Well, yes, if our TYs are in the house! Fiona from Hospitality Skills came in to our TYs last Thursday and taught the students how to set a table, take an order, carry plates, absorb customer feedback and extort larger tips… just to name a few useful and potentially lucrative skills they picked up!

Yes, the desperate furtive glances and frenzied pocket patting usually results in a reassuring but slightly sickening feeling of comfort, as your hand closes again on your personal, pixellated portal to hell… ouch, a bit harsh, you say? Well, you should have seen the Transition Years when they were freed from their phones for the duration of their trip to Carlingford Adventure Centre. Yes, initially, there were the usual signs of withdrawal: sweaty palms. pale faces and awkward silences… but the last was quickly broken by Ms. Speller barking out some marching orders. And soon the boys and girls got into the spirit of the occasion and conversation, laughter and fun soon ensued, all somehow accomplished without the endless, pointless referencing to the World Wide Web under glass. Everyone was having a old-fashioned, good time enjoying the banter and watching Fionan and James Power rolling around on the floor of the bus.

And then they actually arrived in Carlingford! The medieval town opened up like a toy chest and the TYs experienced two thrilling days of pier-jumping, kayaking, rock-climbing, laser-shooting, axe-throwing and line-zipping. TY Head Honchos Gav Maguire and Mr. Morris did indeed bring the TYs back from their Carlingford Adventure Centre experience utterly exhausted but also deliriously happy! As they somnambulated off the bus on Friday afternoon, their sun, wind and salt-burned faces were contorted in a look that could only be interpreted as joy, though there was a bit of relief mixed in. After all, they once again had access to their phones.

We have a long tradition at St. Conleth’s of welcoming students from all over the world and immersing them into the St. Conleth’s experience for an academic year, a term or even just a few weeks. Inevitably, these students leave having enjoyed a formative experience, and leave St. Conleth’s, enriched by their stay. So it was with our three delightful guests during the first term of the year as Marie from France in TY and Emilio and Maria from Mexico and in Fifth Year all settled in quickly, picked up a good bit of Irish culture and perfected their English, despite the Covid situation. Below you see them after being presented with their farewell gifts of St. Conleth’s scarves, by Ms. Crowley, the International Students Moderator. We wish them well and look forward to the arrival of the next contingent of road scholars. Welcome Camille, Flavia and Toi!

Is there anything more beautiful than a tidy little profit, fairly worked for and won? Well Gav Maguire and his TYs don’t think so, and their recent Mini-Company Christmas Fair led to happy customers, reasonable profits… and Karl Marx rolling in his spare, unadorned lonely grave. Home-made Christmas crafts and baked goods were once again on the bill of sale, but the real star product was the hot chocolate: rumours abound about the identity of its ‘special’ ingredient, but we don’t really care what it is… just pour us some more!

Yes, over the last twenty months or so, we have all been ‘climbing the walls’ at some point or another, in our Covid-compliant, semi-cocooned claustrophobia. And we are still struggling with viral vestiges… witnessing worrying signs of the return to the return to our kitchens, home offices and garden sheds. But for now, at least, Co-Ordinator Gav Maguire is giving his beloved charges the best possible Transition Year, despite the circumstances. He has steadfastly kept up the Thursday Outing tradition, somehow finding venues and activities that were still open and willing to take on the excess energy of fifty adolescent adventurers. Safeguarding them on all these jaunts across Dublin are Gav’s faithful lieutenants: Ms. Halpin and Mr. Ingle, who clearly have the best jobs at St. Conleth’s. Last week, on the agenda was an exciting visit to The Wall, where the boys and girls enjoyed climbing the wall… literally!

Unfortunately, nearly all the Senior School students and staff thought they were ‘too cool to be ghoul’ for Halloween and did not dress up in costume for the last day before midterm. Thank goodness for Ms. Halpin then, who brought in her dinosaur costume, and who found an unnamed, border-accented staff member to show off his dancing moves in the entrance corridor.

True, Gav Maguire was also dressed up: as an Leinster/Conleth’s/Wanderers rugby player, presumably retired. But he wears that costume every day. Gav’s TY charges did bring a lot of life and energy to the day by inaugurating The Transition Year Halloween Bake Sale and it was a smashing success, with Dougie and Co.’s pellet pizza oven the highlight but plenty of other teams of TYs serving up delicious delicacies and earning some honest profit.

We must thank Emilio for the photos above. Regarding those below, we are not so sure. We think it has something to do with Michael Sweeney, who garnered much attention (and camera film) while on the TY Carlingford trip. See, Emilio and Michael go way back, with their friendship dating from their time spent as hoplite warrior buddies in the Spartan phalanx, and they have been best friends- and rivals, since. We feel the Emilio-Cam was thus motivated, but to be honest, he did get some great shots of various school personalities. And all have subsequently tested negative.

We may have not worn costumes, but the Student Officers continued a long-standing tradition of raising hundreds of euros for the charity GOAL through a jersey day, moving it up from the spring, because, well, we need to start doing fun stuff again! School Captain Rory Clarke and his loyal deputies, Hannah and Evan, organised it all and even got their hands dirty, collecting the filthy lucre themselves. Oh… did we say ‘loyal deputies’?

