Squires, Arise!
You know you are teaching in a good school when your biggest problem, when on lunch duty patrol, is breaking up illicit chess games in restricted areas of the campus. We once caught a younger Wang and Waldron trading pieces perched on the water tank in the attic…which might relate to our recent water issues but definitely explains our persistent excellence at chess! Fifth Year Yubo Wang (going 4-0!) shook off a nagging training ground injury to lead the St. Conleth’s chess teams in a remarkable performance at the St. Andrew’s Chess Tournament, with his team (Zach Waldron (3-1!), Joe Kelleher (2-2), James Power) finishing 7th in a field of 103. And the future is also promising! Our School Fitness Trainer, Jack Grant, has brought in a specialised ‘Chess Regimen’ (lots of ‘grip strengthening’) and it is already paying dividends in the field, as our First and Second Year teams punched (and checked) above their weight. Well done to Second Years Yanbo Yu, Hugo Harrington, Aneesh Garg and Matthew Conellan. And our First Year Team of Parson Yu, Rohan Flynn and The Dynamic Davitt Duo of Martin and Michael sent tremors across the Leinster Chess landscape and a clear message: St. Conleth’s Chess dominion is not en passant!
Mr. Maguire, I presume?
Dr. Livingstone is long gone, and now there is a kindler, gentler explorer trekking the varied landscapes of Africa: our very own Mr. Gav Maguire! And gone too is the weighty baggage of messianic zeal and cultural imperialism: Mr. Maguire’s expeditions (with the considerable help of True Adventures) are an exquisitely crafted mix of adventure and development, mutually beneficial to both student traveler and the local resident. After a mere a-hop-and-a-skip to Slovenia in summer of 2022, the focus was back on Africa. Uganda awaits 2024, but we have plenty of pics and stories from Gav’s Gang Expedition to Morocco this past summer! Preparations for the school’s fourteenth expedition were underway months ago, with trainining hikes, equipment checks and donut-packing. Climbing Mount Toubkal (4167m) would be no joke! The group’s first morning in Morocco was misleadingly plush: coffee and croissants by the pool. But by the following day, the gang were into the rugged terrain and, after an altitude acclimatisation trek, starting their community project in the Atlas Mountains. After lending a hand and mixing with the locals, the expedition took a step further and upward: the serious trekking began! Some hard hiking, beautiful views and delicius al fresco meals followed, as the troop eventually made it to base camp and began their assault on Mount Toubkal.
Do you remember what you did on the morning of this past June 15th? Cut the grass? Strolled down to the cornershop for the morning paper? Check out Gav’s Gang’s a.m. schedule for that day: the day started at 3am for breakfast; commenced the trek at 3.45 a.m.; reached the peak of Toubkal (4167m) at 9.30 a.m.; and strolled back down to base camp at 12.30 p.m.! Then there was the more casual saunter back to the coast, a farewell meeting with the muleteers and a last meal and sunset on the Mediterranean. Team Uganda, you have some work to do to match the memorable meanderings of Team Morocco!
Junior Stars!
In St. Conleth’s Junior School we value teamwork and camaraderie above all, but that does not mean we do not acknowledge or reward individual effort and excellence… especially if it is as part of a power pop performance! So, let’s wrap up our end-of-term Junior School Award Winners. First up, our Irish Board Speech and Drama Exam medalists: Pat Howe and his professional cohorts have been running these for years at St. Conleth’s, a fitting complement to his weekly classes with all the Juniors. Below you see our medallists, but if you have ever had the pleasure of trying to mind a class at St. Conleth’s, you know well that every single student has been encouraged to speak their mind… if not break out into song and dance! We also see our very talented Junior School pupil, Andrew O’Brien, was featured in a new RTE show, Face the Music, over the summer.
The St. Conleth’s Junior Chess Team also earned medals and applause, having once again been crowned AIJS Chess Champions. TY Yubo Wang had better watch out, as these youngsters may soon be challenging him for the Senior School trophy! And for those whose interests involve a bit more shimmy and shake than ‘en passant’, we had another roof-raising rendition of St. Conleth’s Got Talent. Due to future record deals, we could only sneak a couple of stills, but the winners were happy to show off their certs! But before we change our name to St. Conleth’s ‘Fame Academy’, we must consider that other type of artistic talent, which is flowing from our brushes and pencils and securing our rep as an ‘Art School’, too. More to come, but here are Ms. Mellon’s Art Competition 2023 winners. Our Awards Assembly also featured an inspiring talk from Harry Collins, who had just won the Thomas Stamp Tzvetkov (Global) Award for the student in Sixth Form who has best exemplified the inclusive ethos and values of St. Conleth’s. Q.E.D.!
