European Parliament Visit

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Last Updated: 22 November 2017

Created: 22 November 2017

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Between October 5th and 7th, a group of students from our school traveled to Strasbourg in France for a day in the European Parliament, as part of the Euroscola initiative. We were joined by students from all over Europe. This tour, subsidised by the EU, was won by the Saint Joseph's debating team in Dublin Castle last February. On October 6th, we entered the building bright and early, where we were greeted with some breakfast. After this, we entered the massive "Hemicycle" (the room where the politicians discuss the topics at hand). Here we were treated to speeches by students representing each school there – a fascinating experience. Meaghan Peter represented Ireland and delivered a great speech signifying who and what we are. We then had a discussion and question & answer session with Rainer Wieland, Vice President of the European Parliament, before we were given the chance to interact with other schools in a quiz, which required us to use many different languages. Then we were divided into a number of groups, each dealing with a key issue of our time, such as development aid, human rights, and youth employment; we then had to draw up policy reform proposal on each topic. This proved captivating, as we got to see a multitude of opinions and insights from all over Europe. After each group elected two spokespeople, we channeled back into the hemicycle, where these spokespeople presented these ideas and proposals to all the other groups. One of the spokespeople elected was our own Michael Fitzgerald, who put forward a speech on security and human rights. We were then given a chance to use the voting machines used by the MEPs, when voting on whether or not to accept theses presented proposals. The day was finished up by an entertaining quiz show as a single to the quiz we took part in earlier. On the other two days of the trip, we visited the cities of Strasbourg and Heidelberg, which featured beautiful architecture, fascinating culture, and a microcosm of a changing Europe in the heartland of the continent – the Rhineland. Overall, the trip was extraordinary, and something that we will all remember for the rest of our lives. It made us realise we are not only citizens of Ireland, but also of Europe, and the world.

Ethan Delaney

Clare Secondary Schools’ Cross Country Championships Success for St. Joseph’s

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Last Updated: 21 November 2017

Created: 21 November 2017

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St. Joseph’s students from 1st Year to 6th Year took part in the Clare Secondary Schools’ Cross Country Championships last Thursday November 16th. The event was held in the Lee’s Road Complex in Ennis on a day with perfect running conditions. Our minor girls were first to run – Chelsea Canny, Aoife Dooley and Lauren Garvey put in fine performances. This girls team came in sixth place overall in a strong field of competitors.
Next to compete were our minor boys – with a very successful second place victory, winning silver medals for the team. Conor O’Donnell (8th) and Eoin Daly (9th) finished strongly, followed closely by Darragh Moroney and Eoin McNamara. The other minor boys running were Hugh Cronin, Oisin Enright and Ross Culligan.

Our junior girls Jennifer Nicholas, Isabel O’Connell, Abi O’Sullivan and Eimear Murphy were up next – great performances from these girls gained fourth place in the team event. Fantastic performances from our junior boys led to Tulla’s second silver team medal – Fionn Hickey (3rd) and Darragh Keogh (4th) were very impressive in their steely determination, followed closely by Donal Sheedy and Enda O’Halloran. The other junior boys running were Eanna Culloo, Niall Borrmann, Neil Callaghan, Diarmuid Molloy, Marc Norte, Eoin McCarthy, Joseph Keane and Mikey Walsh.
Strong performances from our intermediate boys of Fintan Caulfield (7th), David McInerney, Adam O’Neill and Jack McSweeney ensured another silver team medal for St. Joseph’s. The other intermediate boys running were Matthew Purcell, Joseph O’Sullivan, Dean Murphy, Alex Cronin, Christopher Notre and Shane Nolan.

The last event of the day was the senior boys race – powerful running from David Meehan (2nd), Sean Cahill (3rd), Padraig Cahill (4th), Cian Keogh (7th), Cathal Brown (8th) and Stephen Donnellan (9th) delivered a team gold medal. These boys were closely followed by Darragh Whelan, Feargal Kearney and Brian McSweeney in a race that was dominated by Tulla athletes.

We are so proud of all of our athletes as their great performances led to St. Joseph’s taking first place in the Best Overall School for the “Tully Cup” 2018, for the second year in a row. Well done to all our runners!
We are now looking forward to the North Munster Schools’ Competition to be held in Pallaskenry in January.

