to Daragh Little, managing direc-tor, FEL and, according to Richard Cullen, of ActionCOACH: “Daragh was selected for the Leadership Award based not only on his vision for FEL, but also the forestry

sector in Ireland.“He has grown from a

forest manager to a true business leader, building the business, developing his team, influencing the industry and Govern-ment policy both at local and European level.

“As a result, he secured ongoing funding for for-estry and established forestry higher and higher on the investment agenda.

“He instil led this vision and energy in his team, which also led him to being awarded in the Best Team category.“

In 2010, forestry con-tributed to 1.3% of Irish GDP, and the sector is projected to significantly grow in the next 10 years due to a high demand in timber.

Pensions made simple

THE European headquarters of PayPal based in Blanchardstown has won Employer of the Year at this year’s Fingal Business Excellence awards.

The global online payment com-pany employs 1,500 people at its facility in Blanchardstown. The awards, hosted by TV personality Marty Whelan, took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry on Friday, November 16, and recog-nised how highly PayPal values and treats its employees.

Judges said PayPal more than met the criteria for this award: “They really value their people and do eve-rything in their power to ensure that each and every employee is treated with respect, dignity and fairness in a creative and innovative atmos-phere.”

Louise Phelan, PayPal’s Ireland-

based vice president of global opera-tions for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “At PayPal, we under-stand that our success as a company is based on how we value and treat our employees. We are very proud the be part of the business commu-nity in Fingal and hope that our phi-losophy can inspire others to keep employees front of mind, keeping them positively engaged, motivated and inspired.

“While times are tough for busi-ness, it is within everyone’s grasp to create a workplace that really brings the best out in people and ultimately contributes to a better bottom line.”

Meanwhile, the company also won two awards and were highly commended in a third category at the Contact Centre Management Association (CCMA) industry awards.

Lucan forestry firm leafs the competition behind

Marina Bleahen, managing director, ActionCOACH

Ireland; Daragh Little, managing director, Forest

Enterprises Ltd; Richard Cullen, business coach,

ActionCOACH Ireland and Vivian Peelo, business

banking, AIB

FEL has already more than doubled its size in a four-year period, bring-ing its current employee number to11.

Earlier this year, FEL opened two regional offices in Sligo and Cork, announced four new jobs, and launched an information website on commercial forestry.

In the past two years

alone, FEL have invest-ed more than €250,000 in their IT and manage-ment systems.

Speaking on winning the award, Little said: “I am delighted to win the leadership award. I have worked in forestry for more than 20 years and proactively established myself as a solution pro-vider to policy makers.”

AWARD: PRESTIGIOUS LEADERSHIP WIN FOR COMPANY

Supported by AIB

CONTINUING my analysis of pension parameters from last week, I can tell you that if you are thinking of setting up a pension plan, there are four main compo-nents that should be considered:

1. The strength of the insurance company where the pension fund is based;

2. The performance of both that company and the specific fund where the pension funds are maintained – though you would have to discount the last year or two, owing to the credit crunch impact;

3. The annual management charges associated with the pension fund by the insurance company, and

4. The commissions, or fees, payable to the interme-diary/broker who sets up the pension plan.

Outside of the complex self-employed, company owner, director and senior employee pension options, there are two basic employee schemes – defined ben-efit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) schemes.

The former are where employees receive 66% (50% if in the public sector) of their final year’s income, irre-spective of the performance of the fund to which the employee or their employer or both has been contrib-uting, and providing the full 40 years’ service has been completed.

The latter schemes see the employee and/or the employer contribute into a fund, out of which will fund the monthly pension when the employee retires. That is, if the fund is still there at that time.

This is why rigorous annual reviews should be

undertaken on all DC pensions. Even those in both schemes can supplement their pensions through an additional tax saving scheme called additional volun-tary contributions (AVCs).

Therefore, take steps now – have a look at the age threshold; have you room to start AVCs and, impor-tantly, can you afford it? It is very tax efficient BUT you may have more pressing priorities. Whatever you do, don’t procrastinate, and seek expert advice before it is too late. Remember, the younger you start, the better, as the following shows (with pension maturity values at national retirement age, NRA, 65) – starting at age 25, the estimated maturity value at NRA would be €679,059, providing a yearly pension of €37,114.

Starting at 35, the NRA value would be €332,135, providing a pension of €18,567. Starting at 45, the NRA value would be €145,161, providing €8,299.

If in doubt, talk to an independent and professional adviser, or email me. More next week.

Contact John with your money questions at jlowe@moneydoc-

tor.ie or visit his website at www.moneydoctor.ie. John Lowe, Fel-

low of the Institute of Bankers, is founder and managing director

of Money Doctor

Pictured are (from left to right): Joe Foran, Castleknock Hotel & Country Club

(award sponsor); Siobhan Moore, president, Fingal Dublin Chamber; Louise

Phelan, PayPal vice president and TV presenter Marty Whelan at the Fingal

Business Excellence awards where PayPal won Employer of the Year 2012

KEELINGS, the fresh produce company, are celebrating the launch of their LazyTown Sports-Candy range by welcoming the star of the popular children’s show, Sportacus, to stores around Dublin this week-end.

LazyTown is a children’s enter-tainment brand dedicated to pro-moting health and well-being in a fun way, and Keelings’ Sports-Candy range includes kid size apples, ready to eat mini pears, pre-sliced carrots, washed off-the-vine grapes and easy peelers, all contained in easy to carry punnets.

Keelings is a 100% Irish owned and family run business with an annual turnover of €300 million and employs over 1,400 people in Ireland and a total of approximately 2,000 people across the group.

Sportacus will be in Dunnes Stores, Cornelscourt on Friday, November 30 at 4pm, Tesco Extra in Naas on Saturday, December 1 at 10am, in Tesco Dundrum at 4pm, and at Tesco Clarehall on Sunday, December 2 at 10am. Children are encouraged to wear their LazyTown outfits and join Sportacus in his dance moves.

Keelings Sports-Candy launched


You’ll be left wanting more! hiromi mooNey

YOU can achieve your biggest dreams, even if you hail from a small place. A little girl from the Isle of Man once dreamed of becoming a big star some day, and, after many years of hard work, that dream has come true.

Now aged 22, Samantha Barks can call herself a West End theatre star and an international film star.

Samantha trained at the Arts Edu-cation School in Chiswick, and first graced television screens in 2008 on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s competition on BBC One’s, I’d Do Anything.

This was a nationwide search for an actress to play the role of Nancy in Cam-eron Mackintosh’s production of Oliv-er! To show their support for Samantha,

the Isle of Man even renamed itself for one day as the Isle of Sam.

Although she finished in third place in the competition, she is now playing Nancy in a touring production of Oliv-er!, which is coming to the Bord Gais Theatre next month. Although she is

busy with rehearsals, she took time out to speak exclusively to The Gazette.

She said: “When I first got the role, it was amazing because it had been part of my life for about four years ... It was my first insight into the showbiz world, with an audition for that part.

“I’d worked so hard when I was 17 in the TV show, so to be actually playing it just felt more special, I think, because I’ve had that long-standing sort of a relationship with the role.”

Samantha said that she loves being a part of Oliver! because it is “such a laugh”.

“You can be on stage with such a talented bunch of people, but also just have so much fun.

“Nancy is such an interesting charac-ter to play because, on the one hand, she

is the life and soul of every party – eve-ryone loves her, she’s so much fun.

“But then, on the other hand, she’s this dark, dark character that comes from a very abused background. She is very mistreated by her boyfriend, but she’s facing a moral dilemma – does she fight for the man that she loves, or does she fight for the greater good?

“She meets this boy, Oliver, who has an effect on her like nothing before – it’s greater than her love for Bill, in the end, and that’s her sort of emotional strug-gle.”

In her varied career, to date, Saman-tha has starred in the lead role of Zoe in the Disney TV series, Groove High, and she made her stage debut as Sally Bowles in Cabaret.

Continues on Page 23

Starring as Nancy in the upcoming production of oliver! at the Bord Gais theatre, Samantha Barks is a young actress with an already impressive resume. While set to delight

audiences with her role in oliver!, Samantha will soon also be seen on cinema screens alongside anne hathaway, russell Crowe and hugh Jackman in Les miserables.

