2013

December

The College playing fields reverberated beautifully to the sound of clashing ash on Thursday afternoon as the St. Mary’s senior hurlers took the field in the final match of their Senior Championship group. Having beaten Calasanctious Oranmore in an earlier match they needed a win to secure a semi-final place and they duly produced the goods when overcoming their local rivals the Bish by a comprehensive six point margin. This was a fantastic result from a group of lads who have been very diligent in their training and tiger-like in their matches. The final scoreline of 1-13 to 1-07 in no way reflected the superiority of the Mary’s lads, and they should now enter the closing stages of the hurling championship with a fair degree of confidence.

This was the second defeat in two days for our local rivals the Bish at the hands of our Mary’s lads as the day before the senior basketballers had come back from a substantial early deficit to put their vaunted Bish rivals to the sword. A fantastic all-round performance from the lads saw them emerge victorious by a single point in a cliffhanger of a match, and they now progress to the National quarter finals as one of the Western Region representatives.

Well done to everyone who participated to make this year’s College Feast day another unqualified success. Feeding a Christmas Dinner to every single student and staff member in the College is a mighty undertaking and certainly would not have gone as smoothly without the help of such a hard working bunch of people who sacrificed many an hour to ensure that the whole venture ran smoothly.

To that effect, well done to Jim, Marius, Michelle and all the kitchen staff; to their student helpers, Sam Samson, Oran Diviney, Daniel Walsh-Keary, Adam Hernon, Gerard Mangan and Martin Kelly; to all the prefects and staff members who so ably handed out the trays; to the Choir who once again made our celebratory mass so enjoyable and to Fr. Hogg (and his servers) who spoke so passionately from the pulpit!! Also, thanks to all those who contributed to the non-uniform day, raising much needed funds for Voices of Galway and the Samaritans

The photos here depict a little of the occasion, and no doubt some of you will regret the poses you struck…but sure there ya are!

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November:

CSPE visit

Recently the third years welcomed local politician, City Councillor Mr. Tom Costello, who engaged the students in a very informative discussion on Democracy and the machinations of Politics.

This was done in conjunction with their CSPE project, and proved to be an excellent endeavour.

 Gourmet Dough!

Gourmet Dough is the name of the Website and Blog run by one of our Leaving Certificate students, Evan O’Ceallaigh. Evan has a great way with words, and obviously a great way with food, as can be seen from many of his tantalizing recipes on the Website. Evan was also this year’s recipient of the Best Youth Blog at the 2013 Irish Blog Awards, and a quick read through his insightful and amusing blogs will easily tell you why. Well done Evan, mighty stuff.

You can log on to Evan’s blog by following this link:

www.gourmetdough.com

Science and Sporting success!!

Then, on Saturday three students, Samuel Samson, Shane Traynor and Rory Owens represented St. Mary’s and Connacht at the Irish Multi-Events championships in Athlone. Although all three performed very well, the star of the show was Sam who, despite being a year underage,  finished with an outstanding bronze medal in the U-17 competition (there were 15 competitors) , and in doing so was picked to represent Ireland at the schools Multi-Events international to be held in Glasgow during December. Shane missed out on the Junior team by one place.

Alcohol Awareness Visit

Junior Minister Alex White paid a visit to the College recently and engaged in a lively discussion with our fifth year students on the topic of Alcohol Awareness. He was accompanied on his trip by Derek Nolan TD, visiting his alma mater, and both ministers expressed delight that our students were so , in their words, ‘clued in’ and were so forthright in their opinions and ideas about the control and dangers of alcohol amongst the youth of today.

More photos on the Gallery page

Judo

In what has been an unprecedented success St. Mary’s students Andreeas Binder, Dimitri Ipati and brothers Daniel and Alex Leporda brought schools Judo medals to halls of the College for the first time.

Since there are no official Connacht Schools finals the four lads all competed in the prestigious Leinster finals as Connacht representatives (who says its only the hurlers!) and then qualified from this for the Irish open finals, open to all provinces, as well as accepting overseas competitors, thus making it an international competition.

Andreeas was successful in the U-16 less than 90kg competition, capturing the Leinster Championship Gold medal. He then followed this up with a first place in the Irish Open, and added a silver medal in the U-18 greater than 73kg grouping. Andreeas then went on to compete at the World Sampo Championships in Greece in mid-October, where he finished a very creditable 14th.

Dimitri competed in the under 66kg group and won gold at both the U-16 and the U-18 age groups at the Irish Open schools finals.