Many years, in fact, decades ago, when Transition Year Elder Gavin Maguire was a young lad, of about 17 or 18 years old, he was absolutely obsessed with the US military. Every Saturday, and all summer long, would be spent dressed up in American army fatigues and toting a toy M16, and young Corporal Maguire would scour his Blackrock cul-de-sac doing recon for his superior officers, who were safely ensconced back on the base in young Gav’s imagination. But people move on and grow up, and with Gav’s politics having slidden to the left: he now spends his off-time in his UN ‘blue cap’ replica uniform, complete with replica rice bag. But, boy, there is something in the old toy guns that brings us back to them, again and again! Case in point: the TY’s trip to Carlingford Adventure Centre. Yes, we expected a feverish if slightly clumsy eagerness from the Fortnite enthusiasts, but even the boys who talk to girls were gung-ho for the Laser Combat! And not just the boys either, as Ms. Speller, as super-powered as the Black Widow, ditched the Swiss Army knife, picked up a bazooka and led a gang of TY women warriors on the rampage!

It was not all combat, though. In fact, the theme of the trip was team-building and togetherness and besides the many social occasions (stretching well into the wee hours) there were organised exercises, such as orienteering, hill-walking, Skypark, rock climbing and Ziptopia, which emphasised co-operation and support for your friends and classmates. And though the youngsters somehow still had energy to chat and giggle and keep Mr. Morris busy, there was one high-ranking officer, in his blue night-cap, who hit the bunk early and snored the night away!

Like Princess Di and various Kardashians, Micheál Sweeney just commands the camera lens, so much so that we have put together his very own slider. Next time, in order to save on film costs, we just might find a camera-person who is not so enamoured with Micheál… if such a person exists!

There comes a time in every world class athlete’s life when he or she must acknowledge the march of time and take a step back from the front lines. Ronaldo has prospered by moving to the 9 while Messi is struggling with his new role at PSG. TY Co-Ordinators are very similar to world class athletes: the adulation, the pay, the paparazzi. But also the effects of the indomitable effects of ageing. Luckily for St. Conleth’s, our TY Co-Ordinator Extraordinaire, Gav Maguire, is taking these changes with good grace. In his younger days, he would accompany his TY charges on all their trips, from Donegal to Dingle, while spending his summers marauding across Mongolia or kicking his heels on Kilimanjaro.

But now, with early middle age settling in, he has learned of the magical concept known as ‘delegation’ and entrusted the weekly Thursday trips to younger, spryer colleagues such as Pat McGrath and Ger Cummiskey. This year, Louise Halpin and Sean Ingle have stepped up to the mark and this combination of the artist’s eye and the athlete’s regimen should prove particularly helpful in marshalling our eager but dawdling adolescents to worthy sights across the hinterland of Dublin. Already, they have a Greystones to Bray Day in the books and the photos tell us a good time was had by all. But have no fear: Gav is not done with intrepid exploring! Like David Attenborough, this fellow just can’t resist the grand tour. Peru 2021 is still on the agenda!

There were many contestants in the misery olympics this past year, and to be honest, quite a few had authentic claims on a medal: in fact, who among us actually had a good year? But perhaps a special soupçon of sympathy should be saved for the Transition Year students, up and down the country. They had had their Junior Cycle/Certificate cancelled the previous June… okay, maybe that was bearable… but and then the much-anticipated year-long break from the usual grind, the longed for mixture of adventure and novel learning experiences that is Transition Year was severely handicapped by various restrictions: the long-coveted had been long-covidded. TY is all about ‘going out’ and ‘doing stuff’ but what if you can’t go out and there is nothing to do?

Well, you turn to Transition Year Co-Ordinator Gav Maguire (and his team) and give him your trust (and a generous budget). Gav basically put paid to this idea that nothing could be done and he led from the front and the rear: he pushed, pulled and cajoled his charges into enjoying a Transition Year like no other. Yes, changes had to be made, methods adjusted, hands washed and masks worn, but the Transition Years of St. Conleth’s were the busiest in the land! From the eclectic mix of quirky versions of the regular academic subjects through the variety of special ‘extra’ courses such as Photography, Sailing and First Aid to guest speakers on careers and personal development to actual trips around Dublin such as the Zoo, rock climbing, the Epic Experience and the Simon Toal-led graffiti tour, our TYs actually kept busy! Yes, the death of Transition Years turns out to have been greatly exaggerated. But that is not to say that every TY was equally lively: some were more vivacious, vital and vivid than others. Below you see all our Transition Year Award winners, led by the winner of both the J.P. McGilligan and Neil Quinlan, our biggest TY awards, Caoimhe Moore. Well done to them and all our TYs but special recognition must also be given to Gav Maguire, who obeyed all the rules and regulations, but still managed to lead our boys and girls through some incredible experiences in they all-important year of transition.

TY Timea Kovacs has been the most enthusiastic participator in PE Teacher Mr. Lonergan’s weekly fitness challenges. Here, we see snippets of her workout, including an incredible, successful crossbar challenge! Mr. Lonergan encourages all his PE charges to keep the activity levels up over midterm, and try to match Timea’s effort and accuracy!