< Previous© April 2017 The Meath Coaster40Laytown Tidy TownsDuring March as well as our normal Saturday morning outings we spent some time during the weeks clearing the rubbish on the main road out towards Julianstown. The appearance of the road is much improved, although never fully clear of litter for more than a day! As previously reported, we plan to hold our National Spring Clean on Saturday 22nd April. If you would like to take part, even cleaning up your own area, but need gloves, pickers and bags, just speak to one of us on any Saturday and we will supply what we can to help.The platforms which will house the Wheelchair Access picnic tables have been completed. In the next few weeks the tables will be in place. One of them, funded by Laytown Village Enhancement, will be situated in the 1916 Memorial Garden. The one funded by Laytown Tidy Towns will be on the promenade opposite O’Reilly’s supermarket near the infor-mation board. The long-term plan is to have two disabled parking spots allocated beside it. We are grateful to Meath Co. Ceremonies at Easter Sacred Heart Laytown (13th to 17th April)Holy Thursday: Mass of the Lord’s Supper, incorporating the Wash-ing of Feet, will take place at 7pm At the end of Mass the Blessed Sacrament will be brought in procession to the Altar of Repose which will be located in the cry room at the back of the Church. A period of Adoration will follow until 10pm Good Friday: Stations of the Cross (led by Young People) at 12noon; The Cel-ebration of the Lord’s Passion will take place at 3pm; Prayer around the Cross especially for young people (with Taize Chant and meditations) at 9pmHoly Saturday: The Easter Vigil will take place at 9pm and will begin with the blessing of the Paschal Fire outside the church. All who are able gather around the fire for the blessing. The Paschal Candle is then carried into the darkened church which gradually fills with light as every-one’s candle is lit.Easter Sunday: Masses on Easter Sun-day are at 10am and 12noonEaster Monday: Mass at 11amMornington ParishPalm Sunday – Sat 8th / Sun 9th AprilSaturday: Easter Reconciliation Service - 6.00pm Vigil Mass Sunday: 10.00am Mass & 11.30am MassHoly WeekMon 10th & Tue 11th April - Mass at 8.45amWednesday 12th April - Mass at 8.45amExposition 9.00am - 10.00pmHoly Thursday - 13th AprilMass of the Lord’s Supper at 7.00pmGood Friday - 14th April3.00pm - Stations of the Cross Followed by Veneration of the Cross7.00pm - Good Friday Ceremonies and Veneration of the CrossEaster Vigil - 15th AprilHoly Saturday Night - Mass of the Resur-rection at 6.00pmEaster Sunday - 16th April Family Mass at 10.00am: The children are asked to bring a flower to place in the Easter Garden at this Mass.Mass at 11.30am© April 2017 The Meath Coaster41Tractor RunClonalvy national school tractor run starting at Donnellys cloghertown at 12 noon sharp Sunday the 9th of April all tractors well €20 per entry Refreshments and raffle on the day please contact Theresa or Barney on 0861605022 or 0860813725 Council for organising the secure placing of these tables for us. We were very pleased to receive a dona-tion of €325.00 from Tesco under their Community Fund, see photo above. Sincerest thanks to them for their contin-ued support of our group and indeed so many others!The donation will be used for paint to restore our ornamental flowerbeds, new plants and planters among other things.We hope shortly to have a new TUS par-ticipant to help us in the village. Should we be successful we plan to have him work on the flowerbed at the railway sid-ings clearing the weeds and replanting flowers and shrubs. §East Meath Bridge Club Presidents prize 2017There was a huge entry for the Blue Riband event of the 2017 season when the President of the East Meath Bridge Club Geraldine Fox presented her much coveted prize at a function in Laytown & Bettystown Golf Club The Winners were Marian McKenna and Eileen Davey with second prize going to Anne Kirwan and Bernie McDonnell,and third place awarded to Marita Leech & Bridge Durnin" Pancake Morning ThanksEast Meath Hospice Association would like to thank all who supported our Annual Pancake Morning in City North Hotel Gormanstown. Hotel management and staff were, as ever, so accommodat-ing, both in preparation and on the day. We hope you all enjoyed the morning,and got some bargains on our stalls ,maybe won a prize. The committee worked hard to prepare for the day but your support is vital on the day. Thanks to all who donat-ed prizes ,gifts, home baking ,plants, De-signer Clothes and to so many volunteers who help on the day.We raised €6,585 on the day, thanks to your support. All money raised is used to provide our Comfort Fund and Driv-ing Service, These services are available to Patients who have a diagnosis of Can-cer. Volunteer drivers can take Patients to Hospital appointments,and the Comfort Fund enables us to provide equipment and support as may be required.We can be contacted through you GP or Public Health Nurse or on0872100036 §© April 2017 The Meath Coaster42Cilles Athletic ClubWell I tempted fate last month by suggesting the weather was getting milder! As I write this in late March, it’s roughly 4 degrees outside, we’ll appreci-ate the decent weather even more when it arrives. The clocks have gone forward at least which means back to evening run-ning in daylight which is just wonderful.March RoundupWell done to Liam