Tulla Athletics Club have training sessions for teens and adults on Monday and Wednesday evenings at 7pm at the Primary school in Tulla. Please wear a Hi-Vis vest.

Taekwon-Do World Championships Success

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Last Updated: 21 November 2017

Created: 21 November 2017

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Congratulations to TY student, Joanna O'Sullivan who recently represented Ireland at the ITF Taekwon-Do World Championships, where she earned a bronze medal in her individual technical discipline. This is an amazing achievement given that there were almost 1,100 black belt athletes from 62 countries competing at the event and only those who have qualified to represent their country can compete in the ITF World Championships. Joanna also put in very strong performances in in the -55kg sparring category where she narrowly lost to the current European champion from Finland. Joanna also had the honour of singing the national anthem at the opening ceremony of the championships. This was the first time an ITF Taekwon-Do World Championships was held in Ireland. Mr Stephen Ryan, PE & Geography Dept. was one of the main organisers of the championships as well as being a member of the coaching panel and competing on the senior team. Ireland finished the event in 1st place on the medals table out of 62 nations with 28 medals. A special thanks to Ms Coman for giving students the opportunity to travel to see the event in Citywest to support Joanna and to Ms Liddy and Ms Kennedy for accompanying them. Congratulations to both Mr Ryan and Joanna on their continued success. For more information visit the ITF World Championships website here: http://www.itfwc2017.com/ or the ITF World Championships Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/ITFWC2017/
The event programme can be viewed Here

Trip to See the Cork Pops Orchestra

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Last Updated: 20 November 2017

Created: 20 November 2017

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On Friday, the 10th of November, the first year music class, and TY2, went to the Concert Hall in the University of Limerick to see the Cork Pops Orchestra play. We left school at 9:00 and departed for Limerick. We arrived to UL at 10 and were shown to our seats. The orchestra was made up of violins, a viola, cello, double bass, harp, French horn, trumpet, oboe, flute, piccolo, percussion and many more instruments. The conductor of the Cork Pops is Evelyn Grant, who also presents a classical music show on Lyric FM.

This year, there was a focus on the harp, and first piece played by the orchestra was our national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann. Other pieces performed include The Swan, Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy, and several airs by Turough O'Carolan. They even played well-known themes from films, such as Star Wars, E.T. and Harry Potter. Jean Kelly, a famous harpist, joined the orchestra as a guest musician. She is very well known and has recently played in the soundtrack for Paddington 2. She played Mozart's Concerto for Flute & Harp along with her sister Fiona Kelly.
Another guest to the orchestra was DJ Dashka who works with music technology to create amazing songs and tunes, using a beat board. Their final guest was Keith Hanley, a former 'Voice of Ireland' winner, who is huge in the Irish singing industry. To our delight, Keith sang songs from Disney movies, such as Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book and Muana, as well as You're Never Fully Dresses Without a Smile, from Annie. Together with DJ Dashka, Keith performed Despacito by Justin Bieber and Symphony by Zara Larrson.

It was a very enjoyable and entertaining show. My favourite part was when they played music from several iconic films. I'd never realised that all these theme songs were played by a live orchestra and weren't just digitally inserted into the movie afterwards!

We then left for home, stopping briefly into McDonald's on the way back. We arrived back at 1:15, just in time to hear the bell signalling the end of school! It was a fantastic outing and I hope to be lucky enough to hear the Cork Pops play again. Many thanks to Ms. Behan for organising this fun day out for us, and to Ms. Coughlan and Ms. McCarthy for coming along too.

By Jennifer Nicholas & Molly Ellis (1st Year)

Science Week

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Last Updated: 17 November 2017

Created: 17 November 2017

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Some highlights below of Science Week 2017

First Year "Egg Drop"
Well done to all involved - constructing masterpieces that survived their flight from GP balcony down to the floor....CRACK!

Our First Years also attended a Science Magic Show (run by University of Limerick) in October where they had the opportunity to see lots of fun Science in action in their lab class.