Stars of Summer!
While the rest of us were catching rays or dodging raindrops this summer, some of our more students were a bit more active and ambitious: in fact, representing their country in sporting competition! Three of our incoming Fifth Years and one TY were flying the Irish flag as they took the field (or track). Our very own Greta Lawless (5th Yr.) was chosen by the Olympic Federation of Ireland to compete on her bicycle in the Summer European Youth Olympic Festival. The EYOF is the largest European multi-sport event for young athletes between the ages of 14 and 17. TY Diego O’Reilly & Róisín Ridge (5th Yr.) were selected to represent Ireland at the Atlantic Youth Cup! Diego’s U-18 boys won a Bronze Medal and Róisín’s U18 mixed team came 4th, narrowly beaten by France. Club and families and school are very proud of this huge achievement! And our very own Lucy McGoldrick (5th Yr.) took up the pads and stick, playing No. 1 goalkeeper for Ireland ‘s Women’s Hockey U16s in the Eight Nation european tournament. And we just managed to cut the grass once a week!
Student Academic Awards 2023
No Buzz Aldrins, here! Everyone likes to win but sometimes, especially in Ireland, we have a difficulty in recognising and applauding excellence. We prefer the hard-luck story, the near-misses, the lovable-lad-who-is-about-to-be-lapped… the Buzz Aldrin over the Neil Armstrong. Faced with greatness, we feel as awkward as that NASA official when he had to pick a winner in the astronaut competition in the famous ‘Homer in Space’ episode:
Gentlemen, you’ve both worked very hard. And in a way, you’re both winners. But in another more accurate way, Barney is the winner. Mmm. Congratulations, Barney.
Never mind how that turned out, but we at St. Conleth’s have proudly shed that postcolonial reticence for saluting success and present to you now the winners of our Academic Awards 2023!
First up, our Senior/Sixth Year/LC Awards, presented at the Graduation Ceremony: keenly competed for and accompanied by a hefty piece of metal, glass, wood or plaster. We also have an explanation of the awards. Notice that a few Fifth Years sneaked in and (deservedly) snatched some of the glory and that we have a new ‘Seamus Heaney Award for Creative Writing’.
Now, our ‘Students of the Year’, the single most prestigious award for ‘underclassmen’ based on a student’s overall contibution to the class and the school, including spirit and camaraderie.
And our other academic awards. Numbers refer to year, not place, so they all deserve equal applause!
A Fond Farewell
The beautifully decorated School Hall provided the perfect setting for the fitting finale to the Graduating Class of 2023’s time at St. Conleth’s. Mr. ODulaing and Ms. Hopkins presided over a poignant celebration which mixed prayers, music, words of wit and wisdom and a considerable amount of style. Some of the graduates have been at the school since Junior Infants while others have joined along the way, but all involved seemed full of bittersweet emotions at leaving a place which for them had very much become a second home. Mr. Gallagher’s opening liturgy once again reminded us all of the ethos which helps make St. Conleth’s such a welcoming place and the speeches and awards which followed both recalled the good times of the past and the promising deeds of the future. Of course, this being St. Conleth’s, where we are never at a loss for words, the musical challenge was more than met on the rhetorical front by Captain Caoimhe Moore, Vice Captains James Clancy and Timea Kovacs, Principal Donal ODulaing and PPU representative Ronan O’Kelly. All the speeches captured perfectly the nostalgic nature of the evening and James and Leo’s carefully composed slideshow provided the perfect backdrop for their musings. Of course, awards were also on the agenda and you can see all our winners and their prizes in a later article.