OUT&ABOUTMOTORS P22cineMa P20 aSdfSdaf P27

Never be out of the loop on what’s happening in Dublin! Let Out&About be your guide to all that is stylish, cultural and essential across the city and beyond this weekG

azeT

Te

TheaTRe: excluSive inTeRview wiTh acTReSS aT The heaRT Of OliveR!

TRavel P24

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

‘Nancy is very mistreated by her boyfriend, but she’s facing a dilemma – does she fight for the man that she loves, or for the greater good?’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Samantha Barks- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

PetsdOn’T Buy a PeT ThiS chRiSMaS – adOPT fROM a cenTRe, inSTeadTHE DSPCA are urging the public to Adopt, Don’t Buy a pet this Christmas as part of a campaign to prevent trafficking and to provide a second chance to many of the pets in its rescue centre.

According to the DSPCA, Christmas sees thousands of pets given as presents, many of which are bought online from unscrupulous breeders.

The DSPCA is asking people to give pets in rescue centres, such as the DSPCA’s, a second chance by adopting them as gifts rather than purchasing.

According to Gillian Bird, head of education, the DSPCA, the society dealt with 3,319 cases of reported animal cruelty, and took in more than 4,400 animals last year alone.

She said: “We hear upsetting stories reported to us in the DSPCA every week, and the public can help in many ways.”

For further information, see www.dspca.ie.

Pets aren’t just for

Christmas, so think

carefully before you

bring one home

Awear €65

Debenhams €40

Littlewoods.ie €200

Penneys €20

Heatons €40

Stylist Easy Curl €39.99

Debenhams €153

Debenhams €47

Penneys €13


OUT&ABOUT Gaze

tte

STYLE

Dunnes €15

Harvey Norman €129.99

Laura Webb

the time has come to think about others and give them gifts that are, truthfully speaking, on our own wishlist. this week, Gazette Style has put together a wish-list for females in the family. From perfume, to make-up, coats to hair styling tools, we’ve got it covered.

all you Gazette Style readers have to do is chose one that will make your mother, sister, best friend or nieces Christmas, and don’t worry we won’t tell anyone where you got your ideas from.

Don’t miss Gazette Style next week, when we will showcase the men’s wish-list. happy shopping!

Awear €60

Christmas Guide - for her!

YSL See stockists for details

Lancome See stockists for details


John Paul Jones, RobertPlant and Jimmy Page of Led zeppelin, were joined on stage at the O2 in London by Jason Bonham

As A youth of some sum-mers past, I was handed a well-worn copy of a strange looking record, adorned with a photo of a painting of a man with a bundle of sticks on the wall of a partially demol-ished building. No track titles, no words at all, just four symbols.

“What is this?”“Just the best rock

record ever recorded...”“Okay,” I replied, pop-

ping it into a Woolworths bag and heading home to play it.

My fr iend wasn’t wrong. Led Zeppelin IV was an incredible record. Though I was aware of stairway To Heaven, the album opened up a por-tal to a style of rock that

did not exist before nor has been created again - epic, sometimes pastoral, widescreen and elemen-tal like a hurricane.

Though a few years disbanded when I first listened to them, Zeppe-lin became the go-to act when nothing less than rock would do.

I spent years tracking down bootlegs, savouring the BBC sessions and the Remasters box set...

Then, in 2007, 27 years after the band broke up in the wake of the death of drummer John Bon-ham, the impossible hap-pened. I joined in with the estimated 20 mil-lion people worldwide who applied for tickets for their one-off show at

the O2 Arena in London after the band were reu-nited after the passing of their long-time friend and mentor, Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, who had taken a punt on the English blues band in 1968.

A legendary night was had by all (though not me) but, five years later, Atlantic have released a recording and DVD of that night in London in the form of Celebration Day.

With the surviving members back on stage with Bonham’s son, Jason, on drums, Zep-pelin put on a remark-able show and this is a remarkable testament to their enduring legacy and

contribution to the last 40 years of music.

Featuring all of the 16 tracks played that night, sympathetically and dynamically mixed by another legend, producer Alan Moulder, the album captures all of the antici-pation, the power and the glory of one night in December when the planets aligned and Zep-pelin were once more united on stage, where they were always at their most vital.

This was no in-it-for-the-paycheck reunion, it was as though Zeppelin had never stopped play-ing together and that shows through in every single track on Celebra-tion Day.

From Bonham’s count-in and Jimmy Page’s pile-driver of a a riff on Good Times, Bad Times that opened proceedings, to the final curtain call after a triumphant Rock And Roll, there was a palpable love and respect for each other and the material among the band, a deter-mination to do not only themselves and their back catalogue justice, but to provide a fitting tribute to the man who helped make them the band who still hold so much affec-tion and regard among music lovers, critics and fans worldwide.

A simply essential pur-chase, and one that will make nations happy on any Celebration Day.

dfdfgfgdfg

Gazette

FASTtunesMUSIC

GEORGE Harrison once sang All Things Must Pass, but as we remember him on his 11th anni-versary this week (November 29), it’s clear not all things belonging to Harrison have. The so-called “quiet Beatle” features on what’s just been declared Britain’s rarest record. A recording by the band that preceded The Beatles: The Quarry Men from 1958 is the most valuable vinyl in the UK. Beatles Paul McCartney and John Lennon feature alongside Harrison on the single of That’ll Be The Day/In spite of Danger which is valued at nearly €250,000. And if you are indeed a Beatles’ fan with a few quid, then you might like to know Harrison’s infamous leather jacket is going up for auction soon. It’s expected to go for around €150,000 at Bonham’s in London on December 12. Now I wouldn’t mind that in my Christmas stocking... but that’ll be the day.

Dee Woods @ Radio Nova

review: a testament to the endurinG power of led zeppelin

Rock of ages past

Beatles for sale...

with Dee Woods

OUT&ABOUT CINEMA

20 gazette 29 November 2012

Gaze

tte

theatremore

I AM having a crisis, dear readers.

This time of year inev-itably brings too many good films, meaning my inner curmudgeon doesn’t get the chance to stretch its legs.

With last week’s sur-prisingly excellent The Sapphires and the highs of Argo comes end of Watch.

Unlike last week’s review, there is noth-ing surprising about the brilliance on show here. Written, directed and produced by David Ayer, this is unsurpris-ingly a cop movie.

When I say unsur-prisingly, it is important to note that Ayer is the man behind the script for 2001’s Training Day, was the director of 2006’s outrageously good and criminally

OUR VeRDICt:THERE are small stumbles, small little frustrating stumbles, but all in all, this is a great piece of cinema. Brave, unflinching and superbly acted, End of Watch is as good a cop film as there is, but is abundantly more. A great dissection of character, a fantastic look at male relationships and a thoroughly brilliant piece of film-making. See it. See it now.

Director: David ayerStarring: Jake gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, anna Kendrick, Natalie Martinez, David Harbour, Frank grillo, america Ferrera

underseen Harsh Times and 2008’s decent but disappointing Street Kings.

Take into account that he also wrote SWAT and Dark Blue and you come to the conclusion that, yeah, this guy likes his men in uniform.

Which is not to say that his canon is one-dimensional. Ayer ’s experiences on the streets of South Central LA in his 20s have given him a keen eye for the realities of the street and a finely attuned

sense of realism is always attached to his films.

Except for SWAT and The Fast and The Furi-ous.

Oh, and he did write U-571, the most histori-cally inaccurate film of all time. But he’s apolo-gised for that, so we can just enjoy his LA films.

Much l ike 2006’s Harsh Times, End of Watch takes a look at a pair of cops on one of LA’s tougher beats.

And again like Harsh Times, there is a white guy and a Hispanic guy.

But that is largely where the similari-ties end. Where Harsh Times looked at the subjects with a strange-ly compelling detached air, End of Watch buzz-es with a familiarity

An exciting watch

and an almost childlike energy.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Officer Brian Taylor, a jovial, sarcastic show-off who, along with his partner Mike Zavala (Michael Pena) stum-bles across a case that is a few stations above their pay-grade.

Like all good movie cops, the two dive head first into it, eschewing the rules, guidelines and protocol of the LAPD.

With many scenes being shown almost entirely through hand-held camera, there is a sense of proximity and almost voyeurism in what we’re seeing.

