December:
A historic photograph showing all of the students in the school on December 4th 2012
A hugely successful College Feast Day was held on December 7th. Each student in the College attended mass in the College Chapel to commemorate the College Feast Day, December 8th, and were then treated to a special Christmas Feast by Jim and his kitchen staff. Feeding over 400 students was a huge task but the hard-working crew succeeded magnificently. Well Done all.
However, perhaps the best part for most of the students was being served by their teachers… and how well they did their job too! Many dinners were eaten, and plenty of laughs had. The photographs capture a little of the occasion.
At a special function in the College on December 8th, the new book, ‘St. Mary’s College 1912 – 2012’, edited by Peadar O’Dowd was launched. A large crowd of current and former students and their families gathered to witness the occasion, where they listened to guest speakers, patron of the College, Bishop Martin Drennan, Galway City Mayor, Cllr. Terry O’Flaherty, Chairperson of the Board of Management, Mary Howley, College Principal Ciarán Murphy, College President Fr. Barry Hogg, and the author Peadar O’Dowd discuss the background and development of this historic book.
Guests then mingled and were treated to some delicious snacks from the hard-working Jim Gilchreest and his kitchen staff.
The book, which contains a wide-ranging history of the College through the ages, accompanied by hundreds of photographs and the names of every student who ever attended the College, is now for sale from the school office, Eason’s, Charlie Byrne’s and Dubray Books, priced at €25.
Prior to the book launch there was also the official switching on of the new floodlights designed to illuminate St. Mary’s at night. Photos below show both these auspicious occasions.
This year’s beneficiaries of the Annual St. Mary’s College Charity Drive are Anam Cara (Support for Bereaved Parents) and the Children’s Unit at UCHG. As usual each student is busily going around their neighbourhoods trying to raise funds for these worthwhile causes, and so far everyone is making a huge effort.
Each student has been given a Charity card and is doing his best to fill all the lines, others are out constantly trying to secure items for the regular raffles and for the big College Auction on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Our Charity Carol singers were a big hit on Shop Street on Tuesday 18th, as all 36 students sang their hearts, and voices, out to raise some much needed funds…luckily it didn’t rain for a change!
A huge thank you is due to all the people and businesses who have contributed money, prizes, time and effort to this year’s drive…even in hard times we still find it in our hearts to help those who need our support.
The Drive culminates on Friday with the annual day of festivities…and more importantly the Teachers V LC soccer match!!
November:
Congratulations to this years senior science quiz team who have continued our recent fine tradition in the Galway/Mayo region finals of the PharmaChemical Irish Science Teachers Association Senior Science Quiz. Following the example of our All-Ireland winning team of 2010 and runners-up 2011 the team of Rory McNamara, Alex Augustine and Bingling Chen put in a sterling performance at GMIT to finish in third place and thus qualify for this year’s All-Ireland finals. These will be held in Trinity College Dublin on Saturday November 25th. Twenty teams representing ten schools from around the city, and the counties of Galway and Mayo, participated and after eight tense rounds of questions we emerged as qualifiers, behind the winners Taylor’s Hill, with Oranmore just pipping us to second place. Our second team of Conor O’Reilly, Colm De Barra and Nazir Latif also put in a good night’s work, finishing in eigth place, three points off the qualifying positions.
Final Positions:
1. Taylors Hill 2. Calasanctious Oranmore 3 St. Mary’s 4. Presentation Athenry 5. Taylors. 6. Bish
On November 24th Rory, Bingling and Alex traveled to Trinity College to take part in the All-Ireland final. It was a very tough competition, with a very new format, and despite the best effort of the lads they did not manage a medal winning performance this time. they did perform excellently, however, and finished well up in the top half of the 39 participating school teams that were representing 23 counties. Well done lads.
Dr. Ken Farquhar visited the school to help us learn a bit more about the forces of the universe as part of the Galway Science Week events. here are some of the photos from the day and there are more in the gallery section.
St. Mary’s College Invitational Cross-Country 2012
Congratulations to the very large cohort of runners from the College who participated in this year’s race. Every single athlete was a credit to the college in the manner in which you conducted yourself, and in the way you all completed your race regardless of how far back you may have been. For some it was a tough hard race but everyone can be proud of their performance. Well done all.
Although the going was tough we did have a fair measure of success, winning the Junior (U-15) and Senior (U-19) team events. We also won two individual medals by virtue of a brilliant run from Rory Owens, who took second in the Junior race, and Padraig Creaven, stepping up in age to win the Senior race. We also finished in second place in the other two races behind very strong Oranmore teams. Full result, and photos, can be found on the athletics and gallery pages.
