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Christmas, not
just another date on the Calendar
In Fingal, Christmas has never been just a date on the calendar. From Balbriggan to Rus and Lusk to Swords, what makes Christmas truly special here is not the glitter of shopfronts or the bustle of seasonal markets, but the unmistakable sense of community—an unspoken understanding that this is a time to slow down, look around, and appreciate the people who share our little corner of the world.
Throughout Fingal, children rehearse school nativity plays, grandparents share recipes handed down through generations, and neighbours exchange greetings that seem more heartfelt in December’s crisp air. Whether it’s decorating a tree in Donabate, enjoying a winter walk along the Malahide estuary, or sharing a festive meal in Rush, the rhythm of the season reminds us that connection is our greatest gift.
Community groups across Fingal play a vital role in nurturing that spirit. Local sports clubs organise toy drives, parish halls host Christmas fairs, and volunteers ensure that those who might otherwise feel forgotten are welcomed into the fold. These efforts, often quiet and unseen, are the true heartbeat of the season. They shine a light on the generosity that defines Fingal—people showing up for one another not because it is expected, but because it is who we are.
In a world that often feels hurried and divided, Fingal’s Christmas traditions remind us that belonging is built through small acts of kindness and shared moments—carols sung in the town, a thoughtful knock on a neighbour’s door, a warm drink after a cold evening supporting a local event.
As we gather with loved ones and celebrate the season, let us hold onto what Christmas teaches us every year: that our community is strongest when we celebrate together, support one another, and make space at the table for all.
May this Christmas bring peace to your home, joy to your family, and renewed pride in the community we are fortunate to call our own.
The Locals Team
IRISHMEDIAGROUP
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STRICT DEADLINE FOR NEXT EDITION: Submissions by the 15th for inclusion in next months edition
Make this Christmas even more special by buying Irish
When Christmas shopping this year, please Buy Irish. Remember that Amazon or Shein won’t sponsor your kids jerseys, it’s local businesses who support local communities! Here are some of our fave products….
Love candles? Rathbornes1488 in Dublin are the oldest candle makers in the world! They make beautiful candles in incredible scents, fab for creating ambience and gifting.
MyKindOfDress.com has fabulous party dresses. If you’re a jeans and nice top kinda gal, use code “mumstown20” for 20% off Freddy Jeans!
Looking for a Christmas party venue? Bracken Court has fab party night & festive afternoon tea options.
The Gem Treatery vouchers are ideal for gifting teachers who love a coffee run; or anyone who loves ice-cream, sambos and crepes!
Farnham Estate festive packages are wonderful for Christmas mini breaks and they have Santa and Afternoon tea and lots on.
www.wanapix.ie has personalised calendars, mugs, glasses, mouse mats, tote bags, makeup bags and loads more. Use code MAMSWANAPIX for 15% off!
For winter days out, Avondale Tree Top walk, Smurfs Village and Skypark Adventure Lights are stunning. While National Concert Hall and Casino Model Railway Museum Polar Express are great indoor events.
Ilac SC has great shopping with LFC store, Stitch-a-Name, Lovisa, Smiggle, Normal, Hoco, Dunnes and Santa’s Magical Cabin! Interactive and fun, see www.santaexperience.ie and also check them out at Kilnamangh, Dublin 24
For coffee lovers, Irish brand Artessa fusion blends, in ground coffee or beans, are delicious gifts.
Nutrgove SC has free parking and lots of stores including Penneys and Regatta and a fab Santa Claus too!
Hampers & Co. huge range of hampers come in
gorgeous boxes, so no need to wrap. Irish, clever and easy – love them!
Elave Skincare is a fantastic Irish brand for all skin types with gift sets for baby, junior and adults - all made in Dundalk.
Glimmerboxes are a Glimmer of happiness in a box. We love the Gamer, Brighter Days Ahead & Christmas boxes.
