That Was The Year That Was 2021

Onwards & outwards…

here was much celebration and hoorays as 2020 came to a close, as we all looked forward to Covid fecking off in 2021…

Back then, we were still young and blissfully naive –  and we still had some hope left.

Disenchanted 2021

This was the year that Disenchanted came to town – and it never really left.

But hey, 2022 is going to be kick-ass. Or we’re going to start kicking ass.

Given that it takes a stupid amount of time to pull together the 1,785 Guide posts from 2021, over the next two weeks we’re going to update this month-by-month round-up every few days. So we don’t go completely stir crazy.

JANUARY 2021

The year began as it clearly meant to go on, with the passing on January 1st of Bagatelle leader Liam Reilly, his Bray wingman Ken Doyle looking back on that summer lovin’ band’s breakthrough years for the Guide. That heavy weather continued when an old friend called on us two days later, worried that he had reached the end. Almost impossible to find the right words in such situations, but our friend is still here, having gradually recognised that he had good reasons to be cheerful, and thankful.

Such despair goes to show just how full-on, batshit crazy 2020 was. It took us until January 4th to wrap up that particular year.

The following day, we said goodbye to Crowe Abbey’s Louise Byrne, caught up with Leo O’Kelly as he joined local soundman Bobby Vickers and others in taking their live music online, and allowed the town some good news as the brains behind the much-heralded Greystones Film Campus got us all excited and delighted, and the fact that our annual Holyhead Santa had made the Queen’s Honours List. Noice!

Dermod & Helen… Pic: Gerard Caffrey

The Green Greystones gang were seeing red when the Three Trout River suddenly turned green, local fitness coach Tiernan Dillon spoke to us about how men can find the happy in healthy, the quietly brilliant man Dermod Dwyer handed in his Convention Centre Dublin badge, photographer Louis Duffy Barrett captured our 24 hours of winter wonderland, Lassie finally came home when cocker spaniel Ruby was reunited with her ecstatic owners after seven months, Greystones Éire Óg introduced a complete smoking ban at their club grounds, and St Patrick’s National School were given thanks and praise by Dublin Christian Mission for all their December shoebox appeal. 

Off to work Dinesh goes

On January 13th, 11-year-old Tia Ann Jain published her first book, The Tales Of Joy, having already won 2019’s Bee Route Short Story competition, Mr Lang and the gang at Saint Joseph’s Shankill got their vaccine shots early, Ross Thompson jumped on board the GG Love Train with his Kambukka range of bottles and travel mugs, 84-year-old Danny Hatton got his Lifetime Achievement Award from Wicklow GAA,  local photographer Eamon Flynn unearthed another batch of old Greystones beauties, and Chakra’s Chef Dinesh gave us his day in the life diary, the Meridian Point mecca later revealing a whole new look and layout.

Rosemary with Joan Jones

On January 19th, we pulled together all of local historian Rosemary Raughter’s fascinating tales and insights into our blast of a past, Temple Carrig secured itself a new autism class, San Francisco-born rabbit hole explorer Declan Doyle took a look at America’s changing of the old guards, as Trump finally gave way to Biden, a loving son said goodbye to Anna O’Faherty on January 20th, The Wicklow Way was voted Ireland’s Trail Of The Year, Cllr Mags Crean called for eco-lighting along our seafront, Greystones Tidy Towns wins a bucketful of awards at this year’s WCC shindig, we said goodbye to Rathdown Park’s mighty Joe Clifford, a concerned courier wrote to the Guide expressing his concerns about our free-range kids, German blow-in Sylvia Payne set out to bring together other foreigners who had made Greystones their home for her fish-in-other-water blog, and Laura Wood and her kids serenaded her father as he looked out of his hospital window for some viral feelgood in these lockdown days.

Cannon gets ready to fly

Going full Method, Greystones actor Gerry Cannon revealed a year of living precariously for those in the film industry, 11.5 acres of Charlesland was bought by the Dept of Education from the all-conquering Cairn Homes for the long-awaited Greystones Community College, Belmont Demesne proved that it’s a winter wonderland for those who need to get away from it all, those lovely Cairn Homes people set their sights on 607 new houses behind Temple Carrig School, we had a chat with Barry Haragdon as his Eleven Deli celebrated its third year here in Greystones. 

On January 27th, Katie Taylor was crowned Ireland’s favourite athlete in a new nationwide poll, we said goodbye to Robert Shanks and to Jimmy Caulfield as the month came to an end, Colin Doyle introduced us to the joy of turning old Greystones black & white photos into living colour, Spendlove’s added a new string to its bow with some office space for rent, over 100 vacant Wicklow abodes were restored at just over €11,000 per social house, the Kilcoole breaches were breached yet again, and historian Gary Paine closed the month with the formation of Greystones’ Coast Guards on February 1st 1821.

Bernie & Ben

February 2021

The month started with The Good Life Artisan Farmers’ Market relocating to Fishers of Newtown, the boys & girls in blue decided to take on the Jerusalema challenge as a tonic for the troops, the publication of a six-year coastal erosion study let us know just how much the cookie was crumbling, Sea Scout Alex Conway sold the golden ticket for a young married couple’s honeymoon in Vegas in a package worth €6,500, Bernie D’Arcy got to truly hold on to her man when the deportation order for her Sierra Leone-born Ben Akhile was overturned, and we swung by the swanky new Jigsaw HQ in Bray to talk to Adam Burke, Nicola Lawless and manager Nicky Russell about addressing the rise in mental health issues in our younger generation.

Brendan and some nun

Fifth year Temple Carrig student and budding film god Sophie Clarke delivered nine minutes of feelgood with her documentary on Listowel’s local hero Brendan O’Sullivan, Laragh’s family outfit Adventures.ie invited us to go explore the world, an ambitious masterplan for Glendalough and The Wicklow Mountains was put on the WCC table, a new Bill was proposed that would see councillors unable to vote on the sale of public land to the Land Development Agency, Transgender Wicklow released an LGBT, Traveller & Roma calendar for 2021, those hardy early morning Greystones swimmers took on the Jerusalema challenge, it was Neesha’s lucky day when the labrador missing for two weeks in The Wicklow Mountains was spotted by two hikers on Lugnaquilla, a Greystones butchers’ home operation got on the wrong side of the Food Safety Authority, and Thai street dog Sherman made Greystones his home as his pets paid a visit to their parents.

Local videographer Jamie Hackett captured the town’s latest wave, the morning surf, GG unleashed two 80min mixes for the lovelorn as Valentine’s Day approached, Andrew Maher and the Posh Wash crew added some Nordic air to their arsenal in their fight to kick Covid’s ass, Whitmore highlighted our ever-growing secondary school waiting list, Asian restaurant Fulinm moved across the road to be part of the Buoy’s Kitchen family, and become a takeaway in the process, Newcastle’s Martin Gibson-O’Gara got the Little Blue Heroes treatment from the boy and girls in blue, and pandemic hit even The Happy Pear, as they cut 39% of their workforce and downsized a few of their supersize plans.

We should hopefully have February all tied up in a bow by Tuesday, with the rest of Greystones’ 2021 to follow. Step by painstaking step.

In the meantime, you can also jump back through 2020 here.