Following an appeal by Lions Ireland to help people in Cork who suffered due to flooding caused by Storm Babet, Newcastle Lions president Liz Murphy has presented a cheque for £500 to Marion McGreevy Vice District Governor Lions Club Ireland to pass to the Lions in County Cork.Â
Newcastle and Ballynahinch Lions clubs combined again this year to sponsor a superb peace poster competition in  5 local post primary schools.
The judges Robin McCaren Newcastle Lions and Alison Heron Head of Art at Belfast High School had a busy time looking at the creative talents of over 100 entries.
This was a fantastic response once again from our local schools.
The winning entry was submitted by Assumption Grammar  school pupil Saranya Nagineni who had a beautiful reflective and appropriate quote for us all submitted with the poster.
" Your dreams of today can be reality tomorrow if we work together"
Saranya ‘s poster was forwarded to the all Ireland competition where it achieved first place and it has now been selected as Irelands entry to the International Peace Poster Contest. It was posted to the USA on 1st December 2023 and the local Lions wish Saranya every good luck in this very prestigious competition.
This is great news for Saranya, her parents, her teacher , and the school.
The clubs visited the schools and pupils who had submitted entries and presented certificates and prizes at assemblies. They were also able to talk about Lions work at local, District and international level.
The Winning Poster by Saranya Nagineni
Photo  Left to R Mr T Barry Art Teacher John Murphy Ballynahinch Lions, Marian McGreevy  Vice District Governor winner Assumption Grammar student Saranya Nagineni, Francis Casement Ballynahinch Lions Jeanine Knight Newcastle Lions Vice President and  Mrs Deirdre Keary Head of Art and Design AssumptionÂ
At a recent meeting of Newcastle Lions the President Liz Murphy thanked the Maghera Inn and Irelands Electric for maintaining the defibrillators at their premises. The Lions maintain 8 other defibrillators in the Newcastle and Castlewellan area. During the evening Stephanie Leckey from the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service thanked the Lions for looking after the defibrillators meticulously and then showed a training video on how to use a defibrillator and afterwards answered questions from the members. She emphasised the need to begin doing CPR if there is not normally breathing detected of two breathes in 10 seconds and then if assistance is present, ring 999 and they will give details of the nearest defibrillator and begin to use. Anyone can use it as there are full instructions as soon as it is opened. The machine will advise if shocking is required. Occasionally this might not occur if it is not needed. The only requirement is that the skin is dry and free from hair so that the pads can adhere properly. The enclosed kit assists with this. She outlined how successful the combined use of CPR and use of a defibrillator can be in saving life. The video is available for all to watch so please go to Newcastle Lions Facebook site, Newcastle County Down Lions.
During a recent visit by a few Lions when they learnt of the activities of the RNLI Lion Terry O'Reilly presented a cheque for £200 to Shane Rice. This will be followed up by a presentation by members of the local RNLI at the members meeting on 12th December 2023
Photo from L to R Shane Rice RNLI, Thomas Ireland, Newcastle Lions President Liz Murphy, Oran Flannagan, Stephanie Leckey, Simon Fell both NIA