Alex captured the silver medal in the Leinster schools U-12 finals for the over 66kg group, and followed this up with a 5th place finish in the All-Ireland finals.

his older brother Daniel, meanwhile,also won silver at the Leinster schools, competing in the U-16 less than 55kg group, and then followed this up with a Bronze medal performance at the Irish open.

All four lads are members of the Galway City School of Judo, and we offer our congratulations to their coaches. Well done lads, we’re proud of ye.

ReelLife Science video

Congratulations to Leaving Certificate student Colm Barry, and second years Mark Gilligan, Josh Pyne, Alan Duggan and Shane Hastings who were the driving force behind the short science video “The Future for Stem cells” which won second prize in

the new national short science film competition promoted by Reel Life Science Video at NUIG. The lads performed really well, in a very short period of time, to produce an excellent piece of work. In the words of the organiser Dr. Enda O’Connell…’this was an exceptional video, with some outstanding acting, particularly from Colm, and great detail’

The judges were  three Young Scientists from Kinsale in Co. Cork, who won first prize at this year’s BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition and then went on to scoop the top Biology prize at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Prague two weeks ago, along with our other Expert Judges, Professor Andrea Brand of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge and Professor Rhodri Ceredig of the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) in NUI Galway.

The link to the video is below.

https://vimeo.com/79192060

or at www.reellifescience.com 

 Connacht Combined Events Athletics

A brilliant performance by every single member of the St. Mary’s Athletics team saw them bring home a total of five medals from the recent  Connacht Championships held at the fabulous new indoor athletics stadium in Athlone IT

Fifteen athletes made the long trip down to the midlands, and, on the back of three hard weeks preparation and training, showed their mettle against some of the best athletes in Connacht.

Combined events involves competing in six events over the day; 200m, 800m, Long Jump, 60m Hurdles, High Jump and Shot Putt, and demands athletes of exceptional quality and ability.

In the minor (U-14) event 48 athletes from across the province competed and we had excellent performances from Gabriel Dossen, Raoof Bazzazadegan, Josh Pyne and Stephen Flaherty, which culminated in Gabriel winning the bronze medal.

The Junior(U-15) boys on the day were outstanding. 42 athletes were entered and when the results were counted up at the end we had a new Connacht Champion in third year student Shane Traynor-Canavan, who beat fellow Mary’s athlete Rory Owens into second place. Unfortunately, long time leader Bryan Ndego threw away his chance of a medal when he was unable to complete the 800m. Eamon O’Brien, making his debut appearance in the Mary’s colours showed his considerable promise as he also finished in the top ten on the day.

Not to be out done Sam Samson showed how talented he is when romping to victory in what was a very difficult inter (U-17) competition. he was the class athlete in the field, but at times faced stern opposition from his teammates Isaac Francis, Peter Francis and Colin O’Reilly

Finally, in the senior (U-19) event we had another medallist when Gabriel Garwe performed steadily to capture the bronze medal. Moise Assogba was defending his title but was below par on the day, while former underage medallist Dylan Duffy was unable to make any headway against  stiff opposition

Sam, Shane, Rory and Gabu now go on to compete at the All-Ireland finals which will be held in Athlone on Saturday November 16th.

County Football Finals

Congratulations…and commiserations to all our students, both current and former, who played in the recent Galway County finals. We had seven players involved with the new county Minor champions Moycullen, so hearty congratulations to Eamon Buckley, Gaelen O’Toole, Conor Noone, Seán Kelly, Eanna Keleghan, Patrick Fahy, Seán Gibbons and Liam Buckley, all of whom played their part in what was a historic victory for the boys in green.

Unfortunately, there also has to be a loser in every final, and so we say hard luck to Mary’s boys representing Claregalway in the minor final Padraig Kearney and Paul Fahy, and their manager Mr. Paul Concannon.

More commiserations go out to the Mary’s men Conor Healy, Seán Armstrong, Aonghus Callanan, Seamus Crowe and Tony Óg Regan, who fought hard for Salthill-Knocknacarra as they ran out second best to Corofin in the senior final.

Congratulations also to the Moycullen U-16 team that won  their county final, and for whom Seán Kelly, Ryan Fox, Dessie Conneely, Eoghan Kelly and Ross Walsh all played a part.

Finally, a big well done to former Mary’s man Paul Conroy who played a starring role for the Irish Compromise rules team in their recent over-whelming victory over Australia. Paul has also been nominated as this year’s Galway Senior Football captain, taking over from another Mary’s man Gareth Bradshaw. Doing us proud lads!

