Stamullen

PEDESTRIAN CROSSING

The local Authority has installed a new pedestrian crossing with lights in Stamullen village in the vicinity of the local shops and business.

BOWLS CLUB.

Rose McGrath has been speaking with me in recent weeks and reminds everyone that the Stamullen Bowls Club continue to meet every Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the St. Patrick`s G.F.C. complex at Cock Hill Stamullen from 8 until 10pm and new members will be very welcome to come along and hopefully will get involved in this successful local club. For further details contact Rose at 01-8412086.

EVENING LIGHT

Although this particular winter has been pretty harsh, damp and indeed very cold, it is good to see that extra bit of evening light as we head for the spring.

The annual flu has also been doing the rounds of late and if you can avoid mixing with large crowds and stay warm for another couple of weeks then hopefully you will survive any serious illness. In the past, when the winter would set in after Samhain or Halloween, people would `batten-down the hatches` after the autumn fruits and harvest would be collected and stored and it became a time of almost hibernation until the following Spring when it was time to start working and preparing the land again.

Jobs were carried out within the home, while the firewood was stored nearby and very often the few animals which some families may have kept were also housed indoors in a space which often attached to the gable of the home. People didn’t move about the place as much; they stayed in, kept warm and so therefore the dreaded flu may not have been so contagious. Unfortunately, in the age we live in today, this is now not at-all possible and all the medicine advancements in the world still cannot prevent the winter flu. So, stay warm, stay healthy and, as much as can be, stay out of congregated areas!

STAMULLEN PLAYGROUND JOKE.

Since the later 1990`s acres upon acres of prime agricultural land was rezoned in the Stamullen village area to be used for residential and commercial development.

Local Councillors began to speak with the local landowners and then developers, architects, engineers etc. all came on board and money was flowing everywhere as if it grew on the hedgerows; hedgerows which the same developers wiped out and replaced with sparse trees here and there in the new residential estates around the village.

No-one thought of putting in footpaths, pedestrian crossings and/or children’s` playgrounds and only in recent months has the former two being put in place at both Gormanston and Stamullen.

What were they thinking about when these deals were made back in the 90`s?

Did they they really think that they could sell hundreds of new homes to folk who were going to come and live in this little village and either not take their children with them or had no intention of starting a new family once they had settled in here?

I have covered stories such as these in the Stamullen Notes now for over a decade regarding the proper infrastructure or rather the lack of it, while land was continuing to be sold and developed with no forward planning or joined-up thinking. Now they are calling of `expressions of interest` from local landowners who may wish to part with some of their land for a children’s` playground.

Does this `expression of interest` come at any price or is it subject to a set fee or a negotiated price to suit all needs and pockets?

The number of homes to the number of families, along with the results of three Census Reports up until 2011 all indicated to a growing population; not of the elderly, but a growing population of young families with young children.

Seeking land now for a children’s` playground is like bolting the door after the horse has well and truly bolted.

We all know it has now become an issue and, only for the seriousness of it, it has to be the `biggest joke in the said playground`!

BALLESTRAN ARCHAEOLOGY.

Recent aerial image surveys, taken over the townland of Ballestran and partially over the adjoining townlands Mullaghteeling, Whiteleas and Clinstown all in Stamullen parish, have shown a series of Enclosures, Ring-Ditches and Field-systems which could possibly date back to the Bronze Age period in Ireland of some three to four-thousand years ago.

These features are hidden beneath the landscape and cannot be seen with the naked eye on the landscape itself but they clearly show up on the aerial survey of this area of Stamullen. Sitting on top of Mullaghteeling Hill there is the wellknown Bronze Age Ceremonial Enclosure dating to over four-thousand years ago and a couple of kilometres to the south-west of here there can be seen a similar enclosure in the townland of Milltown near Bellewstown.

Without proper archaeological excavation it is difficult to say how old these latest findings and sites are however, judging by similar sites in the immediate neighbourhood and where there are many similar sites in the valley between the hill of Tir Ri, at Fourknocks and the Bellewstown saddle-back ridge of Mullaghteeling, it could be suggested that the sites found through aerial imagery could also date back to this ancient period in pre-history.

The recent sites have been recorded by the Sites & Monuments Register and they will not be interfered with unless the fields in question become the subject of any future development and where such developments would incur into and/ or close to the recently discovered sites and in which case the fields would become the subject of archaeological monitoring by archaeologists.

DULEEK GNS

Duleek Girls National School are now taking applications for 2018/19 school year. Please contact the school on 041 9823632 or email duleekgns@eircom.net. Enrollments are also been taking for our ASD Unit.

DROGHEDA & NORTH EAST SAMARITANS

Would you be interested in becoming a Samaritan Volunteer? If so, please come along to our Information sessions on Wednesday 24th of January at 7.30pm or Saturday 27th of January at 11am to find out what is involved at No. 2 Leland Place, Stockwell St. Drogheda. Contact 041-*/43844 (10.00am – 1.00pm) or email droghedasams@gmail.com

CUSHINSTOWN AC

Cushinstown Athletics Club capped another successful year by being crowned the best juvenile club in Leinster for 2017. Well done to all the athletes and coaches involved.

DULEEK BELLEWSTOWN GFC LOTTO

Results for 11th January 2018. Jackpot €6,000 Numbers Drawn – 4, 19, 23 & 26 - No Winner, 5 x €20.00 Winners: P.J. McQuaile, Karen Smith, Desmond Johnson, Brendan McKenna, Jamie Hunt. -

INDAVER FUNDING

Meath County Council and the Indaver Community Liaison Committee invite applications for grant assistance, under its Carranstown Community Grant Scheme 2017, from community groups and organisations in the Carranstown / Duleek and surrounding areas. Email communitygrants@meathcoco.ie or on line at http://www. meath.ie. Closing date is 5pm on Wednesday 31st January 2018