www.stpatscavan.com Summer 2014

LLL AMA AMA AMA AwardsAwardsAwards

St. Pat’s wins two awards at recent ceremony

GGG ooch ooch ooch CooperCooperCooper

Gooch visits St. Pat’s and dispenses some words of advice

M acRory acRory acRory

Disappoint-ment at semi

final stage

BBB arcelona arcelona arcelona BoundBoundBound

TYs visit Cata-lonia

S tudent Awards

Excellence recognised

CCC ian McManusian McManusian McManus

Talks about his sporting achieve-

ments during his time in St. Pat’s.

PPP atsTechatsTechatsTech

TTThe first gradu-ates receive their certificates

G reen Flag

Achieved

It is hard to believe that another school year is almost over, our in-house ex-ams complete and third and sixth are beginning their state exams. We wish them every success. This magazine highlights some of the wonderful achieve-

ments of our students, both individually and collectively. We are particularly proud that the school has achieved its first Green Schools Flag this year. The Green Schools Committee has worked diligently over recent years and the enthusiasm of the Committee led by Ms Aine Martin has been rewarded. A ceremony to raise the flag will take place in September.

‘Creative Engagement’ was another student project that excelled. This combined the poetic and artistic talents of students and produced work that is visually stunning. The work will be exhibit-ed in the Johnston Library, Cavan during September. Mr Leon Lynch led the project supported by the English Department and two external facilitators, Noel Monahan and Jackie O’Neill. Well done to all involved!

In sport, St Pats reached (and lost) four semi-finals in Ulster Colleges football. This is testament to the level the school is now operating at and the great work of teachers who manage the teams with the support of the Co Board coaches. We are indebted to all. In basketball our second years were beaten in the All-Ireland final and u16’s in the All-Ireland semi-final. Handball continues to thrive under the expert coaching of Mr James Brady. Our u16 soccer team won the county soccer title and our athletes excelled at the Ulster Championships.

The highlight of the year was the TY musical/drama. ‘A Bitter Truth’ was written by Ms Gwen Brady and the music adapted by Mr Ciaran Tackney. It was universally acclaimed during its three night sold out run. The cast was drawn from TY in conjunction with the Royal School while the orchestra was drawn from all years. It was tremendous to watch the confidence of par-ticipating students, both theatrically and musically, grow before you.

Individually, Cian McManus was picked on the Ulster Colleges’ All-Star team and won an Ul-ster Colleges’ Handball title. This may not have made up for the loss in the MacRory cup semi-final. For good measure, Cian was awarded Student of the Year at the Sixth Year Graduation Night. I mention this to highlight the fact that participation in extra-curricular activities should not be seen as an impediment to academic achievement. In fact participation in sport, music, whatever, is an important part of learning to have a good work life balance, an important skill for life ahead. His achievements, along with many more students, remind us that it is possible to have it all. It goes to the heart of our mission statement which stresses achieving academic excel-lence and excellence in areas of creative arts, sport, social concern and spiritual values.

On academic matters 2014 was the year that St Pats embraced School Self Evaluation. As part of this the Board of Management ratified our first school improvement plan in the area of numera-cy. The three year plan will be available to all parents in the coming weeks. This end of the school year sees the retirement of Mr Eddie O’Sullivan. Mr O’Sullivan has been a great servant of St Patrick’s College, an expert teacher and dedicated to the success of his students. We wish him well.

Finally, this newsletter highlights the commitment of our teaching staff and the opportunities they provide to our students. The newsletter is edited and produced by Mr Declan Smith. To all our staff, our Parents Association and Board of Management I thank them sincerely for their work. It is our combined effort that makes the school successful.

Christopher Rowley

www.stpatscavan.com Summer 2014

ST. PATRICK’S COLLEGE

NEWSLETTER

Welcome

Caption describing picture or graphic.

