2025 Irish Orienteering Championships

<- 3 generations of O'Neill/Ryan family.

At the Irish Orienteering Championships we had 3 clean sweeps of Sprint, Middle, and Long Champions, Liam O'Donnell M14, Jean O'Neill W75, and Val Jones M70. Also Kathleen O'Donnell was 1st in W14 Sprint, 2nd W14 Middle and Long, Eileen Young 1st in W55 Sprint, 3rd W55 Long, and Eoin O'Donnell 3rd M18 Middle. Also the Fingal H24 team came 2nd in the relays. The J48 team would have won except for a mispunch. There were many mispunches in the depressions in the otherwise very fast relay terrain

Full Results are here

Photos of club members and others here

There were about 450 entries in the Irish championships with many from Britain, Europe, and further afield. The weather was sunny and dry for the weekend, although there was a cold wind from the sea. The university at Coleraine was a tricky area for the sprint, and the Magilligan sand dunes provided for challenging navigation, in spite of it having been used before for British, Irish, and NI Championships.

Thanks to all who came to Cahore yesterday. The weather was fine and dry, warm in the dunes when out of the sea breeze. We had more than on previous league events in Cahore, and the numbers on the Brown exceeded my estimate. I don't think anyone got around without some mistake judging by the splits and routes. Apologies for the fences particularly to those on the green, and for the cattle and electric fence. The cattle were only put out last week and the farmer wasn't very clear on where they would be. There were some late compromises in the courses due to the cattle and the wildlife ranger restrictions. Hopefully people will benefit next weekend.

Thanks to Mick Mangan of Setanta for controlling again for us, Ian Murphy for organizing, and the club members who helped out, Eileen, Ciaran, Bernie, Sarah, Per, Nicola, Roxanne, Adria, Alan, Eoin, and Liam.

Results are here

More Photos here

JK 2025

Good morning.

JK 2025 was excellent and blessed with fab weather until the Monday Relay. Day 1 Sheffield was really interesting about the city center. My 3D head has to work overtime with the multiple levels, and split levels, cul de sacs and uncrossable walls.

Middle was in a challenging area, with many many criss cross paths, with rough undergrowth off path towards the various control sites.

Long course on Sunday was extremely technical at the start over rough rocky physical terrain, opening up onto open terrain for a bit, before coming back into technical woodlands. Plenty to keep us busy and enjoyed.

I only saw my own family O Donnell x5 and Eileen at event. Accommodation was lovely and worked well with only about 70 of us staying in Cliffe house Shepley. Kids had a ball there and adults had a few sociable bites and drinks.

Some good results from the Irish, particularly some of our juniors, Liam placing 4th on the middle. Eoin as part of Adhoc team placing 2nd in Relay.

Alan O'Donnell

The next Fingal event is a Leinster League event in Cahore sand dunes on April 27th. This replaces the cancelled Castleblayney event in March.

Course details

Brown 9.1K 28 controls
Blue 7.2K 27 controls
Green 4.8K 18 controls
Light Green 3.5K 13 controls
Red 4.6K 12 controls
Orange 3.9K 13 controls
Yellow 2.4K 11 controls

The small paths in the sand dunes have been removed from the Brown, to add an extra challenge.

Climb is minimal on most courses and is not stated because of the variety of routes over the dunes. There is no Short Green but hopefully the Light Green will provide enough technical challenge. There are extensive paths through the dunes and the less distinct ones are not mapped. But note that running on the soft sand on the more distinct paths is more tiring than running off the paths.

The Brown, Blue, and Green are on A3 paper.
The Red, Yellow, Orange, and Light Green are on A4.
The Brown, Blue, Red, and Orange scales are 1:7500.
The Green, Light Green and Yellow scales are 1:5000.

As requested by the Parks and Wildlife ranger some areas are marked with the out of bounds purple hatching, because of dune erosion and nesting terns near the river outflow. Please avoid these areas. They are not marked on the ground.

The areas closest to the sea are very sandy and are designated as Open rather than sandy ground. This is because of the pdf file size created by purple pen. The rest of the dunes are designated as rough open. The vegetation increases and is more varied the further inland you go in the dunes.

There will be a portaloo at assembly.

Courses close at 15.00. Starts between 11.00 and 13.00.

Enrty on the day will be accepted, provided maps are available.

Directions.

Take the M11 south. exit at Junction 23 signposted for Gorey, Courtown, and Ballycanew. Follow the signs for Ballycanew and follow the R741 to Ballycanew. At Ballycanew turn left on the L1031 signposted for Killenagh. Turn right on the R742 to Ballygarrett. Drive straight through Ballygarrett, don't take the turn signposted for Cahore. 2k after Ballygarret turn left, signposted for Old Bawn. Parking is 2K down this road. From the south it's probably best to take the same exit off the M11.

Orienteering abroad

Hi folks.

I have many happy trips abroad to wonderful events. I would like to encourage you to branch out and experience O events abroad.