Charity Cycle:

It was a tough one, but it didn’t phase the hardy group of St. Mary’s teachers who lent their support to Voices for Down Syndrome by cycling from the College to Cleggan in Connemara, a distance of 90km. Luckily the weather stayed good for the trip, and despite some dodgy directions given to Mr. Ciaran Murphy at one stage, we all made it out to our destination with the minimum of fuss, and the maximum of effort. The event was organised by former St. Mary’s student Pat Coyne, from Inisbofin, and we wish everyone involved the best of luck with their future fund-raising ventures.

Connacht Handball

Congratulations to second year student Diarmuid Mulkerrins who won the Connacht Junior Handball title over the weekend. Diarmuid then went on to compete at the All-Ireland finals, where, after a titanic battle he was narrowly beaten in the final. Great stuff Diarmuid, and also coach Mr. Gerry Dempsey.

October:

Now we know who to call on when we need reliable First Aid!!

Congratulations to second year student Gary Sullivan who was crowned the Red Cross Cadet of the Year following a tense competition over the weekend. Gary, representing Galway, had to compete against candidates from nine other counties for the prestigious Frank Kernan Perpetual Trophy, and was not found wanting on the day.

Congratulations to all the teams and officials who took part in the Festival of hurling on Saturday October 12th. It was a great day’s entertainment, with excelent organisation throughout, and some great hurling from these talented young lads. Well done to Carnmore, who held on their title following a clear victory over a brave Liam Mellows team. All photos of the day can be found on the gallery page, or in the Hurling section.

As part of its Centenary Celebrations  in 2012 St Mary’s College played host to a number of local hurling clubs and ran an u-10 Hurling Blitz which proved to be a resounding success.

Once again on Saturday 12^th October its Festival of Hurling will take place on the College grounds  commencing at 10.00am. The teams participating this year are Liam Mellows,  Salthill Knocknacarra,  Moycullen,  Rahoon /Newcastle,  Castlegar,  Carnmore,  Micheal Breathnachs and  Annaghdown.

It promises to be a great day’s hurling and parents and supporters of each club, along with past pupils of the College, are encouraged to attend.

Hurling Blitz 2013 Layout

Hurling Blitz 2013 schedule

September:

David Rudisha and Br. Colm O’Connell following presentations from the school by Padraig Creaven and Samuel Samson

We had a very inspirational visit from World 800m record holder and 2012 Olympic Champion David Rudisha, and his coach Br. Colm O’Connell. They spoke to a packed audience, who were enthralled by the words of advice and encouragement on offer.

More details can be found on the Athletics page, with photographs of the occasion in the gallery section

Our students were treated to a demonstration of the work of the Irish Coastguard Service when they visited the College on Tuesday September 24. Photos can be found in the gallery section

Walter Burke Cup 2013

Inaugurated in memory of former Mary’s teacher Walter, who tragically died following his retirement in 2010, this competition officially kicks off the soccer season for the Mary’s teams. As is only fitting, since it was under Walter’s guidance that soccer officially kicked off in Mary’s back in the 70’s. Unfortunately for us, however, the cup will be resting in the Bish for this season as they overcame an under-strength College team to come away convincing winners. Team photo on the soccer page.

Soccer

August:

Well done to our class of 2013 who performed excellently in their Leaving Certificate examination, as portrayed by their excellent results in August. Each student seemed to be happy with their outcome, and from what we hear there will be plenty of May’s lads walking the corridors of the country’s Universities and Colleges come September. Great stuff lads.

Pride of place goes to Eoin Clancy and Rory McNamara who achieved 595 and 570 points respectively and are now looking forward to a new life in NUIG. Eoin will study Engineering, while Rory will follow his love of languages into Arts. Both of these lads, along with other high performing students Gaelen O’Toole (515 pts) and Alex Augustine (525 pts) visited the school early in the term to have a quiet word with some of our first year students, and to encourage them along their path of study at St. Mary’s College. Incidentally, Gaelen will be joining Eoin in Engineering, while Alex will finally get to advance his love for Astro-Physics also in NUIG.

