From Board of Management meeting on Monday night to Incoming 1st year assessments on Saturday, this was a week of intense activity around the school. The minds of exam classes are more sharply focused with the ‘Mocks’ looming while Leaving Cert. Applied students were also busily putting the finishing touches to their tasks which will be assessed next week.
In addition there were a host of cultural and sporting events which took place over recent days.
A team of 6th year students won the Wexford Maths Teachers Association maths quiz early in the week. A second team from the school also managed to come 4th and the winning team of David Kirwan, Brendan Browne, Don Foley and Brendan Kirwan (all pictured below) will now go on to represent their school and county in the Leinster final of the event.
On Wednesday night the Good Counsel’s Got Talent show took place in the school with all proceeds going to the Haiti support fund. Anyone who attended will have little quibble with the show’s title as the quality of entertainment provided was top class. The acts included a magician, a guitar soloist, a break dancer, a football tricks duo, a number of vocalists and a couple of rock bands. It is fair to say that many of us were in awe that so much talent existed almost unrecognised among our own student body. Great credit to all who took part and especially to the Senior prefects who, with the guidance of Mr. Younger, organised the event.
The judges, Ms Kinsella, Ms Cushen and Fr. Collander had the least enviable task of the evening but after Head Prefect, Sam Harte, broke the seal on the envelope containing the name of the winning act, and then baited his audience with the now customary elongated pause, he duly announced Crowd Control as the winner. This group of 4 had played 2 Beatles numbers and there is no doubt even Sir Paul himself would have been impressed.
Crowd Control – Seamus Sutton, Jonathan Dungan, Conor Mernagh and David Kirwan.
Amjad Yousif
On Tuesday evening almost 80 students from Good Counsel and St. Mary’s Secondary auditioned for parts in the joint school production of ‘Les Miserables’. The musical will be staged in St. Michael’s Theatre from April 21st to 25th inclusive. Congratulations and best of luck to all those chosen to perform on the stage, in particular to our leading men, Padraic McGrath as Valjean, Gavin Murphy as Javert, Peadar Cody as Marius and Seamus Sutton who will play the part of Enjolras.
On the sports front, the past week was one of considerable success for the College as first of all the Senior Hurlers had a hard fought but deserved win against Birr C.S. in the Leinster Senior A hurling championship. It was a poignant victory as this was the school’s first hurling game following the passing of teacher Tom Walsh who had coached so many of the team over the years. A quarter final place against St. Kierans, Kilkenny now awaits and no one is under any illusion as to the difficulty of the challenge.
On Tuesday the Juvenile footballers captured the South Leinster A title with a comfortable win against Naas CBS. This was a fine performance from a group who are making steady progress under the tutelage of Mr Kehoe, Mr Leigh O”Brien and Mr Wall. They now have a Leinster semi final against Castleknock C.S. to look forward to on Friday next and they are wished the best of luck in that. A word of praise for the second years who travelled as supporters and gave the team such encouragement.
A good week also for the school Badminton teams as the U-14’s swept the board in the Wexford schools division which was hosted in the school during the week. the 4 teams from Good Counsel made the 4 semi final spots so it was only a matter then of which one of them could emerge on top. Thanks to Mr Ger Murphy for all the time and effort put in to organising the event in the school and for coaching the boys.
The U-16 Badminton team, coached by Ms Karen Murphy, travelled to Baldoyle in Dublin and sucessfully took home the Leinster Division 3 title. It completed a fantastic year for all those involved in Badminton in the school as the U-18’s having won South Leinster Division 1 went on to become Leinster runners up. This sport has flourished in the school in recent years, thanks in no small part to the work of those teachers mentioned and of course Mr Hugh Coffey. Well done to all.
And finally for now, a couple of dates for your diary:
Sat. March 13th – Good Counsel college host the All Ireland Inter Schools Hunter Trials which take place in Bagenalstown.
Fri. March 19th – Parents’ council host a Cookery Demonstration Evening with Phelim Byrne. Tickets available.
More about these next week.