Fr. Kevin details a busy year for all concerned

Page 3 SUMMER 2014

This school year was full of different events and activities for all students. The First and Sec-ond year retreats took place in May in the Pastoral Centre and were deemed a very worthy experience and were enjoyed by all. Thank you to the TY students who helped on these days. The annual Fifth year pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick was memorable. All the students enjoyed the climb and said they got a great sense of satisfaction from the day. Well done to all in-volved in the Trocaire Fast. It raised €1,100. The Bake Sale raised over €340 for Temple Street Children’s Hospital which is an excellent cause.

Our year ended with the Sixth year Graduation Mass. A lovely occasion for students, teachers and parents and we wish all our Sixth year students many blessings as they begin a new stage of their journey

Second Year students participating in Rith 2014 during Seactain Na Gaeilge

Fr. Kevin and Mr. Hackett present Jack Murphy with his prize following his victory in the Bake-Off

Mr. Gunn and Fr. Kevin with Cian McManus at the Ulster Colleges’ All Star Awards

Caption describing picture or graphic.

Neat Streets Award and Green Schools Flag for St. Pat’s

Page 4 SUMMER 2014

The Green Schools Committee had a busy year setting up the new plastic recycling system, planting trees, inviting in guest speakers, organising workshops and keeping the school litter free. Their hard work paid off as they were awarded the An Taisce Neat Streets Programme Award and achieved our first Green Schools Flag.

Three students, Adam Johnston, Colm Tracey and Christopher O Connell, were selected to go to Croke Park on the 8th May for the awards ceremony. There they made a presentation on the different activities the Green Schools Committee has completed in the school. They were then presented with their Neat Streets award and Green Schools Flag by Minister O’ Dowd. Congratulations to all the students on the committee on their achievements.

Engineers Week inspires creation in class

As part of Engineering Week, the 1st Year Metalwork students had a Balloon Powered Car Race. Each student had to build their own Balloon Powered Car at home using household ma-terials. These included cardboard boxes, food trays, tooth-picks, skewers, bottles, bottle caps, old cd’s etc. The Bench in the Metalwork room was set up as the race track and the time taken to cover the distance was recorded. The fastest time won the race. 1st place was won by Thomas Crowe, pictured right, and 2nd went to Conor Courtney. It was very suc-cessful with very creative Balloon Powered Cars made by each student.

Pictured above are members of the College Green School’s committee, Colm Tracey, Christopher O’Connell and Adam Johnston with Principal Mr Christopher Rowley and Co-Ordinator Ms Aine Martin receiving their Neat Streets award from Minister Fergus O’Dowd TD and Patricia Oliver, Director of An Taisce EEU.

German Debating Competition

Lorna McGovern,

Eunice Abe, Ms. Kenny,

Marco Gallo and

Ms B. Corcoran

German Debating Competition

St Patrick’s College were the proud recipients of two awards on February 1st from LAMA (The Local Authority Members Association) 2014 Community and Council Awards. These awards commends individuals, groups and private companies for their outstanding contribu-tions and projects that benefit local communities.

St Patrick’s College were represented on the night by Mr Christopher Rowley, Dr Liam McNiffe and Mr Leon Lynch. St Pat’s won their category “Best Educational Building”, a building which realises the managements and staff’s vision of a 21st century educational facility. Later on in the awards ceremony St Pat’s went on to win the Grand Prix category. This is a special commendation for outstanding excellence.

St. Pat’s receive Best Educational Building & Overall Awards

Page 5 SUMMER 2014

Creative Engagement – the Arts in Our Schools & the Windows

Poetry Competition

This term sixty of our students had the opportunity to engage with the expertise of renowned poet, Noel Monaghan and well-known graphic illustrator, Jackie O’Neill . As a result, stu-dents from first, second, fifth and sixth year participated in ten workshops and produced a body of poetry, selections of which were then chosen to be illustrated by other students from the same year groupings. The resulting work was framed and exhibited in the school library.

