The past twelve months have seen Cambridge Boys make great progress on and off the pitch. Their year got off to a great start when they officially opened their new club house at the top of Ringsend Park. Irish boss Mick McCarthy was on hand that day to perform the opening ceremony.

On the playing field the club now have five teams on the go starting at under eight up to under thirteen. The under eight side is managed by Anthony Boland while Gavin Boylan is looking after the under nines. Lar Dunne is the boss of the under tens and John Behan holds the reins at the under eleven team. Finally the thirteens are under the guidance of Noel Mantle. Noel’s side recorded a massive victory over Pearse Rangers in a local derby by a goal to nil.

Due to the fact that there are no under fourteen or fifteen sides this season David Cassidy and Andy Doolan have moved on to Home Farm. All at the club would like to wish them the very best.
There is still great difficulty in securing new managers and coaches to look after the players. Not many people give up their free time so easily and that is why people like Patrick Reynolds, who helps out with the under eights and under thirteens, are so valuable to the club.

Lest we forget the Mini World Cup during the summer which was again a great success for both the kids and the club. One of the main reasons that Cambridge Boys continue to flourish is through their dedicated fundraisers who get out and sell tickets every week. The club would like to thank their hardworking them all for their help during the past year.

Special thanks also for the huge amount of help from sponsors such as Scuba Dive, P.J. O’Dwyer Auctioneers, Paddy Quinlan of Air Flow, Bob Pryor in the Yacht, Iannellis Chipper and Master Mariner.

Finally all at the club would like to wish everybody who has helped them over the past year a very Merry Christmas and Peaceful New Year.

Jim Cooke, local historian and teacher in Ringsend Technical school has recently written a book on Charles Dickens, simply titled, ‘Charles Dickens’s Ireland’.

While we all have a picture of Dickens as a chronicler of the English way of life, he also wrote extensively on Ireland, and Dublin in particular. He visited Ireland on three occasions, on reading tours in 1858, 1867 and 1869, the year before he died.

Dickens kept weekly journals which were interspersed with Irish articles, which gave a rare insight into the Ireland of that era. His descriptions of Dublin make interesting and entertaining reading.

In one piece he remarks on the comparative scarcity of “spirit shops” and the loquacity of jarveys – the equivalent of our modern taxi men, who have “something to say about everything”.

It is the humanity of Dickens’s writings that make him an appropriate cause for a book in today’s climate of material abundance. His irrepressible imagination has universal appeal and his vision of ordinary decent values will strike a chord with readers.

The book is published by the Woodfield Press in Association with R.T.E. Commercial Enterprises. It is available at all good book shops at £12.50. A must for the Christmas present list.