Second Year "Sponge Bob Genetic Quiz" and DNA Construction
Our Second years constructed edible D.N.A and D.N.A 3D models that we showcased on our Open Night last Tuesday to our incoming students in 2018. The quiz reinforced our learning on Genetic Crosses. Our students also demonstrated the Kiwi chromosome extraction experiment at our open night.

2017 ISTA Senior Science Quiz
Congratulations to our Senior ISTA Science Group who represented the School in the regional competition on 16th November. They secured 5th place out of a total of 26 entrants. An amazing achievement. Names: Chloe Crowe, Aisling Donnellan, James O'Neill, George Bodziony, Jan Ligtvoet and Tiarnan Boyce.

Science Conundrum Friday 17th Nov
Well done to Ms. Coughlan and her Office Admin LCA class and also to Ms G. Sullivan and her 5th Yr Computers class who were the first to complete the Science puzzles (all 6 correct!) on Friday.

Research Projects
Many thanks to our 1st and 2nd years who are conducting research on leading Scientists that are showcased in the labs and on our Science notice board. This is an ongoing piece of work!

A long day but a good day for our TY students.

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Last Updated: 11 October 2017

Created: 11 October 2017

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On Monday, October 9th, TY students together with Mr. Fahy, Ms. McCarthy and Mr. Monaghan left Tulla after a very early alarm clock call. The group was lucky enough to get a booking to see Kilmainham Gaol and students and teachers alike were very impressed. The tour guides were passionate about bringing history alive in this building which is so intimately associated with Irish History. The stories of inmates were heart-wrenching and the building itself seemed to echo with their sadness. We were sorry that busy day did not allow even longer to spend at the Gaol.

From there, we crossed the Liffey, to visit the Zoo. Some of us had never visited the Zoo so we were delighted to have a good look around. Then we were taken on an Ecology Workshop in the Phoenix Park. This covered a habitat study, which gave us a great understanding of this section of the Leaving Cert. Biology programme. Thanks to all the teachers who travelled with us.

Prospective Students Open Night

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Last Updated: 09 October 2017

Created: 09 October 2017

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Ty trip to Achill -Turas go hAcaill

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Last Updated: 03 October 2017

Created: 03 October 2017

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The TY year accompanied by Mr. Kelly, Mr. Hanrahan and Ms Walsh took a 2 night trip to Achill Island, Co. Mayo last Monday to Wednesday (25th- 27th September). They stayed in 'bean an tí' houses and participated in activities facilitated by Coláiste Acla. They took part in surfing, cliff diving, bog assault courses and kayaking. In the evenings they headed to the céili's where they learned (attempted) to dance and played games as well as the all important 20 minutes phone time! The weather was lovely until Wednesday when the island was soaked but this didn't stop us from having an excellent time. On Wednesday when everyone sat down to a hot bowl of soup to warm up there was an atmosphere of disappointment as we had to head back home after a fantastic 3 days of fun and laughs. Everyone enjoyed the trip and can't wait for another of its kind in the upcoming year.

Chuaigh na daltaí ón idirbhlian go hAcaill le triúir múinteoirí ón scoil- An t-Uasal Ó Ceallaigh, An t-Uasal Ó hAnracháin agus Iníon Breathnach Dé Luan seo caite. Mhair an turas ar feadh trí lá. D'fhanamar sna tithe le mna tí ón ceantar. Ghlacamar páirt sna himeachtaí ar nós surfáil, cadhcáil, pleidhchíocht poirteacht agus tumadh. Chuamar go dtí coláiste gach tráthnóna chun damhsa céilithe a fhoghlaim. D'imríomar cluiche spraoi agus don fiche nóiméad deireanach fuaireamar ár bhfóin. Bhí an aimsir go maith go dtí Dé Céadaoin nuair a bhí an hOileáin ar maos leis an báisteach a thit tharr an oíche ach níor chuir sé sin isteach orainn. Nuair a shuíomar síos don babhla anlann tráthnónna Céadaoin bhí saghas díomá ar gach duine mar bhí sé in am dul abhaile. Bhain gach duine taiteanamh as an turas agus táimid ag súil leis an chéad turas eile!

le Saoirse Boyce, Dearbhla Creaven agus Emma Cooper.

{gallery}2017Achill{/gallery}