Ayer throws off that idea whenever a scene needs more scope or scale and, far from being a jarring juxtaposition, it actually works quite nicely.

The grubby corners of LA that Ayer is obvi

Jake gyllenhaal and Michael Pena take aim at the bad guys

Cops and robbers: Jake Gyllenhaal and miChael pena Join the forCe

Film OF The Week: end of Watchh h h h h (15) 109mins

the pavilion theatre 01 231 2929rte vanburgh Quartet with nobuko imaiTHIS concert brings together the internationally-acclaimed RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet with the sensational Nobuko Imai, regarded as one of the most outstanding violists of her generation. Noted for her flawless technique and warm, expressive tone, Imai has performed as a solo artist with many of the world’s finest orchestras. December 1, tickets are priced at €17/€15.

mill theatre01 296 9340miracle on 34th stENJOY such popular songs such as Pinecones and Hollyberries, It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas and My State, My Kansas, in this joyous, heart-warming musical of pure family entertainment. Miracle On 34th Street tells the story of a mother and daughter that are much too practical to believe in Santa Claus. Macy’s hires a kind, white-bearded, older gentlemen to play Santa at the store, but when the man proclaims to be Kris Kringle and Santa himself, his sanity is called into question. Presented by Glencullen Musical and Dramatic Society and directed by Tom Ronayne. December 5-15 at 8pm, tickets are priced at €20/18.

CiviC theatre 01 462 7477abba foreverIT’S Christmas! It’s party time! It’s ABBA! From Waterloo to Dancing Queen, expect a dazzling, fantastic performance including the most iconic hits, Mamma Mia, SOS, Money, Money Money, The Winner Takes It All and many more. December 10 and 11, tickets are priced at €20.

PaUl [email protected]

ously so familiar with are easily explored with the handhelds, while the action of the film’s sec-ond and third acts can be properly portrayed with the less intrusive camera angles.

Yes, the bad guys are fairly shallowly drawn, but in this case it doesn’t matter.

Their menace is real and Gyllenhaal and Pena infuse their cops with so much likeabil-ity, their mere survival is enough to make you root for them.

Gyllenhaal is an actor who has quietly gone about establishing him-self as one of Hollywood’s most capable, and odd, leading men.

Though he will likely miss out on Oscar rec-ognition for this, his per-formance should be seen.

CINEMA

GAZETTEGAMING

29 November 2012 GAZETTE 21

NINTENDO: NEW CONSOLE IS ALMOST HERE

SHANE DILLON

THE Wii is dead – long live the Wii U. Confused? I don’t blame you, as the news that Nintendo has a new console may be, well, news for many parents and casual gamers.

N i n t e n d o h a s announced that, as of now, it no longer has any new first-party Wii games in development – this means that it will continue to support the Wii, but not to make any new games for it, while it focuses on its all-new Wii U console instead, which launches this Friday, November 30.

But, as Nintendo pre-pares to put its perfectly

decent (and particularly family-friendly) console into sleepy retirement, the company has finally unveiled its next console – the Wii U – with which it looks set to finally pose a challenge to Microsoft and Sony.

Although arriving late to the games party, at least Nintendo have finally rucked up with some hardware of note, and with, seemingly, a

more astute sense of how to position itself, and to make its console a real contender as a platform for gamers to embrace.

But first, what is the Wii U? Put simply, it’s very much a modern games console that, in many ways, is comparable to the power of the XBox 360 or the PlayStation 3 – a nota-ble step up in pure oomph from the Wii’s modest capabilities.

Nintendo being Nin-tendo, they’ve sought to do something that dif-ferentiates it from the competition; in this new console, that’s very much the case with its special controller – and how.

The GamePad is a large,

Wii U is here for, umm, you

SHANE [email protected]

WIN A GREAT KINECT GAMEYour chance to get sporty with XBoxTHE Gazette has teamed up with Microsoft again for another great XBox 360 giveaway – and, once again, there’s a fun Kinect title up for grabs (which, as you’d expect, requires a Kinect body-tracking sensor to play).

With Christmas almost upon us, family party games are always a real hit at this time of year, as well as games that you can return to time and again for lots of fun – so, what better game to pick up than Kinect Sports Ultimate?

For those who aren’t as superfit as me (cough), you’ll have lots of fun getting breathless (or showboating your skills) in a wide range of sports, including soccer, football, golf, skiing, tennis, boxing, darts, baseball, bowling, track & field, table tennis, beach volleyball and basketball – if that’s not enough to suit any sporting interest (or to get granny showing off her previously little-seen volleyball skills), well ...

Not only that, but we’ll (okay, Microsoft) even bung in some extra prizes for each

of five lucky winners: a Gold three-month XBox Live sub-scriptions, as well as 2,100 Microsoft Points.

So, to win your copy of Kinect Sports Ultimate, and the other goodies, just answer the following question ...

In which sport would you use a racket?A. TennisB. GolfC. Darts

Email [email protected] with your answer before noon on Friday, December 7. Please include your full name and address; one entry per applicant; five correct winners will be selected at random, with prizes posted out the following week.

COMPETITIONgiveawaygiveawaygiveaway

chunky controller with a centralised touchscreen, which offers all kinds of interesting options for games, once designers get to grips with it (no pun intended).

For example, that screen could show all kinds of information that directly relate to the on-screen action – such as to be an always-on map of where the player is in that game’s world, with lots of other obvious uses such as showing rankings, inventories, and so on.

AttractivenessAdd to that the tactile

attractiveness of swiping through and selecting content on this second-ary screen, which has an instant relevancy to the on-screen action, and it’s clear that this feature alone has the potential to make the Wii U a very cre-atively interesting console, and gives it a unique sell-ing point over its rivals.

What’s under the hood? Suffice to say that it holds its own against the 360 and PS3, with graphics that are a signifi-cant step up from the Wii, if programmed right.

A few points of note – it can support high defini-tion graphics, with this HD capability a first for Nintendo, as well as using Flash storage for on-board saves.

The GamePad can be used to play some games without the TV, with other peripherals also usable, and on the way.

Because nobody in the world really cares about how many tiny elves it whips on treadmills to make the machine proc-ess sub-pixel shading – yawn – let’s jump straight on to what will be a huge selling point for many.

The fact that it’s back-ward-compatible with Wii games, meaning that Wii fans, families, those trading up – and even a certain Mr S Claus – can breathe a sigh of relief, as the new console supports all those Wii games peo-ple already have.

Lastly, in what’s likely to be of most note to hard-core gamers, it’s also worth pointing out that several “heavyweight” games and franchises are also being ported to the Wii U, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Aliens: Colo-nial Marines, Assas-sin’s Creed 3, and many more.

W h i l e N i n t e n d o remains the most family-friendly console out there – to its detriment, some would say, as it hasn’t pre-sented much choice or use for more mature gam-ers – it’s great to see that the Wii U will offer a “bet-ter” range of games.

As expected for a launch console, it ain’t cheap, folks – kiss good-bye to at least €400, for the console and a few good games – but for a great, interesting new console, with some already note-worthy launch titles – this could be what Wii, or U, have been waiting for ...

STEP UP TO A CHALLENGING ISLANDMadness, mayhem – and lovely views – in Far Cry 3THIS weekend, lots of gamers will be heading to a beaufitul island paradise to get Lost (see what I did there?) with Far Cry 3 – the latest and very pretty, yet pretty violent addition to the popular open-world franchise.

Available on PlayStation 3, XBox 360 and PC, the game sees you searching for your girlfriend, and friends, on a beautiful island chain – beautiful, that is, except for some of the inhabitants – very bad men with guns – who aren’t best pleased to have some tourist interlopers ...

I rambled – or rampaged – though an extensive hands-on advance preview of the game recently, and can confirm that it’s a great shooter, with an interesting (if slightly unhinged) plot and set of characters, as well as a frequently stunning open-world setting.

So, for gamers looking for a lovely-looking (and often frenetic) shooter, you don’t have very Far to look ...

OH, DELL ...Latest results underline crisis in the PC sectorTHERE are all kinds of fascinating, bizarre – and occasionally worrying – stories happening across the tech sector at the moment, with former hardware and software giants suddenly facing into unexpected battles.