Full Results:
Minor (U-14)
- Matthew Barrett (Oranmore)
- Oisin Doyle (Oranmore)
- James Cahalane (Oranmore)
Teams:
- Calasanctious Oranmore (10 pts) 2.St. Mary’s (47 pts) 3.Bish (57 pts)
Junior (U-15)
- David Browne (Mercy Woodford)
- Rory Owens (St. Mary’s)
- Jack Clarke (St. Enda’s)
Teams
- St. Mary’s ( 22 pts) 2.Bish (33 pts) 3.St. Enda’s (39 pts)
Inter (U-17)
- Jamie Spelman (Oranmore)
- Damian O’Boyle (Oranmore)
- Nicholas Sheehan (Oranmore)
Teams
- Calasanctious Oranmore (10 pts) 2. St Marys ( 40 pts) 3. Glenamaddy (58 pts)
Senior (U-19)
- Padraig Creaven (St. Mary’s)
- Colin Hanberry (St. Enda’s)
- Christophe Kadlec (St.Enda’s)
Teams;
- St. Mary’s (19 pts) 2.St. Enda’s (31 pts) 3.Bish
can bring banners with them. It can really add to the atmosphere on the night.
October:
Congratulations to all our excellent athletes who competed at the Connacht Combined Events Championships in Dangan. We had winners of the Junior event in Sam Samson and the senior event in Moise Assogba. Kevin Cunningham was our other medalist when finishing runner up in the Senior competition while Dylan Duffy and Shane Traynor finished in fourth place in their competitions. Full report on the athletics page.
Well done to third year student Samuel Samson who was selected to compete for Ireland in the forthcoming Schools International Combined Events Championships. Sam was selected after finishing a brilliant third place at the Irish Schools Combined Events Championships held in Dublin at the end of September. Report on the Athletics Page
Well done to our former St. Mary’s students Seán Armstrong, Seamie Crowe, Alan Kerins, Colin Healy, as well as panel members David Burke, Greg Rogers and Mark Sheehan, who all played a prominent role in Salthill-Knocknacarra victory in the Galway County Senior Football final. Congratulations especially to current St. Mary’s teacher Seán Armstrong on his man of the match performance.
Congratulations to the two St. Mary’s teams who progressed to the next round of the Irish Cup following victories over Dublin opposition last Friday afternoon, October 12th. Full report on the Basketball page
Congratulations to former St. Mary’s students Eoin Molloy, John Potter and Mour Badiane who were awarded academic scholarships by NUIG. These scholarships, three of only thirty awarded, were given to students who achieved more than 560 points in their Leaving Certificate exam. Best of luck to these three and to all our former students who recently started third level courses.
Congratulations to our senior hurling team on their excellent victory over Calasanctious Oranmore in the Ryan Cup. Two goals from Adam Mooney and another from Ryan Fox helped the black and red to a 3 -14 to 1 – 7 victory.
Congratulations to both the first year soccer team and the first year Gaelic football teams who both played their first matches in the colours of St. Mary’s last week. Hopefully this will be the first of many times that you will represent the famous Red and Black in the coming years. Reports in the respective sports sections.
September:
The second Walter Burke memorial cup match will take place between St. Mary’s and local rivals the Bish on Friday. Kick off will be at 1:30 in the College grounds, and all friends of Walter are very welcome to attend.
St Marys College Galway Past Pupil’s Basketball Reunion
As part of St Marys college centenary celebrations, the school is hosting a basketball blitz on the 19th and 20th of October .They would like to hear from any of the schools past basketballers. The School is also in the process of putting together as much information on the history of basketball at the school for a book that is being written at present. They would be delighted to hear from you and would appreciate if you could send in any pictures, along with details of the teams you played on, your team mates for those year and what competitions you won while playing for the school. Let us know if you are interested in playing in the blitz. For further information contact Mike Lynch at basketballreunion@
Family Fun Day photos can now be viewed in the Extra-Curricular section of the Website
Congratulations to all on an excellent feast of hurling on Saturday 15th. Results and Photographs can be found on the hurling page
Best of luck to our former students Tadhg Haran, Fergal Moore and Tony Og Regan in the All-Ireland Hurling final. Gaillimh Abu!
August:
Congratulations to all our Leaving Certificate class of 2012 who recently received their results.
July:
Click here for details of Saint Mary’s Centenary Celebrations
March:
Congratulations to all the students, staff, past-pupils, staff and friends of St. Mary’s who helped to make Saturday’s staging of the AVIVA ISAA cross-country finals such a wonderful success. And what a performance from Padraic Creavan, Junior Boys National Champion 2012, a true credit to the College…brilliant stuff Padraic well done.
February
Following a thrilling victory in Terryland park on Thursday Feb23rd St. Mary’s are the 2012 Connacht Senior Soccer Champions. This was the sixth victory in this competition since 2001, a testament to the fine tradition of soccer excellence we have here in the College. Well done to all.