An exhibition is planned for the week of the 18th Sept in the Johnston Library, Cavan. This venture is supported by the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals. Grati-tude goes to Mr. Lynch in the Art Department who initiated the project and liaised with those in the English Department to see the project through to its fruition.

At the recent Windows Publications National Poetry Competition eight students from St Patrick’s College were among those awarded certificates and prizes on the day. They are Niall O’Connell, Paul Donohoe, Gavin Brady, Fionn Kiernan and Adam McEnroe from sec-ond year; Oisin Quinn and Conor Smith from TY and Stefan Boyle from 6th year. Well done to those students and their teachers.

Pictured at Best Educational Building Award are, Leon Lynch, Cllr. Irene Winters, Dr Liam McNiffe, Christopher Rowley and Cllr. Hugh McElvaney

Page 6 SUMMER 2014

Leaving Certificate student, Cian McManus reflects on his sporting achievements in St. Pat’s

Playing football for my school were without doubt the most enjoyable days of playing I’ve had so far but also the most heartbreaking. Com-ing into school I had only known one or two people in my year and it was quite daunting but I soon found out that by playing football it wasn’t as hard to make friends as it seemed. In first year we won the Dalton Cup for the first time ever. However in second year we lost the Corn na nOg final. A game we were sure we would have won but that was the start of a special bond that this team had.

In 3rd year we won the Brock Cup for the first time. It just brought us closer as a unit. In 5th year we won the Rannafast Cup, a game never to be forgotten as it showed the will we had to fight for each other and the “never say die” attitude coming back from when we appeared to be bet to winning in a comfortable margin. The anxiety showed with the celebratory scenes after and with the overwhelmed reaction of Fr. Kevin which will go down in history.

This year was a year of mixed emotions for me; the loss of the MacRory semi final, the injury I sustained to my rib and kidney but also being very fortunate to have been awarded a MacRory All-Star, an award which should have gone to Thomas Galligan for his outstanding performances in my opinion. This year was a total heartbreaker after losing out in the semi final. It was a remarkable achievement as the other team had an age advantage over us plus our long list of injuries. The fact that I’ll never get to play with these lads again is the hardest thing to take but every time I reflect on my memories of playing with St. Pat’s it will be with a smile on my face and a slight tear in my eye.

Sean T. Murphy describes the changes he discovered in First Year

The first few days of First Year were daunting. After going to the same class numerous times in the week I got to know my way around the school and I got to know the classrooms. The teachers didn’t give us much homework at the start of the year but as we got further into the year the homework started to pile up. Homework usually takes about an hour. Before test days, I would study for about half an hour. Another thing that is different to primary school is that we have Christmas and summer tests. There is a variety of subjects that were not available to us in primary school such as Technical Graphics, Metalwork, Woodwork, Business Studies and Science.

I was lucky enough to make the Corn na nOg Gaelic team. Aidan McCabe and Mr. Brady were the managers. The team trained twice in a week and when there was a game we trained once a week. Unfortunately we lost in the play offs for the semi-final. I also took part in the first year handball tournament, where I was beaten in the quarter final by Emmet Boylan who was beaten by Cian Boylan in the final. Once a week I would stay back after school with other first years to get handball coaching from Mr. Brady. I also took part in the school cross country team.

Overall, first year was a great year. I am very settled in the school. There are plenty of activities to get involved in. Hopefully second year will be as good as first year.

Second Year Metalwork Quad Buggy Project

We have a few updates to report after the first term, firstly we want to congratulate our new first years who were elected to repre-sent their classes, Kelly Gahan, Daniel Battson, Ian Laughlin. We also want to con-gratulate our new prin-cipal, Mr. Rowley and vice principal, Mr. Barry, on their new positions. The student council

specific classes, if you are interested in running for your class you can talk to Yvonne Hynes, Adaeze Onubogu, or Mrs. Bowe. Please keep watch of the student council notice board!!!

