<- Planner Sean with his brothers and Dad.

Thanks to all who came to our spring 2023 Leinster League event. The rain held off for the event, although we had a wet day on Saturday putting out the controls. Thanks especially to the students who came from several colleges around the country. The event was also being used for the Inter Varsities championship. It was great to see so many young and enthusiastic orienteers taking part. Thanks also to those who took part as part of the women in sport initiative.

There was great praise for the courses planned by Sean Kearns on his first time planning a League event. One runner on the Brown said "It was perfect". Thanks also to main organiser Kathryn Walley, assistant organiser Bernie Sharkey, controller Val Jones, and the other helpers, Per-Olov Elovsson, Nicola Garret, Ciaran and Eileen Young, Chris Slattery, Sarah Ní Ruairc, Ian Murphy, Jean O'Neill, and the rest of the Kearns family, Donal, Ciaran, Paul, and Sinead.

More Photos here

Results are here

This may well be the last event in Fauna, or at least the last league event, as Coilte are gathering the machinery for what looks like extensive felling.

The next Fingal event is our Spring Leinster League event in Fauna Wood near Donard in west Wicklow. The usual 7 league courses will be available, to suit all levels of experience and fitness. The event will be sign posted from the N81, at the turn off for Donard, at the Olde Toll House. The forest is mostly runnable although there has been some recent felling.

Course details are as follows.

Control Descriptions are here.

Online entries are open on Orienteering Ireland web site

We would like to welcome newcomers who have entered through the Women in Sport initiative. Please talk to Bernie and Nicole at the reception if you need any information.

We also welcome the student orienteers from the college clubs who are having the College Championship at our event. Great to see student involvement again.

Eileen's Sprint training series continues on Saturdays. Everyone who attended has enjoyed it and hopefully learned something. The final session is in Castleknock next Saturday. Contact Eileen for details if interested.

Thanks to all who came to the night event in Sports Campus Ireland. Results are on Orienteering.ie website.

Apologies to anyone who downloaded the control descriptions from our website. There was a last minute change to the first control, but we forgot to update the descriptions on the website.

Thanks to all who helped, Ian, Bernie, Ciaran, Eileen, Per, and Sean.

The first Fingal event of 2023 is a Night Orienteering event. Unfortunately Fingal County Council have refused permission for Portmarnock. The reason was because participants would have to cross public roads. So the event will now be held in Sports Campus Ireland, Blanchardstown, where it was held last year, assuming we complete permissions in time. The assembly, start, and finish will be in the main car park outside the multi sports building by the hockey pitches. The courses will take in the full grounds of the sports campus. There will be 2 courses on offer, a long, about 6.9K and a short about 3.7K. Click here for control descriptions. SIAC will be enabled. The maps will be printed on A4 waterproof paper. The Long course will be split and printed on both sides of the page. Navigating at night is for the intrepid or experienced only. Any juniors under 16 must be accompanied - it's much more challenging than during the day. The bigger your headtorch the better. Runners can start at 6PM or soon after when it gets dark.

The first Fingal Leinster League event is in Fauna / Donard wood on March 12th. Sean Kearns is planning the courses and Val Jones is controller. Fauna is in west Wicklow south of Donard village, near the Glen of Imaal. It is a typical Wicklow forest and is similar to some of the forests where the Irish Championships will take place.

The Fingal Autumn Leinster League event will be in Cootehill / Dartry where we had the autumn event last year. Eileen Young has volunteered to plan it. It is scheduled for November 12th.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy orienteering New Year to all Fingal Orienteers and friends.

Thanks to all who came to our pre Christmas event in Tyrrelstown. Thanks to the Tyrrelstown Community center for allowing us to use the center for registration and for our AGM. The courses through the streets and park were very well planned by Tommy. Route choices were a little different to the normal, where the choice was where it was possible to run on grass given that the roads and pavements were icy and slippy where the sun didn't shine.

We had a productive AGM and then a very enjoyable Christmas dinner in the nearby Carlton Hotel. Some more photos are here.