Lots of hot chocolate, popcorn and coffee at outdoor ‘Monster’ movie

OVER 200 people attended an outdoor family movie night at St Cuthbert’s Park in Clondalkin last Friday night.

There would have been more attendees, but the event was organised in less than a week, after funding was secured from South Dublin County Council.

Nevertheless, Noreen Byrne, from the South West Clondalkin Community Safety Forum, who organised the event, said it was a great night, as residents enjoyed a viewing of Monsters Inc.

“To get 200 at short notice was great. People arrived with their blankets and popcorn; there was a coffee truck and he sold a lot of hot chocolate,” said Noreen.

“Our first application for funding was turned down, but our second application was accepted last Monday. We only got the posters on Monday so there wasn’t time to put them up in the community, we just had to rely on social media.

“The original plan was to meet with every house in the area beforehand, but you would need two to three weeks for that.”

The family-friendly event was free and strictly no alcohol, with gardai, youth services and resident volunteers on hand to ensure it went off without any incidents.

An outdoor movie at the Bawnogue amenity first took place in 2019, organised by volunteers from Friends of St Cuthbert’s.

Ms Byrne said it was important that the community was “entitled to a night of fun.”

“There were outdoor movies on during the summer in places like Leopardstown, but they would be run by a private company and charge an entry fee. To be able to say to the community here ‘you deserve this’ is something that comes back to you. Maybe not immediately but it comes back.

“I think SDCC should buy one of those big screens and groups can apply to use it throughout the year. We left the screens on at the end to help clean up, there was a football match the next day.

“We asked people twice to take their rubbish with them, and got 90 per cent compliance. It was a really good night.”