Chocolate Garden has lovely Hot Chocolate tins, perfect for treating hot chocolate fans and their chocolate is Gluten free too.. Mienas Nougat is a wonderful handmade brand and a great stocking filler.
Tipperary Crystal have fab bags, jewellery and lots of offers on their Christmas range. Design Gallery in Drogheda is a treasure trove of gifts with free gift-wrapping service. Willow & Wisp Mornington has gorgeous locally made gifts, like Shelley’s Driftwood.
Follow us on @mams.ie & @mams.ireland on FB for our festive competitions!
CommunityLocals.ie
The Running Man (2025) – A HighOctane, Messy Thriller
By Jack Shanley
Edgar Wright’s take on The Running Man is less of a remake of the campy Arnold Schwarzenegger film and more of a gritty, modern adaptation of the original Stephen King novel. Starring Glen Powell as Ben Richards, the blue-collar man desperate enough to volunteer for a lethal, televised hunt, the film is a non-stop, kinetic thriller that often feels uncomfortably timely.
From the first frame, Wright brings his signature visual energy. The pace is absolutely frantic, rarely giving you a moment to catch your breath as Richards is chased across a dystopian, corporately-controlled America. This isn’t just a staged arena game; it’s a cross-country chase broadcast as primetime entertainment, complete with high-tech surveillance and a bloodthirsty viewing public. The action sequences are inventive and sharp, and the movie is powered entirely by Glen Powell’s performance.
Powell plays Richards not as a wisecracking action star, but as a man consumed by justifiable, seething anger. He’s running to get medicine for his sick daughter and railing against a system of extreme wealth inequality and broken healthcare. This is where the film feels strongest: its dystopian 2025 is less sci-fi fantasy and more “uncomfortably familiar” social commentary. It’s a world where propaganda and “FreeVee” reality shows are used to placate a miserable working class, and the film does a solid job of highlighting this critique.
However, the sheer speed of the film is also its biggest flaw. The constant movement leaves many of the supporting characters Richards encounters feeling underdeveloped or quickly forgotten. They’re colorful plot devices rather than fully fleshed-out people, which dilutes some of the emotional weight.
The biggest stumbling block is the final act. After establishing such a tight, brutal, and cynical world, the ending feels strangely Hollywood-ized. It’s too neat and lacks the dark, uncompromising bite that Stephen King’s novel delivered. It struggles to commit fully to either being a purely biting satire or an all-out action flick, landing somewhere in the middle.
I’d recommend checking out ‘The Running Man’ and see what you think of it; I shall give it a score of 3 and ½ stars, after my first watch. You can watch it at your local cinema today: Director: Edgar Wright– Rating: 15A –Genre: Sci-fi/Adventure – Run Time: 2h 13m Language: English. For more film content please follow @movies4fanatics on Instagram.
A bygone Christmas
By Jon Kavanagh
A childhood memory finds me awakening on a dark winter’s morning. Using my powers of deduction I concluded aloud ‘It won’t be long now till Santy comes’. Not a proclamation my mother wanted to hear as she struggled to boil the black kettle on the open fire, the only means of cooking in the time warp gate lodge where we lived. It may have been the Swinging Sixties but the decade of change had yet to pitch its tent in rural Fingal. A fellow Baby Boomer recently reminded me of how we looked forward to simple treats like a bottle of brown sauce at Christmas. Things we take for granted today were luxuries back then. The centerpiece of the season was my mother’s plum pudding, which she bought in instalments starting around midSeptember; week one a packet of raisins, week two a tub of mixed peal, week three a bag of brown sugar etc. The highlight of my year was scraping and consuming what remained in the mixing bowl after she placed the great load into a calico cloth. As the ingredients included a bottle of stout and a generous
helping of whiskey, I’m lucky not to have been charged drunk driving on my tricycle. Tension and steam filled the kitchen as the pudding was carefully place in an iron pot for eight hours of intensive care. It was crucial not to let the water go off the boil as the pudding would ‘take the water’ – a widely feared disaster. We would buy a Christmas cake in the local shop. Beautifully presented in a decorated cardboard box, it had thick layers of almond and white icing topped off with a toy Santa. Long before loyalty cards were invented, the shop keeper would give his customers a Christmas present; usually an Oxford Lunch Cake or a nice canister of tea.