June:

Congratulations to Samuel Samson who won a bronze medal at the National Schools Track and Field Finals in Tullamore in June. Sam finished third in the Intermediate 400m Hurdles. He then followed this up with a third place finish in the same event at the Tailteann Schools Inter-Provincial games at the end of June. Full report in the Athletics section

May:

Congratulations to ex-Mary’s men Eoin Walsh, Philip Ezergailis and Shane Maughan who all played their part in Galway’s march to U-21 Football glory in 2013. Eoin and Philip are pictured with the Connacht and All-Ireland trophies during their visit to the College in May

Congratulations to all the St. Mary’s athletes who once again pulled out all the stops to emerge as the best team in Connacht athletics for the seventh year running. We felt that this year our backs were really up against the wall as the standard of athletics across the province has been steadily improving, and more and more schools are entering. However, as usual the question ‘how many points have we got?’ was on everyone’s lips, and as the day progressed we saw that things were gradually beginning to go our way.

In the end we emerged victorious in the Junior and the Senior shield competitions, and lost out narrowly by one point in the Inter competition.

There were some great performances on the day, chief amongst them the winners, and new Connacht Champions:

Samuel Samson 400m Hurdles, in a new Championship Best Performance, Gabriel Garwe, Inter Discus, Sean O’Reilly Junior Javelin, Peter Francis, Junior Triple Jump, the senior 4x100m relay team of Dylan Duffy, Gabriel Garwe, Kevin Cunningham and Moise Assogba, and last but not least, winning his first senior title Alan Murtagh in the Hammer.

There were a number of other medal winning performances on the day from Tomas Griffin (2nd Inter 2000m Walk), Padraic Creaven (2nd U-16 Mile), Tomas Donovan (3rd Senior 2000m S/C), Andre Ferreira (3rd Junior 80m Hurdles), Samuel Samson (2nd Inter 400m), Bradley Mugova (3rd Senior 110m Hurdles), Evan O’Ceallaigh (2nd Senior 400m Hurdles, 2nd 800m), Ronan Higgins (3rd Inter triple Jump), Dylan Tierney (2nd Junior Hammer and Discus), Andreas Binder (2nd Inter Javelin), james McMahon (3rd Inter Javelin) , Isaac Francis (3rd Inter Long Jump), Henrique Nkolovata (2nd Senior Triple Jump), Dillon Browne (2nd Senior Walk, 3rd Senior Hammer), Shane Traynor, Peter Francis, Kelechi Asonye, Bryan Ndego (2nd Junior 4x100m Relay)

Well done all

Has Mary’s Got Talent? Well, judging by the performances we witnessed at the annual Show on Friday 3rd May it most certainly has! All the students and staff gathered in the concert hall were treated to a feast of entertainment,with  each act eliciting a rapturous round of applause. We had singing, juggling, dancing and comedy, something for everyone basically.

In the end each student and teacher got to vote for their favourite act, and when the votes were in it was decided that the Mary’s Got Talent winner 2013 was sixth year student Niall Stenson. Niall is an impressionist who regaled us with stories from Jose Mourinho  and Eamon Dunphy, but the real winner was his impression of a certain Monaghan footballing Biology teacher…fame at last Mr. McCaul!

Runner-up was Dillon Browne, while last year’s winner Colin Glynn put in a great performance  but this time finished in third place. A notable feature of the voting was that each of the 12 acts who performed received a substantial number of votes, showing how close the competition actually was. Well done all!

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Well done to the third year Science teams who competed in the ISTA Galway-Mayo Region Junior Cert Science Quiz at GMIT on Wednesday evening May 1st. The questions were very testing, covering all aspects of the JC Science and Maths courses, and a few areas besides! However, the Mary’s lads were not found wanting, and out of a field of 31 teams succeeded in finishing in joint fourth place (before losing out in a tie-break) and taking home a nice cash prize for their efforts. Well done lads!

Results

1. St. Raphael’s Loughrea 74
2. Calasanctious Oranmore 68
3. Taylor’s Hill 68
4. St. M &P Swinford 66
5. St. Mary’s A 66
6. Presentation Athenry 64

16. St. Mary’s B 56

March 21st 2013:

Over the past few weeks we have been privileged to receive a number of guests to the school. These guests have come in at the behest of the students and staff, invited to do so as part of a CSPE project or to offer our students some valuable information about various charities and services around Galway. Below are some of the photos taken and a brief outline of the visit.

Third year CSPE invited the Mayor of Galway, Cllr Terry O’Flaherty, visited the College to help them with their project all about the Office of the Mayor and The City Council

We were also visited by one of our past pupils, Rory Spelman, who informed the gathered students all about the workings of the European Union. Rory is now employed full time with the EU in Brussels, and it was a great pleasure for us to have him speak, and to help to personalize the EU  for us a bit.