Applications for the Restart Grant which will give direct grant aid to micro and small businesses to help them with the costs associated with either staying open or reopening and reemploying workers following COVID-19 closures are being accepted from today, Friday, May 22.

So a lesser known research  site to while away an afternoon is TARA or the Trinity Access to Research Archive http://www.tara.tcd.ie/ TARA is an open access repository with restricted access only in unavoidable instances, e.g. where publisher copyright restrictions prevail. One of the many collections is that of Prof. Edwin C. Rae was Professor of the History of Art at the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana.

In March 2020 An Post gave every household free postcards for posting to family and friends across the country to help them stay connected during lockdown. With social media etc. sending postcards had gone out of fashion.

Fingal County Council will immediately commence preparations for the construction of the Broadmeadow Greenway after An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for the €12m project.  

Hundreds of sites in Fingal are both archaeological monuments and protected structures. Take Brazil house (as the archaeologist’s recorded it) or Brazeel House (according to the architects).  This was the former residence of the Bolton family, many of whom had distinguished legal careers, including Sir Richard Bolton, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, in the reign of Charles the First.

Contrary to popular belief most of Ireland’s natural forests were cleared before 1600, much of this clearance in prehistoric times. In medieval times there were scattered woods and copses throughout Fingal but forest cover reached a critical low in the 17th century. Much of present day Blanchardstown was covered in woodland known as the Great Scaldwood. There was an organised wolf cull in the Great Scaldwood in 1652.