My father decorated the tiny lodge with a string of brightly coloured balloons and sprigs of ivy as my mother proudly placed a new length of oil cloth on the rustic kitchen table. On Christmas Day we sat down to hearty meal of meat, two veg and packet oxtail soup, rounded off with the plum pudding, which thankfully didn’t ‘take the water’. Simple times we appreciated. Happy Christmas.
CV Writing in 2025: Keep It Simple and Stand Out
By Sarah Louise, MD – Impulse Recruitment
Have you wondered how to make your CV stand out in 2025? With September here and the final quarter of the year underway, it’s the perfect time to refresh your CV and set yourself up for new opportunities this autumn. Whether you’re looking for a promotion, a complete career change, or simply want to be prepared if the right role comes up, your CV is your personal marketing tool and it needs to work hard for you.
The number one rule: keep it simple. Your CV should be one to two pages long, highlighting your most relevant experience, skills, and achievements. Employers don’t want to wade through unnecessary detail but they do want to see, quickly and clearly, why you’re the right fit for their role. A clean, well-structured CV not only makes you look professional but also shows that you can communicate effectively. Start strong. Open with a clear headline at the top: Reliable and dedicated candidate seeking a role in [industry], with [X years] of experience
in [area]. This gives hiring managers an instant snapshot of who you are and what you’re looking for.
From there, list your most recent role first (job title, company, and dates). Underneath, outline your key tasks and responsibilities, then work backwards through your career history. Use bullet points to make it easy to read, and wherever possible, add achievements with measurable results — for example, Increased sales by 20%” or Implemented a new system that reduced processing time by 30%. These details show the real impact you’ve made.
Make sure you include:
• Contact details (phone and professional email).
• Education (qualifications and relevant courses).
• Skills (communication, teamwork, technical expertise, etc.).
• Hobbies/interests (keep it light and relevant).
• References (either included or “available on request”).
Golden rules: Be honest – no exaggeration. Double-check for errors. Ask a friend to proofread. Never forget your contact details! (Yikes — the last thing you want is to miss out simply because the employer can’t reach you.)
And don’t underestimate the value of a cover letter. Keep it short — three paragraphs is plenty — but use it to show enthusiasm, explain why you’re interested, and highlight how your skills match the role. A tailored cover letter can make all the difference in standing out from dozens of other applicants.
Think of your CV as a fishing hook: clear, targeted, and designed to catch the right employer’s attention. This is your time to shine, so make sure your CV represents the very best version of you.
Happy job hunting this autumn! Catch me next month for more recruitment insights
Councillors approve budget of €433m for 2026
Councillors have approved Fingal County Council’s budget of €433 million for 2026 which will sustain and enhance the quality of services being delivered as well as increasing funding for infrastructure projects across the county.
The 2026 budget is an 11.4% increase on last year and means the Council’s budget has more than doubled over the past 10 years from €214m in 2016. The Council is now spending €1,311 per person living in the county.
The new budget will see increases in some income streams that have not experienced rises for some years despite the Council’s expenditure more than doubling.
Commercial Rates, which amount to 40% of the overall income for 2026, will see an increase of 4% in the Annual Rateable Valuation to 0.1868. The Housing budget has increased by €24m to €159.8m and while funding for housing grants has increased by €2.5m to €9.4m while the Council’s contribution to the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive has increased by €1.25m to €5.3m.
There is an increase of €3.5m in the Operations budget which will include extra spending on road maintenance, public lighting, parks, playgrounds, recycling centres, harbours, public conveniences and burial grounds. The budget also provides for an additional €500,000 allocation to the annual programme of works with the full €3.08m works programme being brought to each Area Committee in January for approval by councillors.