For starters, the Tollymore festival of O weekend, organised by northern clubs, LVO, takes place in Tollymore Forest Park near Newcastle, Co.Down. It is held at midsummer weekend, this year from 20th to 22nd June There is a sprint/urban event on Friday evening, a forest event on Sat and a fun event on Sunday morning. Everyone camps at a special site in the forest park reserved for orienteers-with showers etc and wash up facilities. There is a great BBQ on Saturday evening, and a campfire afterwards.

Abroad, over the years I have loved the events in Belgium, my favourite in recent years is ASOM---Antwerp Sprint Orienteering Meeting. Actually, it used to be in Antwerp, but now it moves around Belgium. This year it is in Turnhout, at a date earlier than the usual June, from 25th to 27th April. It is street/urban over 3 days. Each day's event is close to the town centre, no transport needed at all! Very friendly, assembly/finish is usually in a school playground/courtyard, with changing rooms, toilets,food etc.

I find details of most events on the website https://worldofo.com/

I hope I have whetted your appetite! You can contact me anytime for more information. Entry fees are very reasonable, as is accommodation. Children are very well catered for, sometimes there is a creche for little ones. I have compiled a list of suitable events this summer---to follow!

Jean O'Neill (Club president)

The 2025 Leinster Championships took place on an updated map of Clara Vale on February 23rd. The day was reasonably dry and the forest had escaped any serious storm damage. The courses planned by Paul Smyth were very technical and made good use of the southern section of the forest. Fingal prize winners were Jean O'Neill, 1st W75, Kathleen O'Donnell, 1st W14, and Val Jones, 1st M21L. Not many club members attended, and the overall numbers were low for a championship event.

The event was the last event hosted by Ajax, and they confirmed that they are winding up the club. It's sad to see the demise of a once very active club that concentrated on the elite level. They will be remembered for some great events including the 2011 and 1985 Irish Championships.

The club AGM took place on Saturday 8th February. Thanks to the River Valley Comunity Center for hosting us. And thanks to Bernie and Nicola for the tea, coffee, sandwiches, crisps, and and other goodies. It was well attended by 13 members.

<- Alan, Frank, Sean, Adria, Kathryn, Jean, Val, Bernie, Per, Nicola, Gabrielle, Tommy. Ian took the photo.

There was a good discussion on last year's activities, reports by different officers, and this year's events. The minutes and reports will be on Teamer.

Due to damage by storm Eowyn the league event planned for Castleblayney on March 9th is cancelled. We will have a league event in Cahore sand dunes instead on April 27th. This is the week before the Irish Championships, also on sand dunes, so it should provide good practice.

The maprun before the AGM only attracted 4 runners, perhaps due to the weather. The courses will be updated on the maprun page, so will be available for anyone to try.

Our club AGM is on Saturday 8th February in the River Valley Comunity Center at 2 PM. Please come and see what the club activities are going forward, and have an input. Tea, Coffee, sandwiches and biscuits will be provided. And don't worry, you won't be forced onto the committee or to take on any job.

We will meet at 12.00 before the AGM for a Maprun in River Valley. There will be 4 courses available. A short course which will stay in the park, and a medium course which will include some of River Valley and Glasmore park streets. There will be two long courses. One, which is very similar to last year, will include Brookdale and Ridgewood streets. The second goes up the west section of the valley and includes some of Swords Manor and Knocksedan streets.

Thanks to all who came to the Night event in the Sports Ireland Campus. Thanks to Kathryn and Sean for planning and organising, and to the other helpers. It was a clear night in the aftermath of storm Éowyn.

Results are here.

Some more photos are here

Happy New Year to all Fingal Members and friends

Here's to looking forward to an enjoyable and succesful 2025 year of orienteering

The first Fingal event of 2025 will be a night event in the Sports Ireland Campus in Abbotstown on Saturday evening, January 25th. The event will start about 6PM. There will be 2 courses, a Long and a Short. Entry will be on orienteering.ie here

The rest of the main Fingal events for 2025 will be as follows.

We will return to Castleblayney on March 9th for a Leinster League event. Per is planner.

The scatter league will return in the Autumn. The events will be a bit more spread out this year rather than on consecutive Sundays. The dates are August 31st, September 14th, September 28th, and October 5th. Venues are still to be confirmed but will include the popular parks of north Dublin.

The 2nd Leinster League event will be on a new map of Balinagee forest and open mountain on November 9th. Val and Tommy are completing the map. Balinagee is on the north side of the R756 west of the Wicklow gap. It is on the other side of the road from the Setanta areas at Oakwood and Fair Mountain.

We will most likely also have one or two summer evening events in June or July, and a Christmas event on December 14th. We also hope to have some training events and MapRun meetups.

Other events to look forward to are the Leinster Champs in Claravale on February 23rd, the Irish Championships in Derry on the first weekend in May, the Munster Championships near Mitchelstown, October 19th, and the Northern Ireland Championships on November 1st