Sandymount and Merrion Residents Association (Samra) held a family fun day on the afternoon of Sunday 28th June at Sandymount Green. It was organised by Samra Chairperson Joan MacArthur in conjunction with the Community Garda and Dublin City Council.

The Council provided traditional music for the event in the shape of a group of players from Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Éireann from Booterstown.

Butler’s Pantry, who have a shop on Sandymount Green, gave out free cakes, cookies and lemonade. They also organised a teddy bear’s picnic for the under-fives. The idea was that each child would enter a name for a giant teddy bear and the winning entry pulled out of a hat would receive a box of goodies delivered to them on their birthday.

Face-painting kicked off proceedings with Pixie and Trixie (not their real names!) doing ever so brightly coloured faces that pleased their customers hugely.

Then there was the magic and juggling by Jack Flash (again not his real name) who entertained both adults and children.

The races for the children (some twenty-six in all) were organised by local resident Ulla Callaghan, with as many medals as possible going to the contestants. The raffle was sponsored by various businesses and a range of prizes were on offer. These included tickets from Irish Ferries, Stena Sea Lines, a Sportsco summer camp voucher with more vouchers from the Art and Hobby shop, Mario’s restaurant, Cafe Java, Browne’s Brasserie, Borza’s fish and chip shop, Aura, Butler’s Pantry, Jazz Hair studio as well as an assortment of individual prizes.

Butler’s Pantry handed out a recipe for the lemonade they were dispensing on the day and for the fine weather it certainly was a perfect thirst-quencher.

It goes as follows: Heat a cup of water and a cup of sugar till the sugar is completely dissolved. Use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice. Put the juice and the sugar syrup together in a pitcher and add 3 to 4 cups of cold water depending on the strength required. Put it in the fridge for 30 to 40 minutes and add lemon juice if the mixture is too sweet for you. Serve over ice with a slice of lemon or lime, serves six. For pink lemonade add a cup of cranberry juice.

Great credit is due to Joan MacArthur for having run the event for a number of years on behalf of Samra. It is great to see the kids enjoying themselves so much and must be a great outlet for parents too.

Above: The ever-entertaining sack race, while, on right, juggler Jack Flash ‘feeds’ a hungry youngster.