An additional €600,000 has been provided towards the funding requirement for the delivery of a swimming pool in Balbriggan. The sports budget also includes sports capital grants of €975,000.
An extra €430,000 has been allocated for the development of arts in the County while there is an increase of €588,000 for events, tourism promotion and heritage properties. The Community budget includes an additional €590,000. This will provide additional funding for community grants as well as funding for the operation of the new community centre in
Baldoyle.
Fingal’s contribution to the running of the Dublin Fire Service will be €27.3m, an increase of €1.5m on 2025, with the remainder of the €139m it will cost to fund the service in 2026 being covered by contributions from the other three Dublin local authorities.
At the Council meeting in July councillors voted to reduce the rate of Local Property Tax by 5% for 2026 while in October they approved a three-year Capital programme containing over three hundred projects worth €1.43billion.
The Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Tom O’Leary, said: “This record budget of €433m is the equivalent of the Council spending €1,311 for every person living in the county. Along with our €1.43billion Capital Programme, the budget is reflective of the huge amount of investment required to keep pace with Fingal’s growing population. We have to keep supplying services, building houses, and delivering infrastructure because we want to build a county that is meeting the needs of its residents.”
CommunityLocals.ie
Maximise your health by eating with the Chinese Body Clock
Eating in accordance with the Chinese Body Clock is believed to optimise digestion, energy, and overall health by aligning meal times with the body’s organ systems’ peak activity periods. The key idea is that each organ has a two-hour window of maximum function, and eating appropriately during these times supports harmony within the body.
Early Morning (7am–9am): This period corresponds to spring in the 24-hour cycle, when the stomach’s energy peaks. It’s the optimal time for a nourishing breakfast that is warm and moist, avoiding overly rich, salty, or sweet foods. Porridge made with oats, rice, or barley helps to strengthen the body and stimulate yang
With Susan
energy—a concept akin to a seedling emerging or a newborn crawling out of bed.
Mid Morning 9am–11am: During this window, the spleen is at its peak, digesting breakfast and fuelling the body’s morning activities. It’s a good time for mentally challenging tasks and exercise.
Late Morning (11am–1pm): This period marks summer, with the heart organ dominating. It’s ideal for consuming hotter, pungent foods, along with whole grains. Many Western-style lunches, such as salads or sandwiches, may be too yin (cooling and dampening) and better replaced with steamed vegetables, cooked grains, or soups if bloating or fatigue occur.
Afternoon 1pm–3pm: The small intestine peaks during this time, making it suitable for nutrient absorption. It’s also a good window for physical activity if digestion is robust, or for resting if recovering or depleted.
Late Afternoon 3pm–5pm: This time is linked to the bladder and kidneys, focusing on waste
elimination. It’s a good period for studying or problem-solving, and a light snack helps if experiencing an energy slump.
Evening (5pm–7pm): Corresponding to autumn and approaching winter, this is when kidney energy peaks. Dinner should be light and nourishing to support this detoxification phase, ideally eaten early. Foods such as baked meats, fish, vegetables, grains, or legumes are preferred. This period aligns with winding down, supporting vitality and longevity.
• Traditional Chinese Medicine emphasises eating the biggest meal between 7 and 9 am (stomach), a moderate lunch at midday (heart), and a light dinner early in the evening (kidneys).
• Eating late disrupts these natural rhythms and may impair digestion and energy balance.
• This approach is supported by modern research indicating that meal timing influences metabolism and weight management.
Activated Oat Muesli
Chinese Chicken Soup
Con-Gee Rice Pudding
How To Reduce Your December Spending?
