Munster Express Online

On Thursday 27th May teams representing each of the First Year classes took part in a soccer tournament organised by the First Year Mentors.1 Maeve defeated 1 Setanta (2-0), at the end of the 10 minute long game and progressed to the final. After 1 Oisin and 1 Grainne tied at (3-3) after a very close match, 1 Oisin managed to win on penalties. The two succeeding teams faced each other in the final and 1 Maeve proved victorious, with an end result against 1 Oisin of (3-1). The winning team were then presented with medals from Mr. Power, Principal. Thank you to Mr. O’Neill for refereeing the final and also to Ms. Carroll and Ms. Farrell for co-ordinating the tournament.

Awards Night

Our annual awards night was held recently in St. Declan’s. Guest speaker on the night this year was Professor Kieran Byrne, the President of WIT. Transition Year students all received the various certificates they had accumulated during the year and following this Zoe O’Donoghue gave a short speech on what life in 4th Year was like.

Spirit of the Year Awards were then presented to:

Laura Behan – 6th Year

Lisa McGrath – 5th Year

Tyrone Power – 4th Year

Kelly Murphy – 3rd Year

Ryan Kirwan – 2nd Year

Elaine Grogan – 1st Year

A number of students have achieved excellence in various fields during the year and to mark this certificates of excellence were awarded to:

Conor Browne, Jack Dee, Ryan Gallagher and Stephen Walsh – All Ireland Badminton Champions

Natalie Brown – Badminton Ireland/Yonex Young Volunteer Award

Aoife Whelan – National Literary Award

Catherine Hearn – Green Schools National Poetry Competition

Niamh Rockett – on behalf of the St. Declan’s Camogie Team, Munster Champions 2010

Rebecca Foskin, Thomas Fogarty, Alan Burns, Doireann McCarthy, Richard Mackey, Malgosia Bakierzynska, Elsa Griffin – French Competition Winners

Aisling Griffin – Young Social Innovators

Shauna O’Brien – member of Irish Swimming Team

Jamie O’Keeffe – member of Irish Motor Cross Team

Fiona Fitzpatrick, Claire Whyte – members of the Waterford U-16 All Ireland Football winners

Hayley Fitzsimons – IWA National Champion

Laura Griffin – Full attendance for 6 years

Next up were presentations for the best exam results in 2009 and these went to:

Conor Keegan, Dan Gourlay – Junior Cert

Patrick Morrissey, Aoife Curran, Michael Cullinane, Anne Grogan, Christy Stephenson – Leaving Cert

Sarah Bollard, Anita Veale, Tanya Kett, Kate Boland – LCA

Scholarships were then presented to:

Dan Gourlay and Alan Burns – Irish

Katie Mulligan and Hillary Hovenden – French

Mary Roche and Rebecca Daly – German

Siobhan Whelan – Lourdes Representative.

The final awards were the Sport Stars and these went to:

Angela Flynn – Junior Girl

Clare Nolan – Senior Girl

Liam Mulligan – Junior Boy

Eoin Walsh – Senior Boy

Ronan Cahill – Derek Ryan Award

Well done to all involved.

Mr. Shane Briggs

Congratulations to Mr. Shane Briggs who was the May winner of both the Granville Hotel and Park Hotel Sports Awards following his excellent display in Waterford’s Division 4 league final game against Limerick in Croke Park.

End Of Year

St. Declan’s closed for the summer holidays last Friday and most students and teachers are now on a well deserved break. The Junior and Leaving Cert students are beginning their exams and we wish them all the best of luck at this important time of their lives.

For some substitute teaches their time in St. Declan’s has come to an end and we would like to express our thanks to them for the excellent work they have done, in the school during the past year.

Bridget Aherne

Following 26 years on the staff at St. Declan’s Bridget has decided to retire and as she said herself “hit the golf courses of Ireland”. An excellent and highly respected French and Geography teacher she will be missed by all in St. Declan’s. A retirement party was recently held in The Tannery Restaurant to celebrate Bridget’s time in the school.