One such battle lies ahead for PC maker Dell, with a number of tech sites and reports picking up on its latest quarterly results, which show pretty hefty drops in both revenues and operating profits – these, in the same year in which its share price has also taken a drastic dive.

Former tech giants, such as HP and Blackberry-maker, RIM, have seen a drastic reversal of fortunes in this time.With traditional PC/laptop sales plateauing, at best, or simply slumping around the world, as users migrate to tablets instead – not to mention the inexorable rise of smartphones – Dell, as with rivals and allies alike, faces a challenge to turn things around, before it drifts a little too close to beleaguered MySpace territory ...

IF SPOTTED ...Tech figurehead continues to evade police in BelizeAT THE time of writing, a story that’s been fascinating tech reporters and, well, just reporters around the world has been the bizarre tale of multimillionaire internet entrepreneur John McAfee – yes, that McAfee, whose antivirus software many readers have on their PCs – who remains on the run in Belize, after being named as “a person of interest” in the shooting dead of his neighbour, Gregory Faull, with police looking to interview him for their enquiries.

Unfortunately for San Pedro police, and to help with the enquiry into the late Mr Faull’s murder, McAfee has, to use an old-fashioned phrase, gone “on the lam” around the tiny country – a curious decision to make, yet one made even stranger (and attracting intense media attention) by his decision to start a blog, and to contact international media, both protesting his innocence and detailing the ways in which he has avoided Belize police, how he has disguised himself, and so on.

Perhaps the best, last word on this continuing situation (at the time of writing) should be left to Belize’s prime minister, Dean Barrow, who has said of McAfee’s evasion: “It strikes me that he is extremely paranoid ... I would go as far as saying he is completely bonkers.”

BYTES&PIECES

The sleek lines of Nintendo’s Wii U is very much in keeping with

modern design trends – and, thankfully, it’s got plenty of power,

too, along with a potentially very interesting controller (left)


Ibiza is great value with VW reliability

n CormaC Curtis

Sit ting in to the SEAt ibiza last month was a reassuring expe-rience for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the car simply had a very well-put-together feeling to it, but what really put me at ease was that SEAt were supplying me with pretty much the most standard spec of the ibiza range that anyone on these shores is likely to come across.

no leather uphol-stery, no heated seats and steering wheel, no 22” bling alloys, no premium sound system named after an electric guitar and it certainly didn’t make coffee… this was possibly the most honest car that i have been trusted to review in some time,

and SEAt are clearly more than confident that the car speaks for itself.

And it does.As i said, the ibiza is

a solid motor from the off, and you can feel it.

i actually watched a recent British motoring tV programme where two of the present-ers were blindfolded and given the task of assessing the interior build quality of two saloons – a silly bit of tV, but it did make me

think of the cars i have driven recently and how i would rate them in terms of value for money.

After i considered points of contact, such as the steering wheel, gear knob, window but-tons and audio/climate controls, as well as upholstery, dashboard materials and how the doors felt opening and closing, the ibiza was very hard to beat.

Cons ide r ing th i s car would be a good €10,000 less than most of the other cars i have tested in recent months, it was very difficult to look past it as top of the value heap.

Praisethe highest praise

from a passenger in the car came from my highly-critical other

half – she doesn’t suffer poor quality and has a bit of an obsession with the VW golf, but that didn’t stop her taking the words out my mouth and comparing the ibiza to the classic Volkswagen hatchback.

it has to be said that the ibiza 1.2 Style has a great deal more going for it than the golf ever did back in the day.

not only is the qual-ity bullet proof, but it comes with a serious shopping list of features as standard, some of the more eyebrow-raising additions are the very pretty 16” Stratos alloy wheels that match the body very nicely indeed, a tinted rear window, up-to-date new foglights with cornering, the rear view mirrors and door handles are heated and come in body colour.

As far as the illu-mination goes, there are sparking chromed headlights and rear LED lights.

going back to com-fort and points of con-tact, the gearstick and steering wheel are both leather, and the car comes with air condi-tioning and a stereo that has Bluetooth, USB and Aux connections to its six speakers.

So a spacious, five-door, economical motor with bang up-to-date styling and a host of extras for well under €16,000, what else are the 18- to 25-year-olds looking for these days?

this car represents some of the best value on the market and as part of the VW group, it should be every bit as reliable as its stable mates.

the ibiza comes with a serious shopping list of features as standard

Young artists invited to dream up carCrEAtiVE kids will be delighted to hear that toyota ireland have announced the launch of the annual Dream Car Art Contest. the national competition invites budding irish artists under the age of 16 to dream up their car of the future.

nine irish finalists will be awarded prizes which range from a nintendo DS, Digital Camera, iPod shuffle and art supply vouchers, as well as the chance to win an unforgettable trip to Japan if they are successful at a global level.

A panel of three judges, rtE presenter Diana Bunici, lecturer in Fine Art at nCAD Oliver Whelan and a representative from toyota ireland have the tough job of selecting three finalists in each age category (under 10 years, 10-12 years and 13-15 years) as the national winners. these winners will be announced in March 2013.

Young artists are being asked to draw or paint their vision of a Dream Car using standard art materials (digital submissions will not be accepted). All entries must be in colour and include a car and a background or setting on A3 size paper.

All submissions can be entered by dropping art work into an authorised toyota dealership or sending it to toyota ireland, Killeen rd, Dublin 12 and clearly mark it toyota Dream Car Art Contest. the submission must be accompanied by an entry form which can be downloaded from www.toyota.ie . the contest will be open until February 28, 2013.

the nine irish winners’ works will go on to compete against international winners for gold, silver and bronze in a global competition with a grand prize of a once-in-a lifetime trip to Japan.

seat: spacious, economical motor with up-to-date styling

NOISEroadOUT&ABOUT ga

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MOTORS

n 0 – 100km/hr: 13.9 secs

n top speed: 163km/h

n Co2 emissions : 125g/km

n tax Band: B

n Current tax rate:

€225

n Price: €15750 (metallic:

€345, as driven: €16,095)

specs: ibiza 1.2 style

at the launch of the annual toyota Dream Car art

Contest was tV presenter and competition judge

Diana Bunici. Diana was on hand at the radisson

Blu st Helen’s to help Kayla o’toole (5) and matthew

Lawless (6) kick-start their competition entries

29 November 2012 BLANCH GAZETTE 23

MOTORS

GAZETTEFEATURES

Continued from Page 17

However, Samantha’s career took another turn when she made her West End debut as Eponine in the classic musical, Les Miserables.

After a year in the part, she played this role again in the Les Miserables 25th anniversary concert at the O2 Arena in London in 2010.

Stunning news came when Cameron Mackin-tosh announced that The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper had cast her as Eponine in the upcom-ing Les Miserables Holly-wood movie.

Mackintosh made the announcement on stage during a curtain call of Oliver! in Manchester last February, and Samantha’s stunned reaction can be seen on YouTube.

“I was literally just as shocked and surprised as I looked,” said Samantha. “I still can’t even remem-ber [the moment]! It was just the most incredible moment of my life, where everything just changed in such a quick moment, and to have that on record

– that I can actually watch and go ‘Actually, that did happen; that wasn’t a dream’ – it’s really cool.”

Samantha later learned that she was chosen to play the part over other famous stars, such as Taylor Swift and Lea Michele.

“Whenever you go for a role, you always know that you’re up against all of these wonderful actresses – it’s just that you don’t necessarily know who they are.

“So, I just keep this as my motto: ‘I’m not going to gain anything by know-ing who I’m up against, or who’s been seen’. It’s not very productive and it’s not a positive energy to go in with into an audi-tion room.

“I just try to block that kind of gossip out of my mind, and be the best that I can be,” she said.

“You’ve got to be com-pletely 100%-focused on your audition and what you need to do – not what other people are doing.”

The Les Miserables film, which opens early next year, is set to be memora-ble for its music as all of

the singing was recorded live on set, instead of hav-ing the actors mime to the pre-recorded audio.

This allowed the actors to make their acting deci-sions spontaneously while in the heat of the moment.

Samantha appears in the film alongside Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Amanda Seyfried, and Barks is being touted for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.

“It was fantastic. It was an amazing experience. The whole cast was a nice bunch of people.