Yvonne Hynes

have been working hard this year to get up and running though we understand that we had a slow start. We are now confident that with new members running the council and the help of student’s opinions that we can improve and make more progress than ever before. We are currently organising class elections for

Evan Burke considers the adaptation from finishing Transition

Year to starting Fifth Year

Page 7 SUMMER 2014

Coming from Transition Year, Fifth Year seemed a daunting prospect. I’d heard all the stories about being swamped in essays and former Transition Year students struggling to study again. I suppose this antici-pation of the worst prepared me well as it wasn’t half as bad as I thought it would be. The reduction in the number of subjects, the over-lap between some I’ve chosen like Chemistry, Biology and Geography and the fact I like and have an interest in what I’m studying seems to make it an awful lot easier. A lot of the classes like Irish and Art are very exam focused so you know exactly what you have to know, and

do. Overall, Fifth year and the transition from Transition year haven’t been too bad for me but Sixth year will probably be a different story, entirely.

During the year I took part in the Creative Engagement Project. This involved students writing poetry and then creating illustrations for these poems. The illustration Workshops over five consecutive weeks with artist Jackie O’Neill were very informative and eye-opening. It showed us a new style of art, a loose style, using felt pens, inks and washes which give a very distinct look to your artwork.

The first week we were shown samples of her work and she told us what her work was all about. She also gave us a short demonstration on how she goes about her style of work. We were given the poems the following week, which had been written by other students which we were going to each illustrate. Over the following weeks, in and outside the workshops we each worked on our illustrations which will accompany each of the poems.

Sebastian Darriba contemplates the balancing of extra-curricular

activities and school work

I am a third year student facing my first set of State Exams in less than two weeks and at this point I am beginning to reflect on the last year and how I balanced my school work with sports as well as making time to relax and unwind. I’d be lying if I said it was easy or that I got it 100% right because this year has been incredibly challenging. At the start of the school year I was playing basketball for the third year team as well as the U16 Cavan Lakers team. In addition to this I was taking part in strength and conditioning training twice a week after school with the Brock team and once a week with the Cavan Gaels team. So, between basketball and football I had five training sessions a week and at least one basketball match a week. It was challenging!

All of my training sessions were after school or in the early evening which meant that once I did get home it was important to get my head down and get my homework done. If there was time left in the evening then I had to try and get some study done.

Overall I think that while this last year has been very challenging but I wouldn’t change it for the world because it has taught me very valuable lessons. My school work is very important to me and so too is sport. This year has taught me to manage time effectively so that I can do all the things that I want to do to a good standard. This year has also taught me that there is no easy fix to balancing school with a healthy lifestyle, it requires focus, determination and hard work. Above all this year has taught me the skills that I need for my senior cycle to continue playing sports to a high standard while maintaining good grades.

Page 8 SUMMER 2014

The second year Home Economics class, along with Ms Guinan, or-ganised The Great Irish Bake-off. Four teachers competed against five students for the prestigious title. Jack Murphy and his apple crumble & custard were chosen as the winner. In addition to the Bake-Off, a bake sale was organised to raise money for Temple Street Children’s Hospital. A total of €344-29 was raised.

The school’s drama ‘A Bitter Truth’ was a Transition Year produc-tion; however second years still had a huge contribution to it. Most second years that were involved were part of the musical department

– Trad Group, Jazz Band and choir. Second Years were also involved in many other musical productions such as the Christmas Carol Concert with the Cathedral Choir. The first year introductory mass and the Leaving Cert Graduation mass also featured music from the Sec-ond Years.

Once again, the second year basketball team had huge success. Under Ms Bowler, they went straight through to the regional semi-final winning every game. However, when they lost to Dunboyne in the semi-final, they got into a playoff with a team from Galway and won. They then went on to win the All-Ireland quarter final in Castlebar and then the Semi-finals in Limerick. Sadly, they didn’t win the All-Ireland but have achieved a huge amount in their second year.