Hyland taking first place in the north and west Leinster schools cross country, in early March. Duleek and District AC hosted a 5k late Feb and despite some seriously wet weather there was a great turnout with a large contingent from Cilles Ac in there. Great turnout for this month’s two mile trail with our older juvenile athletes get-ting in on the action. Alan Mulligan took on the Gaelforce mountain run and posted a fantastic time despite the mountainous terrain. Aaron, Lauren and Holly took part in the All Ireland schools cross country in Belfast, they competed in a huge field of juvenile athletes and did themselves proud. Our new fitness group took on Oldbridge and posted some serious times, huge strides forward being made within the group, well done every-one.The Bohermeen Spring half marathon and 10k was well attended by Cilles AC. It was a bit breezy but the day was bright and mild and the run was enjoyed by all. Anthony Lannon and Mairead Murphy took on the Ballbriggan Cancer support 10k on Patricks day. Anthony achieved a PB and Mairead was 3rd lady home, well done guys. Our younger juve-niles were in action at the Meath league in Cushinstown, well done to everyone who came out.Our juvenile coach and club runner Shay Clarke had a milestone birthday recently, happy birthday Shay. He’s coming to terms with turning 21.St. Patricks Day ParadeThis year saw our first club outing in the Drogheda St. Patricks day parade and considering the day that was in it we had a fabulous turnout. Our young runners did us proud with their enthusiasm as they sang the whole way round the parade course. A very photogenic bunch in the black and orange, well done eve-ryone and a big thanks to Tom for the organisation, looking forward to next year already.Bettystown B-5 race 2017A date for the Calender - Tuesday July 18th 7.30pm is the date for the third B-5. It’s a fast flat five mile in Bettystown and it has been an absolute blast for the past 2 years. Registration will open 12 weeks before the race, there’ll be plenty of updates between now and then, watch The Coaster, Facebook and webpage for full details of entry.Bigi linn ag rithLiam Hyland Leinster Schools Champ© April 2017 The Meath Coaster43home both a 2nd and 3rd place in their Nov-ice classes. Mairead Dolan and Prince were also competing at the North Munster Dres-sage Ireland Regional Winter Final, where they won their novice classes. Both girls have performed extremely well recently, and the club would like to wish them the best of luck in the upcoming Dres-sage Ireland Winter Finals in Cavan EC. Best of luck also to Gary Monahan and Caitriona Kavanagh, who are competing in the National Hunter Trial Championship at Annaharvey Farm. For more info, please “like” our Facebook page, or contact Lindsey on 087 2285109.The North Eastern Region SJ League final was recently held at Castle Leslie Estate, where Anita McNamara Doyle and her lovely horse Ruby took 2nd place in prima-ry class, and following on from this good form, went on to win 2nd place in the overall league too. Her club mate Ciara McKeown was 2nd in the 60cm league, and 5th in the primary league also. Very well done girls! In the advanced primary league, Caitriona Kavanagh and her horse Bouncer won 2nd place, and Grainne Cronin and Danny were 6th. Paul Murray and Olivia Nolan also per-formed very well in all the legs, but were unlucky to be out of the placings. Gary Monahan and Olaf were 8th overall in the Intermediate league, and were 7th in the 80cm. Huge congratulations to everyone who per-formed so brilliantly!Lisa O’Brien and her horse Giddy, were re-cently competing at the Leinster Dressage show in Redhills Stud, where they took Castle Hill Riding Club Congratulations to all the members of Castlehill RC that have been out com-peting recently. There were some incred-ible results in both SJ and dressage, and it’s gearing up to be a very competitive year for the club. Anita and RubyCaitriona and Bouncer Lisa and Giddy© April 2017 The Meath Coaster44Stamullen Football ClubClub news.We are delighted to announce that the club are introducing a Girls only Academy for girls in Junior, Senior, First and Second classes. This will be run after school on Thursdays in the Astro pitches in St Pats GAA club. For more information, please contact the club on the details at the end of the article.Update on Under 11 girls Semi-Final-ists in the Herald Cup.Unfortunately the girls weren’t successful in their attempt to reach the finals but as always they put up a great fight and did their club and their coaches proud. Well done girls.Dave’s under 11’s win the Glebe North Friendship Cup. At the start of March Dave’s Under 11’s (pictured above) played Rush Athletic in the Glebe North Friendship Cup. It was a thrilling game and the lads ended up with a 2-1 win, taking home the Cup. Well done lads - great result.New Season -The boys teams are all starting back this weekend, looking forward to seeing what a great season all our teams will have, best of luck to all teams and coaches in the season ahead. The girl’s teams are still in full swing and are all having a great season so far.Stamullen FC does Strictly update!We are thrilled to announce that the total raised from the strictly event is a phenom-enal €30K. We would like to thank again all the dancer sponsors and the companies who advertised in the programme and all who contributed towards the