ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Annual General Meeting of the Dalkey Community Council will take place on Monday, 3 March at 8pm in Our Lady's Hall. This is a public meeting and all residents of Dalkey are welcome to attend.

MATTERS ARISING:
The Community Council is proposing a change to its Constitution in respect of the re-election of members to the Executive Committee. Instead of a member requiring to step down from the Executive Committee for a minimum of two years it was felt that this should be amended to one year. This will be voted on in due course.

CORRESPONDENCE:
Copy of an e-mail was received which had been sent to Dun Laoghaire- Rathdown County Council by a resident complaining about the hoarding around the old Systems Printing site. A second copy of an e-mail was received which was also sent to Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council regarding the damage to the road and footpath on Cunningham Road due to the building work which has been taking place for quite some time.

TIDY TOWNS:
The Committee is planning a number of projects for the coming year for which it will also need to fundraise. Among the projects being considered are Dillon's Park and the DART Station. Please see full report inside - Ed

HERITAGE:
Please see report inside - Ed

PLANNING:
Redan: An application for a three storey structure has been lodged with the County Council. The Community Council has objected to this application.
Old Systems Printing Site: There have been some archaeological finds on the site and a well has been located. Duchas will report on its findings and it will be available in the Planning Office of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in due course. Permission has been given to the developers for the hoarding that surrounds three sides of the site.
Retentions: There have been some applications to the County Council in respect of retentions. The Community Council is objecting to these applications for retention on the basis that the due process of planning applications should have been sought prior to erection.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS:
Harbour Road: There was concern with regard to the parking on the bend of Harbour Road (Ulverton Road side) where it is narrow. The local Gardai have been informed.
National Tree Week: Tree Week is 2 to 8 March. Please see inside - Ed

The meeting concluded.

St. Patrick's Day is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated days in the year throughout the whole world. 'The Wearing of the Green' is not only celebrated here and the USA but also in places as far away as Australia, Japan, Singapore and Russia. It is often said everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day - 17 March.

Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents in approximately 389AD. He was originally called Succat. At 16 years of age he was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his family's estate. They brought him to Ireland where he spent six years in captivity. During this time he worked as a shepherd, outdoors and away from people. Lonely and afraid he turned to his religion for solace, becoming a devout Christian. After six years he escaped and was ordained a priest and just after 431AD Patrick was appointed successor to St. Palladius, first bishop of Ireland.

He returned to Ireland and administered till his death in about 461AD. During his time as a missionary in Ireland he chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead of trying to change native Irish beliefs. For example he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since our forefathers were used to honouring their gods with fire. He also superimposed a sun, a very powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create the Celtic Cross. All this was done so that the veneration of the symbol would seem more natural and acceptable.

The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place in the USA. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on 17 March 1762. The parade and music all helped the soldiers to feel Irish. And so the one saint who must be the most well known; his life and death are commemorated on 17 March throughout the world.

Slow down the seasons, they're turning too fast!

Spring is delightful, but quickly slips past,

Summer is beautiful, peaches and cream,

Long days and holidays pass like a dream.

Autumn comes swiftly, with russet and red,

A glorious canopy over my head,

Winter comes creeping soon, misty and chill,

Lights in the city and snow on the hill.

The circle keeps spinning, the year rushing past,

Slow down the seasons, they're turning too fast!

Iris Hesselden from The Fireside Book of David Hope 2003

I intend retiring from work.
If I take up employment again at some time in the future will I still have to pay tax and PRSI?

If you retire from work and subsequently take up employment your earnings will be taxable along with other income regardless of your age. In addition to the usual personal tax-free credits, people over the age of 65 are entitled to an Age Tax Credit of Euro205 (2002) for a single person and Euro410 for a married couple. If you are under the age of 66 and earning over Euro38 a week in insurable employment you pay PRSI at either Class A or a modified rate, depending on your occupation. If you are aged 66 or over you do not pay PRSI regardless of your income.