Barry Conaty charts an action packed second year

TYs reach the finals of Young Environmentalist Awards

Five Transition Year Students from St. Patrick’s College, Oisin Quinn, Conor McCabe, Neil Hay-den, Shane Dolan and Killian McCahill participat-ed in this year’s ECO-Unesco’s Young Environ-mentalist Awards.

The students decided to focus on the issue of Traf-fic and wanted to persuade more students in St. Patrick’s College to consider walking or cycling to school instead of getting lifts in cars. They held their own ‘Walk To School’ day on 14th February and they held another walk to school day on Thursday, 15th May as part of the ‘National Walk to School Week’. The students presented their project to judges at the Ulster ECO-Dens in Lough Neagh on 11th March. The judges were very impressed and the project was selected for the Finals which were held on 20th May in the Mansion House in Dublin however St. Pat’s did not come home with an award. They have come away from this competition with an awareness of the actions they can undertake in the future to protect our environment.

Wheelchair Basketball in association with the Irish Wheelchair Association-Sport came to St. Pat’s on the 6th of February to help TY students become more aware of the various types of disabilities that exist today.

Page 9 SUMMER 2014

A most successful Transition Year ended with one of its biggest highlights – a four day trip to Barcelona. Arriving in Barcelona, students were met by a tour guide, visiting such places as the Olympic stadium and La Sacrada Familia. A stroll down Las Ramblas, the most well known pedestrian street in Barcelona allowed all students to soak in the Spanish atmos-phere. Students then retired to their hotel in Salou engaging in an evening of bowling.

Day two saw a trip to two places of worship – the hilltop village and retreat of Monserratt and an afternoon tour of the Nou-Camp. Day three was Port Aventura day! This is one of Europe’s newest and largest theme parks. The evening involved a stroll down the prome-nade of Jaume I and a viewing of the Magic Fountains.

The last day included visits to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya and L’Aquarium De Barcelona. Shopping time in the afternoon brought the trip to a close and it was back to the airport for the return flight home.

PatsTech has had two groups successful-ly complete the IT course since its incep-tion in December. There were two cours-es available for participants; basic and advanced. Nine people completed the basic course and 13 people completed the advanced course in the first cohort which began in January while twelve people completed the basic course and fifteen completed the advanced course in the second cohort which began in March. Participants learned about social networking as well as important consumer issues such as Online Banking. The final group graduated on May 19th. The graduation proved to be a very enjoyable for evening for all concerned as the participants received their certificates.

PatsTech has its first Graduates

Barcelona Bound for the TY Trip

The atmosphere was electric as one walked into the college hall on the lead up to the Easter holidays for the pro-duction of ‘A Bitter Truth’. This origi-nal musical drama; written, produced and directed by Ms. Gwen Brady with music arranged by Mr Ciaran Tackney was sensational with a full house each night. A drama centred around themes of manipulation, match-making, mis-communication, true love and heart-break in the countryside of Cavan a

few decades ago was brought to life by a Transition Year cast of St Pat’s students in conjunc-tion with the Royal School, Cavan. A Bitter Truth provided a celebration of Irish culture and has ultimately become one of the most successful student-run drama productions to be staged in St Pat’s.

Another Huge Success with Drama

Page 10 SUMMER 2014

St Patrick’s College offers scholarships of €200 each to first year students who excel in School GAA throughout the school year. The five scholarships are sponsored by Prunty Pitches to help students with their academic costs. These sponsorship will also be offered to incoming first year students.

Pictured receiving their St Patrick’s College GAA First Year Scholarships from left-right: Luke Tierney, Kyle Tyler, Mark Sexton, Shane Cosgrove and Gavin Brady with staff members who coach teams.

