21 July 2011 BLANCH GAZETTE 5
IT’S YOUR STORY Event raises €2,000
Figures show 13.8% growth
It’s a big success for Teena DUBLIN 15 local and Head of 98fm News, Teena Gates, has praised everyone who helped make her recent ‘Gourmet Counts’ night a success, which raised a staggering €2,000 for a very worthy cause. Teena said: I’m still singing the praises of everyone who helped create a fabulous night of fun and food at Gourmet Counts – our WeightWatchers’ inspired fundraising dinner at the beautiful Anglers’ Rest. A beautiful venue, a gorgeous part of Dublin and an amazing gathering of people from across the city who turned out on the night to help raise funds for Chernobyl Children International. We
raised €2,000 on the night for the charity and served beautiful, healthy food to close to 90 diners. “Local WeightWatchers’ leader, Vera Baker, was my co-host on the night and the restaurant were superb in tailoring the menu to provide our guests with wonderful food that had been ‘pro-pointed’ under the WeightWatchers’ system. “It led to healthy debate among the diners, who were amazed that socalled ‘diet’ food could be gourmet-driven and special. There was beef, there was chicken, there were chilli prawns, lime salsa, chocolate, raspberries – and very happy diners! City Channel’s Joseph
CENSUS: FINDINGS SHOW POPULATION ON THE RISE
Q LAURA WEBB castleknock@gazettegroup.com
Teena Gates cooks up a storm at the Anglers’ Rest
Kearney MCeed the night and ruled over a Bachelor Barter – which raised whoops of laughter and a huge amount of entertainment as the ‘bachelors gifts’ were bartered against what they might have nestled in the baskets they carried. Tindal Wines’ Declan Saunders brought us wine-tastings and a wine quiz, Debenhams provided fashion (and a bachelor), and Addy Herodotus serenaded the ladies with a very small guitar!
“Among the guests were Rita Fagan, managing director of Weight Watchers Ireland; Actress Jenny Kavanagh and RTE presenter Rob Ross; Rehab’s Kerry Houlihan; Rosaleen Thomas, from the Hope Foundation, and local Dublin FF Councillor David McGuinness, to name just a few. “Many thanks to the sponsors: Declan Saunders from Tindal Wines, WeightWatchers, Musgrave Food Services, Debenhams, Westprint,
to Joe Kearney and the Mt Blanc 25 team who are attempting to climb to the summit of Mount Blanc (the roof of Europe) later this year for CCI, to everyone who gave prizes to our raffle, to our bachelors, to Andy Baker our DJ and music director on the night – and to Paul the chef and all the staff at the Anglers, who were truly magnificent. Let’s do it again sometime...” See gallery Pages 8-9
FINDINGS from the preliminary figures of the 2011 Census showing a 13.8% growth in Fingal population, is a “serious wake-up call” for schools provision in the area. That’s according to L a b o u r C o u n c i l l o r, Michael O’Donovan. Preliminary figures from the 2011 Census revealed Fingal County Council is the fastestgrowing of all the Dublin local authorities. “ F i n g a l ’s p o p u l a tion growth since the last census of 13.8% is well ahead of Dublin City (3.8%), South D u b l i n (7. 4 % ) a n d Dun Laoghaire (6.7%). When the county was ‘founded’ in 1994, it’s population was 155,000 but now it stands at
273,000 and the Greater Blanchardstown area now has about 101,000, making it one of the largest towns in the state,” Cllr Donovan said. The councillor is warning of the implications of the figures. “We were taken unawares by a previous population surge in the 1990s. This resulted in schools at Littlepace and Tyrrelstown, for example, being in temporary pre-fab accommodation for years. Now we have the figures so there is no excuse this time. “I welcome the recent announcement from Minister Ruairi Quinn of six new schools for the Dublin 15 area, but these promises must be matched by an accelerated building programme,” he said.