News! Clonpriest N.S - Update, June 2003 Review of the past year. Just one year ago the school community was extremely busy preparing for the Centenary celebrations – they have come and gone and we still receive favourable reports and messages of congratulations. And so we come to the end of another school year – 85 pupils have begun their summer vacation, 10 of them are now past-pupils and we wish them well as they begin a new phase in their lives. Our departing pupils were Claire Keohane, Treasa Daly, Hannah Benaim, John Foley, Michael Foley, Gus Flavin, Jay Keniry, Padraig O’Brien, Seamus Harnedy and Matthew Glavin. In the field of sport, we had a bumper year, somewhat tarnished by the fact that we were runners-up in five major finals!! History was made by us by participating in all four Sciath na Scol Finals. We lost on penalties in the Shield Final of the East Cork Soccer Tournament. However, we won the Tag Rugby Cup, the overall cup for girls in our section at the County Sports and the Girls Relay Cup at the same event. Two girls competed in the County Finals proper, Róisín Moloney being pipped on the line. We were best Primary School in the Gortroe Mile series. Regrettably because of clashes of events, the Parents Association fun-sports were deferred to September. Confirmation and First Communion days were celebrated with the usual style – the above named sixth class received Confirmation on April 2nd; On Saturday, May 24th, Claire O’Keeffe, Hannah Power, Jessica Daly, Andrew Cronin, Luke McCarthy, Jerome Glavin, Daniel Goggin, Ciarán O’Brien, received First Holy Communion. Graduation Mass was celebrated on June 17th with Fr. Ross doing the honours. The Juniors visited Youghal Fire Station, Pottery and Lighthouse earlier in the year, were taken to Cork Opera House where they enjoyed Hansel & Gretel. For their tour they had fun at Redbarn Beach followed by food and frolics at Perks. Seniors went to the Cork Pops Concert in November and to Cork City for their tour where they packed in several visits in a 9am to 9pm day. All classes savoured the atmosphere at the Special Olympics Torch Run where our musicians opened the proceedings. Visitors to the school this year included a speaker from Cork Simon Community, a Missionary Priest from Dalgan Park, poets Declan Lucey and Pat the Hat, Dr. Brendan Byrne who spoke to all pupils and to the staff, two promotional visits by Gárdaí Síochana, Environmental Puppet Show, Coastal Rescue Services Talk & Terese Fennessy. Sixth Class broke all previous records by raising €350 in their Jumble Sale, proceeds going to Aid Cancer Treatment and to Cork Simon Community. Money was also raised for the Irish Heart Foundation. We enjoyed the hospitality of our Parents Association when we dined “internationally” at Gortroe Hall sampling food from many nations as our way of marking International Schools Day”. We have video evidence of the enjoyment for both participants and audience at our School Concert which packed Gortroe Hall for night performances on April 10th and 11th. As we come to close our year we may ask what was the highlight? For this scribe it was undoubtedly seeing our own Special Envoy, Seán Coleman, proudly leading the Torch Runners into Youghal’s Green Park on June 19th. Yes, it was a special occasion with Clonpriest National School truly to the fore.