Sport

The Pauraic Kiernan Memorial Cup, which had 60 en-tries, culminated in one of the best finals in recent years as Cian Boylan (pictured right) faced Emmet Boylan (pictured left). Cian, the eventual winner, struggled in game one as Emmet got off to a flying start until Cian began to reassert himself in the game. At 20-18 in Em-met’s favour, Cian went on a miraculous three point run to take game one. Game two was neck and neck until Cian once again found some extra grit to take game two and the Cup.

Oisin Connolly, Oisin Finnegan, Emmet Boylan and Cian Boylan teamed up for the Ulster One Wall Championship and reached the final before being de-feated by St. Macartans.

Cian Boylan wins Cup and the First Years reach Ulster Final

Colm “Gooch” Cooper visits St. Pat’s

The Gooch visited St. Pat’s on a wet and windy day in late January along with AIB and of-fered some words of advice to the football teams and coaching staff. He even got involved in MacRory training, gave autographs and stood in photos for all his fans.

GAA Scholarships for First Years

Page 11 SUMMER 2014

Brock Cup

St. Pat’s reached the Semi Final of the Brock Cup and were beaten by a strong Omagh side. Following victories over St. Mary’s of Magherafelt and St. Pat’s of Maghera, St. Pat’s found themselves in the quarter final facing Dungannon. St. Pat’s were dominant from the start. They picked up where they left off in the first half and were convincing 10 point winners to send them into the Brock Semi Final. Paul Smith, Ryan O Neill, Paddy O Reilly and Steven McDonald were outstanding and kept driving St. Pat’s onwards.

Next up was Omagh CBS which was played in Emyvale. Omagh were winners in the Corn Na Nog the previous year and runners up in the Dalton Cup so they came with lots of strong, experienced players. St. Pat’s held them to 4 points for the first half with only a point in it at the break but Omagh powered on in the second half and ran out convincing winners to book a place in the final against St. Macartan’s of Monaghan.

Overall it was a good year for this group of players who have made great strides in getting out of a tough group. The lads have put in a huge effort since the start of October and great appre-ciation must be given to their commitment and dedication.

The Dalton football team had a very productive year reaching the Ulster Semi Final. They started the year off slowing losing to Maghera and Colman’s, however once they got used to the pace and aggression of colleges’ football they found their form beating Dungannon 3-13 to 4-8 and St. Pat’s Armagh by 25 points on a score line of 6-12 to 0-5 .

St. Pat’s went on to beat Abbey CBS 7-10 to 5-10 in the Quarter final thanks to a man of the match performance from Shane Cosgrove who finished the day with a personal tally of 3-4. On a wet and dreary day the St. Pat’s lads found it difficult to match St. Colman’s in the Semi

Final and bowed out of the competition. How-ever with the addition of next year’s best first years this panel will be expecting to go one step further and hopefully reach a Corn na og Fi-nal.

Dalton Cup

Page 12 SUMMER 2014

St. Pat’s retained the U-16 Cavan-Monaghan League title with a hard-fought victory over Virgin-ia College on Monday 12th May. With both teams scoreless at half-time, St. Pat’s continued to domi-nate possession in the second half. Patrick Brady and Keenan Donohue in midfield were doing their best to create opportunities while at the other end Danny Cullivan in the St. Pat’s goal had to be at his very best to turn a long range Virginia effort head-ing for the top corner, around the post. St. Pat’s broke the deadlock with 15 minutes to go when Da-vid O’Reilly crossed from the right wing for Luke Fortune to head the winner.

U-16 Soccer team retain League title

MacRory come within a shade of the Final

A 0-9 to 1-4 defeat at the semi final stages to St. Pats Maghera, the eventual winners of the MacRory Cup, has given the school’s senior players a perfect platform to build on for next season’s MacRory campaign. A gritty and determined performance pulled St. Pats through a tense quarter final against St. Michaels Enniskillen in Clones by a margin of three points.The semi-final defeat in the Athletic Grounds, Armagh was a huge disappointment for the players, management and supporters involved, but the experience gained from this campaign can only be beneficial going forward.

