School of Rock!

Yes, as evidenced in the recording below, we perhaps captured too much of that cool and edgy feedback and reverb with which our house bands filled our Performance Space, and we will work on cleaning up the recording, but, nevertheless, our Spring Semester ended on a high note, as our resident roadies/impresarios, Ms. McGuinness and Mr. O’Neill, once again coached, coaxed and coddled a varied and star-studded line-up of stunning student performances! It all began with Mr. O’Dulaing eloquently celebrating the day and echoing a common-head belief: that this day is one of the best, if not the best, on the Conlethian calendar. He also took the opportunity to announce a new student award, The Mary Raftery Award, named in honour of the late crusading journalist and St. Conleth’s alumna.

First up was the First Year band who insisted they were ‘creeps‘, and we would hate to shade their emo rep, but surely they are the most adorable and talented creeps, around! Then, the ivory-ticklers took centre-stage: Fifth Year Lochlann Hannon and Sixth Year Kate Fleming held us in rapture with their consummate skill on the piano. And we finally managed to capture the TY Band on film, performing a virtuoso rendition of What You Know... albeit with a lot of extra amplifier noise. Fifth Year Aaron Ryan emphatically channelled Elton John with a stomping version of Crocodile Rock. Fifth Years Lucy McGoldrick and Zalan Kovacs then sweetly accompanied each other with flute and piano before being joined on stage by their classmates for a standout performance of U2’s With or Without You. Then, as is traditional, Sixth Years closed the show with a spookily elegant interpretation of Hotel California. A big ‘thank-you’ to Julia for taking the photos above and below!

by Charles Latvis