Overwhelming“It was overwhelming

in one way to be work-ing with people like that, but also they were a nice bunch of people, so they made me feel as relaxed as I possibly could be,” she said.

“We were all supportive to each other, and it was amazing – just the whole fact that everybody had such support for each other. It was very excit-ing.”

So, from being a little

girl on the Isle of Man to becoming a Hollywood star on the rise, what advice does Samantha have to be successful?

“Literally, you have to work your socks off. You can’t just sort of let things happen, and sit back and go: ‘Oh yeah, that’ll hap-pen’, or ‘Why isn’t that happening for me?’

“I tend to just set my sights on something and then work as hard as I possibly can.

“Some things happen, some things just don’t. You need to not dwell on something when some-thing doesn’t work out for you. Use that negative energy and put it into the next thing that you want to happen.

“Celebrate your suc-cess, and don’t dwell on any failures that you might come across,” she advised.

Samantha has dreamed a dream, and it has come true. You can see her in action on stage in Oliver! at The Bord Gais Energy Theatre from December 12 to January 12, or on the big screen in Les Misera-bles from January 11.

Focused on her artTHEATRE: ACTRESS CHANNELS ‘POSITIVE ENERGY’

A feature of Samantha Bark’s role in the upcoming big-budget production of Les Miserables (above) will be live, on-set singing, adding extra vibrancy to her performance


OUT&ABOUT Gaze

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You’ll fall for lodge’s comfort and luxury LAurA weBB

BAGS packed and ready to go – road-trip. I had heard of the stunning views of Sheen Falls Lodge at Kenmare in Kerry, so I was really looking forward to see-ing it for myself.

Checking the journey ahead, I was warned by my Sat-Nav that it would take more than four hours to get there from Dublin – so, it was time to get moving.

I picked up my friend,

Anne, and we were well on our way as we trav-elled down the M7.

Merging onto the M8 towards Cork, we decided to take a quick pit-stop.

Once we were fed and watered, it was back on the road, excited about the destination ahead.

On reaching Cork, we stayed on the N25 – or so we thought. It was our first wrong turn of the journey, and we were now heading towards Waterford – not the des-

tination we were looking for.

So, it was time to turn back and head back the way we came, but, unfor-tunately, it wasn’t the right way either.

After much circling around, we finally real-ised we should have con-tinued straight on the N25, rather than turning off to the left.

By the time we left Cork, it was dark and we were longing to be at Sheen Falls, but our nightmare journey didn’t

Although tucked away in Co Kerry, the journey to Sheen Falls Lodge is undoubtedly worth it, with its welcoming luxury and comfort – not to mention its wonderful location in the Kingdom

kerry: the lonG drive to kenmare is worth it – thanks to this hotel

stop there – diversion signs, oh dear!

We finally arrived and I have never been so happy to see accommodation.

On arrival, the staff were more than help-ful, and we were given a mini-tour of the lodge.

Our room was situated in the sailing quarter, and had spectacular views of the lake and forest, which were wonderfully lit to enhance their beauty at night.

Dinner at La Cascade was booked, a place where dressing up for the occasion is a must.

As we waited for our order, we were given a selection of artisan bread, which Anne was delight-ed to taste because she is currently studying pro-fessional baking.

The selection was Ital-ian herbs and seeded rye

bread, as well as some potato rolls. They were each freshly baked and cooked to perfection.

I had salmon for my starter, and venison for my main – both delicate-ly cooked, and comple-mented by flavour.

The lodge is situated just off the main road at Kenmare and is hidden away from the hustle and bustle of life.

It is an ideal place for a couple’s retreat, for those the hotel bedrooms are as inviting and comfortable as you could wish for

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

‘The whole feel of the lodge is pure relaxation, where you feel like you are a far cry from civilisation’- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

TRAVELfast

Take a oui break and celebrate the festive season in EuropeESCAPE the winter chill and embrace the festive season in one of Europe’s favourite cities with a perfect pre-Christmas getaway.

Stay three nights in romantic Prague from just €167 per person with GoHop.ie. The package includes return flights from Dublin, three night’s accommodation in a three-star hotel, and all taxes and charges, travelling on December 9.

Alternatively, see the sights of Copenhagen with a four-night stay in a four-star hotel, from just €300 per person, travelling on December 7.

Why not ring in the New Year beneath the Eiffel Tower with a five-night stay in a four-star hotel in Paris? Travelling on December 29, the package is available from just €348 per person. All prices include return flights from Dublin, accommodation, taxes and charges.

For more winter break offers, see www.gohop.ie/specials.php.

Step back in time at Strokestown ParkFOR any family looking for a Christmas Day out with a difference this festive season, then perhaps taking a trip back to Victorian times could lead you straight to Strokestown Park in Co Roscommon.

Visitors will be greeted at The Woodland Walk Cafe and travel through the secret tunnel into the underground rooms of Strokestown House – for the very first time – where guests will meet Santa’s Elves and enjoy a delicious hot chocolate.

While children will have a chance to meet Mr and Mrs Claus, adults will enjoy the old-world Christmas gift shop with Irish crafts, magical books and a chance to create a personal Christmas hamper.

A family ticket (two adults and three children) is priced at €50; single adult tickets are €7, while tickets for children availing of the whole magical experience are priced at €15. All bookings, including group bookings for larger groups and schools, can be made at www.strokestownpark.ie.

29 November 2012 BLANCH gAzette 25

Travel

Although tucked away in Co Kerry, the journey to Sheen Falls Lodge is undoubtedly worth it, with its welcoming luxury and comfort – not to mention its wonderful location in the Kingdom

who just want to enjoy each others’ company, to relax and maybe try out some of the many attrac-tions the lodge has to offer, such as fishing, fal-conry, clay pigeon shoot-ing, tennis and horse-rid-ing, to name but a few.

After some gentle exer-cise, a spa treatment is a must and that is what we decided to do the morn-ing after we arrived.

However, before our treatments, it was time for some breakfast, which was served at the restau-rant we ate at the night before.

Seeing the view during the day was even more magnificent. The whole feel of the lodge is pure relaxation, where you feel like you are a far cry from civilisation.

Again, the food was well presented and tasted

as good as it looked. We were offered a

European-style buffet with pastries, fruit, cereal and yogurts among other things, or you could order Sheen Falls breakfast specials such as pan-cakes, omelettes, French toast or a good aul’ Irish brekkie.

Full to the brim, it was time to relax and attend our treatments at the health club. The Sheen Falls Health Club offers an array of treatments, from massages to mani-cures – it caters for a full body experience.

I was treating myself to a Yonka Aromastone 60-minute massage.

This was a hot stone massage that would relax even the tightest of muscles. There are two types: a full body or a back, shoulder and neck

massage.I received the latter

massage, which is con-sidered the better option for an hour’s treatment.

Again, the staff could not have been nicer, and worked wonders on making Anne and me feel more relaxed, and we both ended up feel-ing like we were on cloud nine.

The return journey took a little over four hours, which showed that the day before had just been one of those disaster trips – but we weren’t at all put off by the journey, and would go back in a heartbeat.

While I would admit that this lodge isn’t easy on the pocket, you do have to pay that little extra for life’s luxuries and, for me, Sheen Falls is luxury at its best.

Gazette

Support Leinster Rugby in ClermontWHILE Round Three of the Heineken Cup will no doubt prove to be Leinster’s most difficult assignment when they travel to Clermont and face the former French Top 14 Champions this December, the sporting clash will be a must-see.

Joe Walsh Tours have a selection of flights and overnight packages available for the game, as well as official match tickets from €359, plus tax.

Departing on December 8 for one night, the package includes direct return flights from Dublin to Clermont, including hotel transfer, one checked-in bag and one night at the three-star Kyriad Prestige, or the four-star Holiday Inn Garden Court, in Clermont city centre, on a B&B basis. The package also includes transfer to Stadium Marcel Michelin, and back to the airport on December 9.

For further details, or to book your package, see www.joewalshtours.ie/leinster, telephone 01 241 0800, or email [email protected].

TRAVELfast

Escape to Malta’s sun for ChristmasWITH some choosing to revel in the winter weather when it comes to Christmas time, sometimes a break away is exactly the winter warmer that you really need.

Whatever your Christmas budget, Concorde Travel is offering a range of packages to whisk you away to the island of Malta. Packages are available for three or seven nights, in a wide range of accommodation.