Since 1 July 2001 if you are aged 70 or over you do not pay the 2% Health Contribution. If you are under the age of 70 you will have to pay the Health Contribution unless you are in receipt of a Social Welfare Widow's or Widower's Pension, Deserted Wife's Benefit/Allowance or One-Parent Family Payment or you are a Medical Card Holder.

Further details available from the
Citizens Information centre,
85-86 Patrick Street, Dun Laoghaire.
Telephone 284 4544

In next month's edition of the Newsletter - April, the Community Council will include its little brown envelope for the yearly collection. The Council is made up of a group of ordinary individuals who volunteer a little of their time to represent their road/organisation and become one collective voice as it strives to make Dalkey an even nicer and more enviable place to live (if that is at all possible!). It acts always in the interests of the community of Dalkey and the protection of its heritage and environment.

The Community Council publishes, monthly, this Newsletter in addition to running other activities - the Art Exhibition, Garden Competition, Tree Planting, the Christmas Tree at Archbold's Castle and many more. Neighbourhood Watch and the Community Games also come under the auspices of the Council. The only income at its disposals is from the advertisers in the Newsletter which goes towards the publication costs and this yearly collection.

Without your support the Dalkey Community Council could not function and continue. The Council is very aware of the demands imposed on your generosity but hopes you will be in a position to see your way to continue helping the work of this Council for the benefit of Dalkey.

Don't forget to put your clocks forward early on Sunday morning 30 March - Summer Time Begins. Welcome back to those long, bright and hot (!!) summer nights ………

Dalkey needs notices with bite "People who let their dogs foul pavements are inconsiderate, bad-mannered, unhygienic and under the relevant byelaw can be prosecuted". Those emphatic words are displayed on public notices along the Thames footpath in Richmond, near London. Dalkey could be cleaner if a similar blunt approach were adopted, instead of the over-polite and ineffective notices in some public areas including the local hill park.

T Quinn

My Dalkey memories began in 1927, a day in October, my first day in our new home. High on Dalkey Avenue with a view out over Dublin Bay and the blue Irish Sea with my five year old brother I looked down at the sea stretching to the far horizon. "That", said my brother, pointing his finger, "is the end of the world". I believed every word he said.

Our home, "Merdon" we were told, had been built by a sea-captain in 1887. Saval Park Road, unpaved, wound down before it. Beside it, Dalkey Avenue went downhill to the village. In those quiet days we could hear the sound of the trams as they turned into Castle Street by Webster's Tobacco Shop.

On Sundays the bell of the church in Castle Street rang out clearly. At night, in Autumn, lying in bed I could hear the calling of Redwings as they migrated south. It was only when I had grown interested in wildlife that I knew this. When I was young it was a mysterious sound. In those days, the 1920's the meadow behind Merdon was home to corncrakes whose crac-crac sounded in the summer evenings. Houses were built in that meadow in the late 1940's and the corncrakes lost their home.

Dalkey then was a quiet town with small shops, O'Brien's, the butcher, near it the Post Office presided over by Mr. Rooney, Leinster House where toys, games and newspapers could be found and the chemist shop, Maxwells, whose owner of the same name, a friendly man, used the expression "be the hokey" over whose meaning I puzzled then and still do.

There was no library in Dalkey. We went to the Carnegie, as it was called, in Dun Laoghaire. Our bread came from Connolly's Bakery which was located at the end of Dalkey Avenue. I remember the delivery man giving a ride to our cat, Kitty, in the basket from which he delivered bread.

There were fewer cars on the roads then, the usual sound was the clop-clop of horses hooves as the delivery vans came up Dalkey Avenue from the village. Up near Dalkey Hill in winter the winds shrieked and roared around the house and every winter we lost one or two slates in the storms. In those days Saval Park Road had just six or seven houses. It was only in the 1930's that the fields beside the road were built on.

One of the earlier houses was Wilkies farm from where we bought our milk. Wilkie's cows roamed the fields and their mooing could be heard at milking time. Killiney Castle then was inhabited by an old couple whom we would see being driven out in a horse drawn carriage by a severe looking driver. The couple passed on before World War II.