event. It’s down to everyone’s generosity that we raised such an amazing amount.A DVD of the night is available You can get your copy for the bargain price of €5. Please contact the club on the details be-low, if you would like to purchase a copy.Club Contact Details: -Email - stamullenfc@gmail.com Facebook - www.facebook.com/stamullenfcClub Secretary - Marcus Kelly – 0851477825Website – www.stamullenfc.com © April 2017 The Meath Coaster45On the PitchThe new season kicked off in March for all of the EMU family. I think it’s fair to say everyone was delighted to be back out on the pitches in such glorious sunshine, and we’re all looking forward to our first summer soccer season! The Committee would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone luck and enjoy your football, whether you’re on the pitch or on the sideline watching!Both our U11 teams looked very smart as they kicked off the new season, sporting new gear. Our massive thanks to Andrew Calla-ghan Butchers who sponsored the Panthers new kit, and to their neighbours, Burkes Pharmacy who sponsored the U11 Blue kit. We are very grateful, and both teams love their new gear!! If you are interested in be-coming a sponsor, please get in touch!FAI Summer Soccer SchoolWe are delighted to host again this year, the FAI Summer Soccer School for 2 weeks. Dates of the camps held in Ministown are 17th to 21st July, and 14th to 18th August. Our camps hold the award for being the first camp in the country to sell out for the past 3 years! So don’t be disappointed, and don’t delay. Bookings opened 28th March. AcademyAcademy is switching to Saturday after-noons in April. Shinguards and water are a must! Keep an eye on our Facebook page for details. §© April 2017 The Meath Coaster46We are all delighted now that the long awaited new season has fi-nally kicked off. But before they polished their boots and put all they had learned in their FAI courses over the winter break into practice our coaches had a pre-season meeting at which they were all given one of our newly devised Training Manuals. will be able to refer to before every train-ing session and match, as it contains core drills and even a glossary of positive phrases to help encourage and motivate players ensuring that they are learning and progressing in a fun and safe environ-ment. We are very proud of this initiative and consider ourselves to be very fortu-nate to be at the forefront in developing a club which is based on positive coaching in a fun environment.The manual was carefully compiled, by our Director of Coaching Dave Conroy, in line with the most up to date recommenda-tions and is FAI Approved. Local Graphic Designer Steven Smith kindly designed it for us and club member Colin Nulty very generously printed and binded them for us, we really appreciate all the hard work and effort which went into making it pos-sible to equip our coaches with such a valuable training tool. The manual is something that the coaches Team Of The MonthOur team of the month for April are our Under 11G’s. This team has been together since under 8’s and had a few different coaches until they landed in the capa-ble hands of Paddy Rogan and Jonathon McHugh in 2015. Since then the team have been going from strength to strength, and have really started to gel in the last few months, this is evident from their re-cent performances. Although they are all talented players a special mention should go to Shauna Bell, although she is the only girl on the team Shauna is still more © April 2017 The Meath Coaster47Badminton Champion Scott GuildeaScott Guildea from Stamullen has near-ly completed a very successful season of badminton. Scott (12 years old) repre-sented Leinster in the annual Celtic Chal-lenge where Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Leinster compete for honours. This year Leinster were winners for the 4th year in a row, Scott has represented Leinster for the 2nd time in this competi-tion. This year Scott also won the National un-der 13 Doubles championships with his partner Vincent Pontanosa and the boys also won the under 13 Leinster Close and were runners up in the under 14 Juvenile Open. than capable of competing with the boys and is certainly able to hold her own on the pitch. Paddy and Jonathon know the importance of team building so with the recent new signings they made and with the impending new season they decided to take the team on a bonding exercise, it was decided that bowling in Funtasia Bettystown would be as good a place as any!! They all had a fun evening out and are well set to get the season off to a fly-ing start. “Jonathon and I are very proud of the lads and how the team have come together over the past year, we are look-ing forward to the season ahead with a few new players on board, we would like to wish everyone the best of luck for the coming season” Paddy. Duck RaceOn Saturday 18th March we had a spon-sored Duck Race at the Estuary of the Nanny River, originally the race was scheduled to take place on 26th February but we were force to postpone due to in-clement weather. The aim of the race was to give the players travelling to Wales an opportunity to raise money towards their trip. The event was a huge success and we had a great turn out on the day. There was some fantastic prizes up for grabs includ-ing 2 x premium match tickets to Ireland v’s Wales at the Aviva Stadium, which was won by Charlie Kelly, our winners were also treated to some yummy treats kindly sponsored by Lindt Chocolate Ireland.