Depart on December 21 for seven nights and stay at the three-star St George’s Park & La Vallette, from €594PP; stay at the four-star Hotel Maritim Antonine, from €634PP, or stay at the four-star Hotel Cavalieri, €704PP. Travel on Christmas Eve and spend seven nights at the four-star Cavalieri, from €670PP, or treat yourself at the five-star Radisson Blu Bay Point, from €764PP.

The Christmas packages include return flights, taxes, transfers and accommodation. To book your Christmas break, see www.concordetravel.ie, or phone 01 775 9300.

Splash out on – or in – any of the hotel’s many features,

all designed to leave you relaxed and refreshed

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dublinsport let the Gazette keep you up to date with all the best local sporting action from around the city as we cover all the stories that matter to you and your communityGa

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volunteers: fanaGan named adult manaGer of the year at the aviva stadium

tHird time uNLuCky for LouGHrAN: FORMER Mount Anville student Sine-ad Loughran was left on the runners-up side for a third consecutive year in the NCAA hockey championship final as University of North Carolina fell to Princeton 3-2.

For each of the past three years, UNC have fallen at the final hurdle by the same scoreline after epic runs to the final of the competition.

Loughran’s univer-sity had won their regional confer-ence before beating Syracuse 6-1 – who featured fellow Dub-liners Emma Russell, Liz McInerney and Gillian Pinder – with Loughran on the score sheet in the national semi-final.

local heroes honoured for selfless services to sportLORETO hockey club member Sally Ann Fanagan was honoured this week with the Adult Manager of the Year Award at the Irish Sport Coun-cil’s National Awards to Volunteers in Sport in the Aviva Stadium.

Fanagan was awarded the gong fol-lowing an amazing service to Irish hockey, taking over as the Irish senior women’s team manager in 2006.

During her tenure, she amassed 155 caps before she retired in June, taking in three European championships, two Olympic qualifiers, two Champions

Challenge campaigns and one World Cup qualifier.

The awards are a collaboration between the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Irish Sports Council and the Federation of Irish Sport which represents over 70 sports in Ireland.

In attendance at the event was Min-ister of State for Tourism and Sport Michael Ring who acknowledged the exceptional work of the honoured vol-unteers in sport

“For me all our winners epitomise

true sportsmen and women who not alone get a great deal out of sport but perhaps just as importantly put a huge amount into sport,” he said.

Also on the list of award winners was Cormorant swimming club coach Mar-ian Fenton, martial arts administrator Brendan Dowling and Gymnastics Ire-land’s Mary Murray.

Blackrock Flyers founders Colm and Shelagh Leech also received one of the awards on the back of the fan-tastic work they have done in disability sports and in particular, the Special

Olympics. The Leeches have been volunteers

with Special Olympics for over 15 years during which time they have taken on a variety of different roles working at national, regional and local club levels. Their daughter, Tara, is a participant in the Special Olympics in gymnastics, basketball, athletics and golf.

In 1989 the couple were among a group of parents to establish a Special Olympics Club in Bray before they went on to found a further club in Blackrock.

former irish women’s hockey manager Sally Ann fanagan, centre, celebrates her national volunteer award with, left to right, Alex Speers, Lisa Jacob and emma Gray

wakeboardinG P29sPorts awards P28 asdfsdaf P27

Fastsport

c o n ta c t sActing Sports

editor: Stephen findlater

[email protected]

for more information or to send in news

and photos: [email protected]

Phone: 01 651 6205

Gaelic Games P31

[email protected]

FINGAL Cricket Development Officer Reinhardt Strydom, with the help of Simi Singh, recently presented an ICC introduction to coaching course in the Fingal area.

The course was delivered at Corduff Sport Centre, Blanchard-stown last week and was attended by 13 participants who were rep-resented by clubs from different areas of Fingal and Leinster.

The course ran for four hours explaining the basic laws of cricket, how the game works

and to show different small sided games that can be played in the schoolyard.

The session started with a demonstration of how the game of cricket works along with the basic rules with a layout of a cricket field.

Following that, batting was demonstrated with the grip and stance shown along with the exe-cution of the forward drive.

The bowling element concen-trated initially on the basic action before progressing to run-ups and follow-throughs.

To finish, the teachers were

shown hand-eye co-ordination skills and games and also four dif-ferent cricket games to play with their students.

These games included Pairs cricket and Continuous cricket.

Participants arriving with lit-tle or no knowledge of cricket learned a lot over the four hours.

“They left understanding the game better, had fun, learned to bat and bowl and were all looking forward to trying out these games with their relevant classes.

This will hugely help the growth of cricket in Fingal and special thanks have to go to all

the schools and teachers who attended.

“A very successful course with many positive outcomes resulted from the day’s activities.

“The council are committed to developing sport in Fingal and cricket is a major part of that plan.

“This programme gives teach-ers the basic skills of the game and enables them to pass on what they have learned to their students through fun and active games,” said Niall Mc Guirk, sen-ior sports development office for Fingal County Council.

Fingal host cricket coaching development event

Recent participants in one of the ICC introduction to

coaching courses

SPORTGaze

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HSTARof the

MONTHsean byrnest JOsePH’s striker sean byrne pro-duced a fine showing for the republic of Ireland as he got on the mark for the U-16s as they played out a highly competitive pair of matches against estonia.

HTEAMof the

MONTH

2012 dUblIn sPOrts awards nOvember nOmInees

barry mUrPHytHe alsaa swimmer broke a string of national records to show his form at the european short course champion-ships in Chartres, France. He topped his best mark in the 50m butterfly and the 50m breaststroke.

ava HUtCHInsOnlOndOn Olympian ava Hutchinson picked off the national intercounty cross country title, showing her form leading into the european champi-onships with victory in the senior women’s race.

WITH winter closing in, local stars are continuing to warm the sports landscape with a string of blistering performances. Dundrum South Dublin AC’s runners claimed the most of the first major cross-country crowns of the winter with Ava Hutchinson’s performance chief among them. A string of local soccer stars are forging their way into Republic of Ireland squads while Barry Murphy’s record-breaking feats were part of an immaculate Irish swimming team overall performance.

From a team perspective, November has seen numerous clubs shine on the Leinster GAA scene but none more so than Castleknock’s footballers. From a collective perspective, Lucan Sarsfields’ immaculate work at underage level has borne fruit in abundance as they annexed their 20th camogie title in six seasons. Swords Celtic have similarly blazed a trail on the soccer front.

CastleknOCk JUnIOr FOOtballleInster junior championship glory was annexed last sunday to go with dublin honours as they had too much in the tank for st Fintan’s last week-end at Parnell Park. a truly breath-taking season continues.

swOrds CeltICaFter an eighth successive win at the start of the month, swords Celtic have rocketed to the top of the lsl junior leagues and look in great shape for promotion up to the intermediate ranks as the midway mark nears.

lUCan sarsFIelds CamOGIea memOrable month for the 12th lock club, their minors won a third suc-cessive a championship - the fifth top tier underage in quick succession - while three of their senior team have been added to the dublin panel.

dublinGazettenewspapers

TALENTED Killiney native David O’Caoimh ended his year with a tenth place finish at the final wakeboarding world cup event in Palembang, Indonesia last Sunday.

Despite negotiating 33 degree heats, the teen-ager did well to storm his way through the qualify-ing heats but he came unstuck at the semi-final stage whilst performing one of his most technical tricks.

Nonetheless, the result continued his rise into the top 20 in the world in a growing sport that is looking toward poten-tial inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games.

It is quite the achieve-ment for the 18-year-old who, despite the elements in Ireland working against the sport in many respects

– the climate one of the major factors – he has been making waves on the international scene.

O’Caoimh has been on the water for the guts of three quarters of his life, first following in his par-ents footsteps. They were keen windsurfers and introduced him to that sport initially during sum-mer holidays in Cavan but he soon graduated to the wakeboard, a hybrid of water-skiing, snowboard-ing and surfing with added gymnastics.

Pulled along by a speed-

boat at 20 to 25 miles per hour, competitors use the wake of the boat to per-form flips and spins to spectacular effect.

And, since the turn of the year, O’Caoimh has been one of the foremost protagonists, training on the ice cold waters of Ire-land year-round.