Down at the railway station a man named Kirby had a horse and cab. While I was a small girl at Dalkey Convent he would be asked by my mother to pick me up and I would be driven home in style.

In the Forties a grand project arrived. A steep road was built opposite the entrance to Merdon going up from the Avenue and ending, as it does today, at the side of Killiney Hill. Some local humorist named it "The Burma" road and the name stuck.

I recall an unusually snowy winter around 1943 when the local boys and girls decided to sleigh down the road, dangerously, onto Dalkey Avenue. Lacking sleds they used whatever they could find, mostly dust bin lids. But the road became a great place to take a walk and go on up to the Green Walk above the Vico.

Another memory I have was when I made my First Communion in 1928. As a treat that evening I was taken to a pantomime in Dalkey Town Hall - my first experience of this entertainment. It was "Robinson Crusoe" and I recall my amazement because Crusoe was played by a girl.

In those far-off days there was a forge on Barnhill Road near the railway bridge. Walking past we would hear the smith striking the anvil and see the sparks leaping.

On my last visit to Dalkey I could see the arch of the forge now bricked up. Dalkey is still a lovely place to live but in those far off days it had special old world charm, and because of its size we all knew one another - at least by sight if not to speak to. From faraway America I often think back to those days with gratitude that I grew up in such an old, historic town within reach of some of the most beautiful scenery in Ireland.

Moira Ballis now living in New Jersey

• Recycling for glass, paper, cardboard, cans and plastic bottles is available at the DLRCC site at George's Place, Dun Laoghaire (opposite the old fire station and beside Iceland).
• There is also a range of containers at the West Pier (not for plastic bottles or cardboard).
• Ballina, a notable contender in the Tidy Towns Competition, recently publicised in the Irish Times details of their efforts to deal with the problem of chewing gum. The cost of cleaning just half of the streets in Ballina of chewing gum was €6,000 and only a few weeks later it was as bad as ever.
• Mayo town councillors would like to see a tax paid to retailers by the gum buying public, which would be collected to fund the hire of a Gum Busting machine. What would the people of Dalkey think about such a scheme for our own streets? Please let us know what you think. Chewing gum sales are even prohibited in some places e.g. Singapore!
• Dumping is an offence and could be reported to the Litter Warden.
• The Tidy Towns Committee has plans in hand for Fund Raising and Community Projects this year, which will be publicised when more progress has been made.

National Tree Week will take place from 2-8 March this year. Tree Week is sponsored by Coillte and Spar. This year 15,000 trees will be distributed to community groups and schools all over the country by the local authorities all over Ireland. Events have been organised all over the country which include forest walks, tree planting ceremonies, workshops, talks, competitions and even tree plantathons!

Check out the notices for Dalkey's Tree Planting Ceremony - Ed.

'Clean Air - Grow your Share' is the slogan for this year and reflects the concerns for global warming which is caused by the build up of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere - this acts like a huge duvet, trapping heat from the sun and slowly raising the temperature of the Earth's climate. This build up of CO2 is caused by almost everything we do - driving, flying, heating our homes, and even boiling the kettle. And as the use of technology increases around the world, there will be a corresponding rise in the demand for energy.

The aim of the Kyoto Protocol was to get governments around the world to reduce greenhouse gas levels by agreeing to cut emissions by 5.2%. It is predicted that by 2010, Irish emissions will exceed 1990 levels by 32%, thereby overshooting the Kyoto targets by 19%. There are a number of options to offset this projected increase - one of these is the planting of more trees… - Trees absorb CO2 and use it to make cellulose, the building block of wood. - In a single year, a tree can absorb over 9 kg of CO2, which equals the amount produced by a single car travelling non stop for 18,300 km! - Trees release the oxygen (O) in CO2 back into the atmosphere for us to breathe.

- Over the course of a year, a single mature beech tree releases enough oxygen to support a family of four. With the theme 'Clean Air - Grow Your Share' we hope to highlight the importance of trees in combating global warming. By doing something as simple as planting a tree, everyone can play his or her part in helping the environment. By thinking locally, we can act globally!

