Christmas Illuminations
Every year the Chamber organises Christmas lights for the Village centre. These lights are part of what makes Malahide a great place to shop and visit during the festive season, with all the benefits that brings to our businesses. We have negotiated a grant of €5000 from Fingal County Council but the balance of €7000 must be met by local traders. As usual, we ask that every retailer in the Village contribute to this fund. If we have received the contributions necessary by the middle of November we will proceed but without sufficient funds, this traditional decoration of the Village cannot take place. A member of the Chamber will be in touch with the businesses concerned and we ask that you give this your enthusiastic support.
Cervia - Our Italian Connection
Last May Malahide was asked by the Lord Mayor of Cervia to represent Ireland at their 564th annual ‘Sea Wedding Festival’. This is a major festival with over 100,000 visitors attending. Delegations from Cervia visited Malahide prior to the event and we subsequently sent a 16 strong delegation, lead by our Ambassador, Eric Crampton. Eric and the Lord Mayor, Roberto Zoffolli, signed a Friendship agreement and our local ceili dancer, Caitlin Nic Gabhann, was the guest of honour at the main event which involved giving a wedding ring to the bishop, which he then tossed into the water. A few thousand town people watched as teams of local men dove deep to retrieve the ring. Finding the ring brings good luck and local honour to the winner. Since May, we have maintained links to the town and Malahide business has benefited from a surge of Italian visitors thanks to relationships formed during the Festival.
Chamber Vice President - Deirdre Rochford
We would like to introduce our new Chamber Vice-President, Deirdre Rochford from the Irish College of English on Church Street.
Deirdre is working to encourage more local businesses play an active role in the Chamber, ensuring they have a forum to work together to achieve shared goals. These goals would include improving the overall business environment, solving parking/traffic problems, success in the Tidy Town Competition and positive representation at local council level.
Over the last month few weeks Deirdre and her team have been working on updating the Chamber Database. This will help us keep you up-to-date with Chamber activity. In addition, to help create greater bonds between the many and varied businesses of Malahide, we intend organising a Christmas social event for our members, details of which will follow in our next Newsletter.
The Urban Centre Strategy - We need your help
Earlier this year Fingal County Council started the process to develop an Urban Centre Strategy (UCS) for Malahide. Along with other local organisations, the Chamber made a detailed submission to this important initiative. It was originally planned that the next stage of this process would start now but we understand that Malahide may be pushed back in the queue which would mean a substantial delay for our UCS. The Chamber sees this UCS as a great opportunity to bring the interests of businesses and residents together to agree the future direction of Malahide and seek resolutions to outstanding problems. We have written to the County Manager to ask that we be next to get the UCS and we ask that you would also write to express your support for the immediate commencement of the full UCS. Please write to: David O’Connor, County Manager, Fingal County Council, Town Hall, Swords, County Dublin.
Fingal Food Festival
Trevor Sargeant has instigated a Fingal Food Festival which will be run under the banner of Fingal Tourism. The aim is to promote the varied local food produce of Fingal, both in retail outlets and restaurants. The Chamber is co-ordinating a committee to represent all relevant local businesses who are interested in participating. At present, it is proposed to organise a major event in Malahide sometime next March. This should bring in business at a quiet time of the year. The event will be promoted and supported, along with the rest of the Fingal wide program, by Fingal Tourism.
The next step will be an invitation to a meeting to consult with you and set up the committee. A letter will issue within the next two weeks with a view to holding a meeting in early November.
Tech-Check Service
Tech-Check is a new programme where small businesses can access independent expert advice on the most effective use of technology as well as practical suggestions for appropriate development of technology use. The advisor will probably spend a day with you looking at all aspects of your use (or not) of technology from computers on desks to Internet use. The result will be a written plan suggesting where you might improve your use of technology.