§Pictured here is the presentation of the Na-tional titles where the boys were against a very strong pairing of Matthue Cheung and Stuart mc Callum from the North. Scott's father Shane is also a national champion this year, in the over 40s Mens Doubles and his sister Holly is an under 11 Leinster Close champion. §DONACARNEY CELTIC F.C. FOCUS ON FUTSALSo what is Futsal? Futsal is an exciting, fast-paced small sided football game that started in South America in the 1930s. The fast paced nature of the game places a large emphasis on technical skill and ability in situations of high pressure. As a result it is an excellent breeding ground for football competencies that can be translated into the 11-a-side format of the game. Many of the worlds top class footballers played Futsal in their youth and credit it with supporting their footballing development. Players of the caliber of Pele, Zico, Ronaldin-ho, Kaka and Lionel Messi to name but a fewof the South American legends all played and enjoyed Futsal. Futsal has not just helped produce South American football stars, on the European stage Cristiano Ron-aldo, Iniesta, Xavi and Fabregas all played Futsal to develop their skills.Although Futsal is very much a game in its own right, there are also a number of bene ts for footballers. By encouraging young people to play Futsal as part of a balanced training program it can help improve their overall technical develop-ment. The game of Futsal creates an envi-ronment that allows young people to simu-late and develop many skills and pro cien-cies that are transferable to the 11-a-side game.The nature of Futsal with its smaller pitch size makes it harder to nd space, the line markings prevents easy escape from tight situations, and the smaller heavier ball supports closer ball control and supports the technical development of young players in a multitude of ways. Research indicates that individual’s playing Futsal receive the ball six times more often than they would do when they are playing 11-a-side football, allowing players to perform more individual techniques such as passes, controls, fakes, feints, dribbles and runs with the ball.“As a little boy in Argentina, I played Futsal on the streets and for my club. It was tremendous fun,and it really helped me become who I am today”. Lionel MessiFAI FUTSAL MODULEINDOOR BLITZPictured above are Calvin Hough, Ciaran Brennan, Ciaran Grant, Jack Keville, Cilllian Murphy, Emily Sanders, Ciaran Murray, Andrew Roberts and Conal Devine from our U9 Panthers along with Cllr Daragh Butler, Mayor of Fingal and Paul Keogh from the FAI, having recently taken part in a 6 week Futsal module run by the FAI/FCC in Gormanston College.64 teams took to the courts each week for U8 and U9 age groups. The module proved extremely enjoyable for all the boys and girls who took part in this indoor event. FAI High Performance Director Ruud Dokter spoke glowingly of the module: “Futsal is a fantastic game for young players to learn and enjoy the game. The fast nature of the game ensures more touches and decisions have to be made which can only aid young Irish players. Continuity of play is import-ant for children when learning the game and this module is aimed at just that”. DCFC would like congratulate everyone involved in this well organised event, espe-cially Paul Keogh and Mick Pendor from the FAI. DCFC recently completed a weekend long Futsal Blitz in the Dome at the Drogheda Grammar School. Players aged from U8 to U14 took part in the two day event. The event was a massive success o ering the players a unique chance to showcase their skills, while also o ering the parents a welcome opportunity to avoid the elements and enjoy the show. The event was a mas-sive success and one we hope to complete again in the near future.CMYCMMYCYCMYKMeath Coaster 04-17.pdf 2 24/03/2017 23:21:33FAI FUTSAL MODULEINDOOR BLITZPictured above are Calvin Hough, Ciaran Brennan, Ciaran Grant, Jack Keville, Cilllian Murphy, Emily Sanders, Ciaran Murray, Andrew Roberts and Conal Devine from our U9 Panthers along with Cllr Daragh Butler, Mayor of Fingal and Paul Keogh from the FAI, having recently taken part in a 6 week Futsal module run by the FAI/FCC in Gormanston College.64 teams took to the courts each week for U8 and U9 age groups. The module proved extremely enjoyable for all the boys and girls who took part in this indoor event. FAI High Performance Director Ruud Dokter spoke glowingly of the module: “Futsal is a fantastic game for young players to learn and enjoy the game. The fast nature of the game ensures more touches and decisions have to be made which can only aid young Irish players. Continuity of play is import-ant for children when learning the game and this module is aimed at just that”. DCFC would like congratulate everyone involved in this well organised event, espe-cially Paul Keogh and Mick Pendor from the FAI. DCFC recently completed a weekend long Futsal Blitz in the Dome at the Drogheda Grammar School. Players aged from U8 to U14 took part in the two day event. The event was a massive success o ering the players a unique chance to showcase their skills, while also o ering the parents a welcome opportunity to avoid the elements and enjoy the show. The event was a mas-sive success and one we hope to complete again in the near future.Next >