In 2012, his winning season kicked off when he won the gold medal in the junior men’s division at the European wake-boarding championships in South Africa in Febru-ary.

It led to an invite to the prestigious wakeboard world cup in Australia to which only the top 20 male riders in the world are selected.

There, he was up against full-time profes-sional wakeboarders from

all over the world, manag-ing to take fifth place.

A few weeks later he went on to compete at the US Wake Games and took bronze in the junior pro men’s category.

He then defended his national pro title in Ireland and, a fortnight

afterwards, he took the top spot at the Irish open wakeboard champion-ships.

From there, it was off to Germany to compete at the prestigious Chill and Ride international com-

O’Caoimh flying high in the wakeboarding world Killiney teenager has entered the wakeboarding world’s top 20 with stellar performances in Asia, South Africa and Australia all while continuing his studies in Ireland

Killiney man David O’Caoimh has produced an incredible year on the world wakeboarding scene

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‘I am so happy to have had such a fantastic season and I’m really delighted with my titles’ - David O’Caoimh- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ST Luke’s National School in Tyrrelstown cre-ated history for their school by winning the first ever GAA trophy this week when they won the final of the Dublin 15 local schools league, played in Parnell Park against Tyrrelstown Edu-cate Together.

Both teams brought large numbers of support-ers who created a fantastic atmosphere in the ground.

St Luke’s shaded a close match and were inspired by their midfield duo of Michael Afuye and Chris Sombete. The match showcased a huge level of school pride and team spirit and proved a fantastic day for the young people of Tyrrelstown.

Speaking about the game, St Luke’s teacher Kris O’Connor said: “The whole school is extremely proud of their boys, who remained undefeated for the duration of the league and represented the school with great dignity.

“The victory has done huge things for GAA in the school and has provided encouragement for younger children to get involved. Hopefully, this is the first of many trophies to be won by the children of St Luke’s National School.”

O’Connor was part of the team’s coaching team along with Conor Lynch who gave their own time to train, coach and mentor the boys along the road to their success, fostering a strong commitment in the team.

St Luke’s create school history in Parnell Parkpetition where, for the

second year in a row, he won the gold.

Speaking about the incredible run of results, O’Caoimh said: “I am so happy to have had such a fantastic season and I’m really delighted with my titles.”

While many of his opponents can afford to compete full-time, O’Caoimh is currently combining competing with his studies.

Despite travelling to Asia, Australia, South Afri-ca, the USA and Europe to train and compete, he managed to find time to sit the Leaving Certificate and is currently in first year at UCD.

But he is hoping that by the time he finishes col-lege, he could be looking at an Olympic campaign. Wakeboarding has been shortlisted for the 2020 Olympic Games and the world championships are now held under the aus-pices of the IOC.

In addition, the first Wakeboard Cable Park has recently been given planning approval and is expected to open in the Dublin Docklands next spring.

stephen [email protected]

Fastsport

Gazette 29 november 2012 BlanCh gazette 29

Polar Plunge set for 40 FootTHE fourth annual Polar Plunge will take place on Saturday, December 1 from 11.30am at the Forty Foot in Sandycove with all funds raised going to Special Olympics Ireland.

Participants are requested to raise €25 to plunge into the Irish Sea.

Refreshments will be available afterwards while the Newtown-park gospel choir and the Howth coast-guard will provide entertainment.

For more informa-tion, go to www.specialolympics.ie/easternregion while you can request spon-sorship cards from Brenda or Paul on 01 891 2000 or [email protected].

SPORTGaze

tte


IT looked almost certain that Castleknock Celtic’s NDSL U-15E game with Balscadden Boys would not take place after the incessant rain the previous evening, but Herculean work by ground staff and others transformed the pitch into a safe surface for football.

And it was worth the effort as the Celtic players continued to pull together and got their reward.

Josh Healy got them on their way with his opener early on, and was soon followed onto the scoresheet by Liam O’Neill when he swiv-elled in the box and shot into the net. Bals-cadden replied with a strike from Christian Murphy, but Josh Healy restored the Celtic 2 goal advantage with his second before half time.

The second half was all Celtic, master-minded by man of the match Adam Dempsey who was in the thick of things throughout. It was Colm Supple, pictured above who ben-efited most as he capitalised on the chances created. Pick of his peach of a second half hat trick was a wedge-shot from the edge of the box that looped over the keeper and under the crossbar.

O’Neill got his second and Celtic’s fifth which rounded off a fine individual perform-ance by the experienced Celtic striker and ensure a 7-1 victory. Two successive wins leaves Celtic strongly positioned in their league as the Christmas break approaches.

Castleknock Under-15s in seventh heaven with win

Fastsport

st peregriNe’s won their division four football league final recently, winning 2-11 to 1-5 over O’Tooles in Blakestown.They did it the hard way coming from 0-4

to 1-3 down at the break but Jarod Flynn’s penalty started the comeback while David McSherry netted again and Conor Hynes clipped 0-6 in a man of the match showing.Ryan Lawlor and Kieron Cahill kept

O’Tooles at bay, scoring only two points in the second half.

Peregrine’s claim U-14 football crown in style

soarinG saintsBlakestown to run Movember celebrationST PEREGRINE’S will host a seven-a-side GAA tournament on December 1 in aid of the Movember appeal. Eight teams will be taking part with four club teams and four Garda divi-sions covering half of Dublin and South

Meath.There will also be

an American Foot-ball display from West Dublin Rhinos between the semis and final of the GAA competition.

There will also be presentations, mous-tache shaving, finger food, plenty of beer and music from Last Second Magic and The Phoenix Depar-ture afterwards in the clubhouse.

nix denied by ten-man Blues

soccer: BlUeBell share sPoils with Phoenix in lsl senior

Despite the dismissal of shane stritch, Bluebell United came from a goal down against phoenix last sunday

lSl SUnday SeniORBluebell United 2

Phoenix 2

peter CArroLL [email protected]

BLUEBELL United could not make full use of home advantage last Sunday when they played out a 2-2 draw against fellow senior title hopefuls Phoenix.

And manager Andy Newman admitted after the match that he was disappointed that his side didn’t go on to take three points, despite the send-ing off of the influential striker, Shane Stritch, just before the interval.

A minute’s silence was observed for Bluebell members, the Behan family, and it was the Red Cow men opened up the scoring 25 min-utes in when Robert Douglas won his team a free kick.

After the referee asked the Bluebell man if he wanted to wait for the opposition to take 10 yards, he declined and sent the ball past the surprised Tadhg Murphy from 25 yards.

Phoenix came right back at Bluebell on the restart and when a poor clearance found amateur international John Bro-

phy three minutes later, he had no hesitation in chipping the ball over the helpless United stop-per from 20 yards, with a fantastic effort.

Ten minutes from the end of the half, with the wet, slippery conditions playing their part, a Blue-bell defender botched an effort to clear the ball allowing Keith Dawson to get through on goal and finish to put the Navan Road team ahead 2-1.

In what could have been a decisive moment in the game, Stritch got his marching orders in the passage of play

directly after the goal, when the referee deemed that the striker’s attempt to head the ball was dan-gerous after he made contact with his marker.

A f t e r N e w m a n changed the shape for the second half, Bluebell looked a far more attack-ing unit as they bombard-ed Tadhg Murphy’s goal, with the Phoenix keeper pulling off some extraor-dinary saves to keep his team in the game.

The equaliser came on the 65th minute with Darragh Hollingsworth playing creator with a pinpoint cross that found Adrian Harper

at the front post, who rebounded the ball over the line taking a Phoenix defender with him on the way.

“When the full whis-tle blew I think Phoenix were happy with the point, while we felt we had dropped two,” said Newman.

“We definitely had some rustiness after our game being called off the week before in hon-our of Bluebell founding member Bert Curtis. But I certainly think the 90 minutes will help the 10 men who played it before our cup tie in Cork next week.

football: mountview school wins in style

club noticeboard

The St Philip’s SNS, Mountview team celebrate their win over St Ciaran’s, Hartstown in Blakestown

st Philip’s triumph in dublin 15 final

[email protected]

CASTLEKNOCK Celt-ic’s AUL Premier C side took on their local rivals Mountview Utd in Por-terstown last weekend, sharing the spoils from a thrilling 3-3 draw.