The Tree Council of Ireland

Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre is involved in a number of new initiatives to extend the scope of the Centre. A new Dart to Dalkey facility, where the customer can buy a combined ticket at any Dart station to cover the Dart trip and admission to the Centre, will begin for the new season.

The Heritage Centre and Iarnróid Eireann will unite to market the facility. In association with Dúchas, The Heritage Council, The Tidy Towns and the Parks of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Co a conservation and preservation programme for St Begnet's Graveyard is underway.

The Centre hopes to engage the services of the new Theatrical Animation Company, Deilg Inish during the summer months. Deilg Inish will provide Theatrical Animation in the Heritage Centre on selected days.

Literary Walks and Lunchtime Theatre will take place from June onwards.

Bloomsday, 16th June, will see the Dalkey Schoolroom Scene from James Joyce's Ulysses re-enacted in the Heritage Centre.

The Heritage Maps have been installed in all the Community Council Displays and the casings have been painted. A Street Map with lists of all the facilities available in Dalkey is also under commission.

The Centre will re-open 7 days per week from April 7th onwards. Currently, there are many research projects underway, carried out by FÁS trainees on a Local Training Initiative.

The Art Exhibition season begins on March 28th with an exciting exhibition from a number of Irish and European artists, promoted by Solo Arte, an association of Irish and European Art Dealers. The Exhibition will foreground the work of Austrian artist Margit Piffer.

The Centre is open to the public at weekends from 11.00-17.00 and to groups by arrangement.

'Rail Around Dublin' by Donal Murray, published by Midland Publishing Ltd. This is the 8th Volume in Midland Publishing's Irish Railway Pictorial series and an excellent addition to it. This title looks at the Dublin railway network from1945 to the present time, ranging from the steam era to the diesels and now the DART. As well as offering a nostalgic look at Dublin's railways, this book looks at what the future holds for them. All photographs are excellent, captioned and dated and this book has to be a must for those interested in the various aspects of Irish railways. A super book.

J. Scannell

Potato Soup -
6 potatoes, large onion, 2oz butter, 2 pints vegetable stock, ½ pint milk, tablespoon of chives or parsley, nutmeg, pinch of salt and pepper, teaspoon of cornflour. Peel and cut potatoes in quarters and finely slice the onions. Melt butter in a saucepan and add the potatoes and onions, cover and simmer for ten minutes (don't let the vegetables go brown). Add the stock, salt and pepper and nutmeg. Stir, cover and bring to the boil stirring continuously. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, until vegetables are soft, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and put through a sieve and return to the saucepan. Stir in the milk and cornflour, bring to the boil, stirring continuously. Remove from the heat, serve with a sprinkling of chives or parsley.

Champ -
8 medium peeled potatoes, bunch of scallions, ¼ pint milk, salt and pepper, few knobs of butter. Peel and boil potatoes until cooked. Simmer the spring onions in milk for about 5 minutes. Strain potatoes and mash. Add the hot milk and scallions, salt, pepper and the butter. Mix well.

Irish Coffee -
cup of whipping cream, sugar, 6 cups of hot black coffee, 6 measures of Irish whiskey. Whisk the cream with 1 tablespoon of sugar until soft peaks form. Set aside. Make black coffee in separate glasses/mugs. Add teaspoon of sugar and measure of whiskey. Top with whipped cream. Serve immediately. (Be careful when using glasses with the hot coffee).

St. Patrick's Day Cookies -
2¼ cups self-raising flour, ½ cup butter, cup sugar, 2 beaten eggs, tablespoon vanilla essence, tablespoon milk, a couple of drops of green food colouring. Sift flour. Cream butter, sugar, eggs. Add vanilla essence and milk to the flour. Blend all ingredients and then add the drops of green food colouring. Roll out dough to approximately ½ inch thick. Cut out and make shamrock shape. Place on baking tray. Bake at 300°f, 150°c, gas mark 2 for 10 minutes.