17 medals won at Ulster Track and Field Championships in An-trim

A number of students won Gold including Andrew Creamer in the 110m Hurdles, Roland Surlis in the 800m and 1500m, Paul Sexton in the 200m, Ciaran Schutten in the Javlin, John Nulty in the Long-jump, Peter Watson in the 400m and Oisin Mc Cory in the 80m Hurdles with a number of other students picking up silver and bronze.

Page 13 SUMMER 2014

Basketball

The U-16 team had a very successful season winning the Regional final and qualifying for the All-Ireland Semi Final in University Limerick. Despite a good game and a strong effort from the squad they lost the match to Colaiste Skellig of Kerry. The school is very proud of the hard work put in by everyone on the team to reach the finals. A big thank you to Ms. Martin, George Dugdale and all the parents for their commitment and support of the team.

Once again, the second year basketball team had a great season. Coached by Ms Bowler, they reached the regional semi-final winning every game. Despite losing to Dunboyne in the semi-final, they got into a playoff and won. They then went on to win the All-Ireland quarter final in Castlebar and then the Semi-finals in Limerick. Sadly, Colaiste Chiarain Leixlip defeated St. Pat’s in the final however the team have achieved a huge amount in their second year.

Second Year Team reach All Ireland Final

Third Year team reach the All Ireland Semi finals

Summer 2014 Page 14

Student Awards are close run affair

Seachtain na Gaelige gets everyone talking

History Week provokes investigation into past

A number of events where held including a Poster Competition for First and Second years. First years took part in a quiz “as Gaeilge” and second years played bingo “as Gaeilge”. A large group of students took part in Rith 2014. Weekly prizes were also given to the student who made the best effort to speak Irish in each class in each year.

First Year winners were Eoin Lavin, Micheal Leddy, Gavin Brady, Cormac Donohoe, Sean T. Murphy, Mário Zahorjan, Nithesh Santhosh and Riccardo Vennettili. Second Year winners were Oisin McBreen, Adam O’ Hanlon, Daniel Watson, Paul Donohoe, Adam McEnroe, Dara McManus, Kieran Grimes and Dylan McClorey. Fifth Year winners were Evan Burke, Cathal Tierney, Matthew McKenna, Peter Watson, Caolan Kelly, Brian Lake, Daniel Hackektt and Pierce Smith. Sixth Year winners were Cian McManus, Philip Bogue, Blaine O Callaghan, Dean Farrelly and Eoin Sexton who are pictured below along with Mr. Rowley and Mr. Smyth.

European Youth Parliament attended by Fifth Years

Today the EYP is one of the largest European platforms for political debate, intercultural en-counters, political educational work and the exchange of ideas among young people in Europe. Aaron Van Haster, Tomás McPhillips and Ciaran Schutten went to the latest EYP event in Portlaoise from the 13th to 15th of March. Both Aaron and Tomás were representatives for Ul-ster and Connaught and on the committees for Agriculture and Development, Ciaran was the journalist for the committee on Employment. Well done to all involved in such a great initiative.

Parents’ Association Draw

The Parents’ Association have been very active. The Monster Book Drive proved to be a great success and raised much needed funds. As well as this the Summer Draw was organised and the winners were Gavin Brady, Killydoon, Kaitlin Dunne, Cavan and Colin Carragher, Redhills.

The History Department decided to hold its first earlier this year. Transition Year were given the task of putting together this enjoyable and educational event. A poster competition was de-vised to promote the event. The winning entry was beautifully designed by Angelo Eluvathingal and his work became the official History week poster.

The junior classes took part in a History quiz throughout the week and the winners were Shane McVeety, Johnathon McPhillips, Dermot Langtry and Shane Maguire. The History Department is very grateful to the Parents’ Association for sponsoring the prizes for this event. In addition to this a museum was set up and students brought in items of historical relevance.