Music has long been at the heart of everything we do at St. Conleth’s, including our graduation ceremony. In both the religious ceremony and the awards and speeches event that followed, with maestros Ms. McGuinness and Mr. O’Neill pulling the strings, music was the perfect accompaniment for the prayers, thoughts and memories, from Tom’s delicate opening piano piece through Saoirse and Siobhan’s instrumental duet ‘La Fille aux Cheveux de lin’; Sam’s plaintive piano piece ‘Exit Music for a Film’; Charlotte and Saoirse’s piano and sax-powered ‘Cry me a River’; the Music Class’s ensemble ‘Viva La Vida’ (Alex, Charlotte, Oleg, Jennifer, Leo, Luke and Tanisha); an eye-opening and roof-raising rendition of ‘It’s Raining Men’ by Adelaide and Alex; and last, but certainly not least, two crowd favourites by the class’s resident rock stars, Finn and Ollie (backed by Thomas and Daniel) set everybody’s pants on fire. The evening and the music culminated in the rousing whole-class rendition of ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’. And then it was outside for the graduation class photo on the immortal steps of No. 28 Clyde Road and on to a classy dinner for students and teachers and surely some classier activities afterwards. For specifics of those nocturnal celebrations you must, carefully, check social media, but for pics and video of the ceremony look above and below!
Soccer Stars!
The clouds parted, the sun shone and the kids came out to play! The Junior School had their annual Football Tournament on Friday, where the new Messis and Ronaldos (and Katie McCabes!) were on show. Great weather, great football and some treats at the end! Well done to Head of Junior School Sport Louis Magee, all the other teachers involved, and, of course, the players, themselves. Now, get ready for Sportsday!
Serving the Net!
Junior School Head of Sport Louis Magee was not going to let the Seniors grab all the tennis headlines! And he is always eager to get his charges to stop ‘surfing the net’ and get outside in the sun and the breeze (and sometimes the rain)and have some good, old-fashioned sporting fun, so it was off to the Herbo again where he presided over the traditional, end-of-term Tennis Tournament in Herbert Park. Lots of competition (and fun) to finish out the year! We also see a couple of snaps from Louis wearing his other hat: Master of Mindfulness, leading the Juniors on a mindful walk and taking part in a class about our senses, focusing on what they could ‘See and Hear’.
Tennis Team Triumphant!
St. Conleth’s Boys are Division 3 Junior Tennis Champions! They beat Ard Scoil Ris 3-2 in a tense final. Captained by TY Joe Kelleher, this may be the start of a new golden age, last seen when Joe’s brother Lorcan (2008), Alex Hamilton (06) and the English brothers (06-07) dominated the Herbo nets. Mr. Lonergan has orchestrated this renaissance in our tennis fortunes but there was a familiar face present when it came to trophy time. After getting his picture with the cup, Jamie MacNicholas (2026) got a lift home from the tennis triumph with one Mr. Shay Keenan, the Leinster League organiser: the very Mr. Keenan who did the same for his dad David MacNicholas (1986). Some things never change!
The End of the Debate
We were a bit hasty when we declared ‘the end of the debate’ a few days back… we have one more ‘point of information’ regarding our No. 1 extracurricular activity! For Second Years Peter Murphy and Ciarán Doyle have returned from Cambridge University, after having finished so high in a National Irish Mace debate that they qualified for the ICYD (International Competition for Young Debaters) Finals, a very prestigious international ‘Mace’ debating competition held at one of end of the ‘Oxbridge’ or the other each year. They were chaperoned by our Lord of Debate Rory O’Sullivan, whose casual intellectualism (and tweedy sense of dress) seemed right at home amongst the ‘dreaming spires’… or is that the other place? Peter and Ciarán performed very well, winning one debate over competitors from around the world and finishing very respectfully, overall. We also see below two of our other fine debaters, Second Years Shane Carroll and Patrick Kennedy, who dazzled the house at a recent inter-school Mace. When it comes to debating talent, our cup is, indeed, overflowing!
We were a bit hasty when we declared ‘the end of the debate’ a few days back… we have one more ‘point of information’ regarding our No. 1 extracurricular activity! For Second Years Peter Murphy and Ciarán Doyle have returned from Cambridge University, after having finished so high in a National Irish Mace debate that they qualified for the ICYD (International Competition for Young Debaters) Finals, a very prestigious international ‘Mace’ debating competition held at one of end of the ‘Oxbridge’ or the other each year. They were chaperoned by our Lord of Debate Rory O’Sullivan, whose casual intellectualism (and tweedy sense of dress) seemed right at home amongst the ‘dreaming spires’… or is that the other place? Peter and Ciarán performed very well, winning one debate over competitors from around the world and finishing very respectfully, overall. We also see below two of our other fine debaters, Second Years Shane Carroll and Patrick Kennedy, who dazzled the house at a recent inter-school Mace. When it comes to debating talent, our cup is, indeed, overflowing!
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