By Dave Kavanagh
Traditionally, December is when we tend to spend the most. Is there a way to soften the impact? Of course there is. Firstly, manage expectations: Most people can’t remember what they got 2 years ago, so don’t put yourself under too much pressure for “big” presents. Next, leave the credit card at home: At about 20% interest, adding debt for things you don’t need to overspend on, only starts the new year off in a negative. Be realistic with food shopping: The shops are only closed for 1-2 days, do you really need to stock up so much? In the days/weeks after Christmas, make a list of all the things you bought but didn’t really need or through out, and keep it for next year, so you don’t repeat the same mistakes. Kris Kindle: Talk to family and close friends to agree to pick one person and buy them a present for a set limit, to ease the burden. There are things you can also do all year round that can save you enough to cover the cost of Christmas: Switch utility providers, the savings can be quite substantial. Compare before you shop for larger items: Just because one store has a sign saying the fridge you want is reduced from €799 to €699, doesn’t mean that another store that does not have a sale on, isn’t selling the same fridge for €649. Take the time to shop around when your car or house insurance
renewals come in, it can be well worth the effort. Review premiums that you pay regularly, such as mortgage protection or life cover, especially if they were taken out directly with a bank who could not compare. Finally, go through a few months’ bank statements: we regularly find people paying for things like subscriptions or gym memberships, that should have been cancelled years before or that they simply no longer require.
Dave Kavanagh QFA has been advising people financially for over 25 years. For quotes or information (with no cost or obligation) he can be contacted by emailing info@ financialcompanion.ie or use the contact form on www.financialcompanion.ie or @Davekav_ advice on Twitter and Instagram. Combined with his previous role of gym/nutrition adviser, he regularly gives talks and workshops at seminars and events for groups, companies and government departments on financial wellbeing, positivity and motivation. As heard on RTE 2FM, LMFM and TV3.
WIN €50 !!! WIN €50 !!! WIN €50 !!! WIN €50 !!!
This is easy… we are offering you the chance to win €50. All you have to do is correctly fill in the crossword and discover the name of an area in Fingal spelt out in the coloured squares. Then send the completed crossword and your answer by email, with your name, address and telephone number to communitylocals@ gmail.com before 5pm on the 16th of this month. The first correct entry to be drawnwill win €50..Good luck
Across
1. A place of refuge from danger or hardship. (6)
5. A poor densely populated city district. (6)
10. Landlocked Central European country. (7)
11. Even more absurd. (7)
12. A metal piece of money. (4)
13. North and South country. (5)
15. Oven for a potter. (4)
17. A short day to be married. (3)
19. Substance which separates milk into solids and liquids. (6)
21. Great birds of prey. (6)
22. Quickly, speedily. (7)
23. Woven container with handles. (6)
25. Lacking physical strength or vitality. (6)
28. A state of matter. (3)
30. Dry like a desert. (4)
31. Slippers with no fitting around the heel. (5)
32. Popular Indonesian island. (4)
35. Just the place for sport and concerts. (7)
36. Trace the shape, as of bodies at crime scenes. (7)
37. No longer frozen solid. (6)
38. Change for the worse. (6)
Down
2. A meeting of musicians. (7)
3. Boisterous songbird. (4)
4. A field where grass is grown to be made into hay. (6)
5. Breathed noisily, as if exhausted. (6)
6. Long fish. (4)
7. A pursuit of little importance. (7)
8. Craned at the performer. (6)
9. Swimwear for men. (6)
14. A performance of music especially by a soloist. (7)
16. A cap for the French. (5)
18. A hen kept for her eggs. (5)
20. A cheap and vulgar item. (3)
21. A mischievous fairy. (3)
23. Slowly cook food with a small amount of liquid in a tightly covered pan. (6)
24. Vegetable mistakenly known for iron content. (7)
26. The sort of exercise that sets you up for the day. (7)
27. Expelled from your own country. (6)
28. Treated with adhesive, like an envelope. (6)
29. A good with faults, usually sold at a reduced price. (6)
33. A personal belief not based on proof. (4)
34. Flower supporter. (4)
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