Pictured: Dublin Sea Scouts leader Steven Cull with Eoghan Murphy TD, Minister of State at the Department of Finance.
Ringsend Sea Scouts
1st Port Sea Scouts are now accepting girls and boys aged from 10-14 to join their ranks. They will meet at the club’s den on Pigeon House Road weekly from 7pm to 8.30pm.
Sea Scouts offer fun, friendship and challenges using traditional seamanship skills and watersports to teach teamwork, leadership and responsibility to young people. As well as water-based activities, they also camp, hike and practise outdoor survival skills. See 1stportseascouts.ie or look them up on Facebook. Membership enquiries for young people or for adult volunteers can be made to 1portseascouts@gmail.com, or drop in to them on Tuesday nights between 6.30 and 7.30.
Above: 4th Port Dodder Sea Scouts recreating Robert Ballagh’s The Third of May After Goya. Courtesy of 4th Port Dodder Scouts.
4th Port Dodder Sea Scouts
The cub-scouts of 4th Port Dodder have been working for a number of months on a very exciting project entitled ‘Ships Passing in the Night’. Artist James O’hAodha worked with both cubs and children from the Sikh community in Dublin to make artwork, as part of Dublin City Council’s Culture Connects initiative. O’hAodha taught the basics of morse code, progressing to a stage where young people were able to send messages to each other, decode them and respond.
Over a period of time from October 2016 until recently, O’hAodha met with each group separately to discover and explore morse code. This was done via sound, light, dots and dashes.
In early November, the two groups joined forces for the first time in the Sikh temple in Sandymount, where O’hAodha and his crew made decorations, some of which had influences from the Sikh culture.
Everyone in the temple was fed by the Sikh community, as is their custom. The day also involved a trip to the Hugh Lane Gallery, where both groups got tours of artwork that referred, in some way, to language.
Since then, O’hAodha has worked separately with the two groups focusing on video art and paintings. At the end of November, the two groups spent the day in the Dodder Sea Scout Den, shooting footage to make their own video artwork.
In January of this year, both groups, their families and leaders, were special guests at the Hugh Lane Gallery. Everyone was treated to a special screening of the two films that emerged from the project, giving those present the opportunity to witness and experience what the young people had achieved.
Above: Donnybrook cub scouts at Squirrel Scramble Adventure Park, Kilruddery.
Donnybrook Scouts
Donnybrook Scout Beavers were recently put through their paces at Squirrel Scramble Adventure Park, Kilruddery, Co. Wicklow. They climbed trees, tackled obstacle courses 30 feet off the ground and zip-lined through the forest. This was followed by a hearty picnic and a log chew, all part of a beavers day out.
This year, Donnybrook Scouts are celebrating ninety years of wonderful community service and youth work with a series of activities, among them a themed period ball for adults and a fancy dress big day out on a steam train in the autumn. They will also bury a time capsule on St Patrick’s Day after the time-honoured tradition of parading to mass and taking the annual group photo.
Plans are also afoot to redevelop their Venturer ‘Den’ – an uninsulated shed that has been used by their teenage Venturer Scout Section for their meetings every Friday since the early 70’s. They are also exploring the idea of an urban camp in Herbert Park.
A year of activities will take a big step forward at the end of this month, with a massive hike starting in five different points in the Dublin/Wicklow Mountains that will terminate with all groups converging on Larch Hill in Tibradden.
Their two beaver colonies (six to eight year olds) will complete a four-hour orienteering challenge, using maps, compasses and clues to guide them to a lunch cooked on an open fire.
The two cub (eight to twelve year olds) packs will also end up in Larch Hill. The Celt Cub Pack will arrive in from the east, having walked a section of the Wicklow Way, while the Viking Cub Pack will come in from the west, having done a similar 4.5 hours on the Dublin Mountain Way.
It’s not all walking, however, as both cub packs will have surprises in store for them en route. One will encounter a doomsday scenario and will have to cook and build a shelter backwoods style – just think Bear Grylls…but better! The other pack is going to come across injured aliens from a crashed UFO and will have to administer basic first aid so they can make it back to their space ship with the earthling samples they came to collect.
The scouts (12 to 15 year olds) will be transported by the Spellman Centre bus to below Glencree where they will hike, having planned and mapped the route at their weekly meeting, along the Wicklow Way over Prince William’s Seat (555m) to Larch Hill, having to complete ‘Challenge-Checkpoints’ along the way.
The Venturers (15 to 18 years) will be dropped in the middle of nowhere by the Spellman bus on Friday night, from where they will have to navigate their way back to Larch Hill. That may soon turn into a run, as the plan is to have them chased, Prison Break style, by bounty hunters.
A roaring campfire and a cuppa will welcome all adult scouters, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers and Rovers (18 to 20 years), to reward them for helping out and leading on the day. An amphitheatre of flames and warm glow of heat will be the backdrop to launch the Challenge 9-O Badge, a series of personal, group and community/environmental tasks. More on that and other Dublin 4 scouting news in our next edition.
By Paul O’Rourke