The visitors took the lead after 15 minutes through Martin Mullar-ney but the lead was

shortlived when Ronan McGivern struck for Celtic.

Mountview restored their advantage through Golden-Boot contender and Republic of Ireland amateur international Chris Barbour to give his side a 2-1 lead at half time.

The second half was equally entertaining,

and on the hour Kevin Keane struck for Celtic to bring the sides level.

From then on, it was mostly Mountview on the attack and they took what looked a decisive lead with 10 minutes remaining on the clock with Barbour’s second.

They had fur ther chances that went a begging, but the last

word was to be Celtic’s. A killer through ball

behind the Mountview defence by Robbie Semple was seized on by Gus Pregoni, and h i s exchange wi th Kevin Keane led to Joey Crampton finishing off the move to give Celtic a deserved share of the points with a high scor-ing draw.

Celts and Mountview share the spoils

u-11 football finalst Philip’s, mountview 5-7

st ciaran’s, hartstown 1-1

[email protected]

S T P h i l i p ’ s S N S , Mountview and St Ciaran’s, Hartstown went head to head in the Blan-chardstown/Clonsilla area primary schools final having played each other a few weeks previously in the qualifying rounds.

St Philip’s came out on top on that occasion and they repeated the trick at Blakestown in front of a large number of specta-tors from both schools

The match started at a hectic pace as both teams

went in search of an early score but both defences shared the upper hand and stood firm.

At the heart of defence for St Philip’s, Gift Osazee produced some superb blocks, full back Jesse Amadi swept up anything that came his way and was ably assisted with tigerish defending from corner backs Taylor Pit-man and Ryan Leahy.

Leon O’Brien pointed the first score from a free that took a fortu-nate deflection off a St Ciaran’s defender and ended up in the back of the Hartstown net.

This proved vital as it

settled the Mountview lads as they began to take control and added to their tally with further goals from Jack Breen and Samson Paun, with Paul O’ Connor and Leon O’Brien also chipping in with points.

An inspirational score from O’Brien, who was outstanding throughout, with the outside of his right boot putting more daylight between the teams. And on the stroke of half time, St Ciaran’s got their first score from play and were very unlucky when another effort came crashing back off the crossbar.

On the restart, St Ciaran’s never threw in the towel and got their reward with a goal mid-way through the second half to help stage a late revival.

The Mountview team responded in impres-sive fashion however and added further goals through Conor Bradley and another from O’Brien to extinguish the Harts-town comeback.

Shane Kelly, Conor Sheeran O’Brien added further points for St Philip’s approaching the final whistle as both sides emptied the substitute’s benches.

Gazette 29 November 2012 BLANCH gAzeTTe 31

THANKS to all those who attended

a very productive AGM on Sunday.

Thanks to our 2012 executive and best

wishes to everyone taking on roles in

2013.

The club’s 80th anniversary cel-

ebrations take place in the club this

Thursday, November 29 from 8.30pm.

All members are welcome. The event

is sponsored by Okra Green in Castle-

knock Village.

The club race night takes place this

Friday, November 30. Horses and pro-

gramme sponsors are still needed.

Contact Tim O Mahony on 086 9314532

for more info.

St Brigid’s GAA Club nursery for

four-to seven-year olds continues

every Saturday morning from 9.30am

to 11am. New members and families

welcome. Contact Paul on 087 9154748

or see the website for more informa-

tion.

Buy your Christmas tree from St

Brigid’s this December. Free delivery

included. See the website for more

info.

The club lotto is €13,200 this week

and takes place alongside club anni-

versary on Thursday evening in Rus-

sell Park.

The junior hurlers are in the league

final this Sunday at 2pm in Russell Park

against St Pat’s.

The Throw In radio show continues

every Monday from 7.30pm on Phoe-

nix FM.

Congratulations to our camogie sec-

tion on being named camogie club of

the year at the county awards at the

weekend.

Rounds off an amazing year.

naomh PereGrine

erin Go braGh

st briGid’s

CONGRATULATIONS and welcome to

our new executive commitee after the

AGM.

Best of luck to our minor hurlers who

play Round Tower in Clondalkin this

Sunday at 11am.

Well done to Brigid Coleman on win-

ning senior division four camogie

player of the year, a brilliant achieve-

ment.

Big thank you to all members who

helped out last Sunday afternoon, it

was much appreciated.

The club lotto was not won; numbers

drawn were 4, 5, 10 and 15. Next week’s

jackpot is €6,200. Our club shop vouch-

ers are now available, details and con-

tacts on the club website CNP.ie.

Follow us on Twitter @peregrines-

gaa.

Entertainment this Sunday comes

from Chardonnay.

Bingo continues this Wednesday at

8.30pm; the jackpot is €1,250.

Ladies night is December 5 with

music from Laurie Hartz.

THE Erin Go Bragh, CLG AGM will

take place at 8.30pm on Thursday,

December 6 in the clubhouse adja-

cent to Mary Mother of Hope National

School.

Nominations for officership/execu-

tive positions and motions are now

closed. Please note that only paid up

members (which includes paying the

facilities fee) are entitled to vote at

the AGM.

The annual Juvenile Sponsored Walk

will take place on Saturday, December

1 at 10.30am.

The Erin Go Bragh dinner dance took

place last Saturday and was again

a great success. Well done to all the

award winners including club person

of the year John Kinsella. Thanks to

the ladies committee for all their hard

work over the last few months.

Club lotto, there was no jackpot win-

ner. This Friday’s jackpot is €8,000.

Draw to be held in the Paddocks.

And finally: the GAA, in conjunction

with the GPA, has recently announced

that it will be mandatory for players

at all age grades up to and including

minors to use a mouth guard in foot-

ball matches and training sessions

from Tuesday, January 1, 2013.

The rule will then extend to cover

Under-21 and adult levels from

Wednesday, January 1 2014.

CONGRATULATIONS to the adult foot-

ball team who are Leinster junior foot-

ball champions.

It rounds off a fantastic year for the

team and for the club. Well done to

Tom, Sean, Ray and all of the players,

and to all of the support who were in

Parnell Park on Sunday.

The lads will now play away against

the British Champions in the quarter-

final of the All-Ireland Championship.

Details will be posted on the website.

castleknock

all of your blanch sports coverage from page 27-31 november 29, 2012

local heroes: Mountview primary school put in superb performance to win Dublin 15 football title P31

GazetteSPORTNOveMbeR’S SPORTS STaRS: This month’s nominees for the GazetteSport awards P28

naomh brid enjoyed an excellent year both

on and off the camogie field

peter carroll

[email protected]

NAOMH Brid’s Kevin Elliott said it was a “great honour” for the club to be named the 2012 Dublin Camogie Club of the Year last Friday.

“We are delighted here,” said the club’s camogie chairman.

“It really is a huge honour for us all and it’s a great credit to the work that everyone has put in this year, from nursery level all the way to senior.

“The award isn’t just based on the results on the field, but we have had our fair share this season.

“Both of our senior sides won their championships while the U-16s won a league and champi-onship double.

“Our U-14s team had a great year as well and all of the team’s played to a very high standard.

“The club also has a lot of input when it comes to the coun-ty board.

representation“We currently have four mem-

bers who are very active and we also had the special honour of being hosts during the Feile na nGael last year.

“It really said a lot about the fantastic facilities we have at Tom

Russell Park. “The discipline at the club has

also been amazing this year and I’m sure it will be something that will continue on in the future.

“Winning the award really gives us a big boost, it will bring a lot of recognition to the club.

“When people will look up camogie in the Dublin 15 area, they will see that our club has been acknowledged along with the best in the county and that’s sure to get more people inter-ested.

“It really confirms us as the biggest camogie club in the area and we expect to continue that tradition in the future to make

the club even more attractive and one of the central aspects of the community.

“We currently have 200 play-ers across a range of 14 teams and our main goal for the future would be to continue to grow the section of the club and provide the fantastic outlet of hurling to even more girls in the area.

“If the numbers continue to rise and the standard stays at this high, competitive level it would be great for the club.

“But more important than results, there is a fantastic atmos-phere here at St Brigid’s and the fun that the girls have is always the most important thing.”

elliott hails huge camogie honour

blanch

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