Half Term Sports News, Oct ’23

It’s been another busy term of sport, briefly disrupted by some recent heavy rain. In rugby, the Senior XV have started their league campaign reasonably well with comfortable victories over De la Salle Churchtown and St. Conleth’s but they’ll rue missed opportunities in their narrow loss to a strong Newpark side at home. The JCT XV have struggled with injuries and a lack of depth, sadly losing their three league games to date. Their captain David Cron has been their star player and he donned the Leinster colours recently for the Metro Under-16s. Our youngest pupils in Form I had a great victory on Wednesday over Mount Temple.

In basketball, the Senior girls have made a strong start to their season with three impressive league and Cup wins. Yesterday, they hosted Naas Community School in the All-Ireland Cup quarter-finals, sadly losing narrowly. The Cadette girls and Seniors boys are mid-table; the Cadettes had impressive wins over Luttrellstown and Loreto Beaufort while the boys’ most recent successes were wins over St. Mary’s College and Terenure College.

Our boys’ hockey teams have started the season really strongly, with some very impressive wins for our Under-13s and Under-14s in recent weeks. The Junior XI have been going exceptionally well, winning all their matches so far except for a narrow defeat to St. Andrew’s. Jan Dijkstra is a goal-scoring machine! Our Senior XI were unlucky to miss out on All-Ireland qualification but have had some good wins since, most notably a 8-0 win over St Kilian’s. A busy programme of girls’ hockey continued; the Minor and Junior Girls’ teams had some good performances while the Senior XI’s best win (4-0) came against East Glendalough.

Sports Photos 2023/2024
Sports Photos 2023/2024
48 photos
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Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal 2023

It’s that time of the year again – the Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal aims to collect and deliver wrapped and packed shoeboxes, full of toys and essentials, for some of the poorest children in the world. To date, over 2 million such boxes have been handed directly to children all around the world and the College are delighted to have a long-standing relationship with this wonderful charity.

Last year, our Transition Year pupils (ably assisted by Mr Paul Cron) filled over 200 boxes while also volunteering at the Team Hope warehouse, packing additional boxes and loading lorries destined for Eastern Europe and beyond. We hope to top that figure this year but need your help.

Over the half term, we would greatly appreciate if you could make up a box/boxes or collect some fillers for the boxes or even empty shoeboxes and bring them back to school after the break. All completed boxes or fillers can be brought to the collection point in Gwynn or left in the staff common room. You can also donate online via the Team Hope website.

Five simple steps to follow:

Get a shoebox, wrap the box and lid separately with Christmas paper (we have already wrapped 150 boxes, so if if this is too much hassle fill one of our boxes)

Decide to whom you want to give your gift (boy or girl) and what age: 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14.

Fill the box = use our 4 W’s as a guide (Wash, Write, Wear, Wow – more details below)

Close the box with an elastic band – please don’t seal with tape as the contents of each box have to be checked to comply with regulations.

Please include the €4 for transport in your leaflet envelope either on top of the gifts or taped to the inside of the lid.

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Golf Academy Official Launch

We were delighted to welcome Irish golfing legend and former Ryder Cup player and captain Paul McGinley to the College yesterday to officially launch the St. Columba’s College Golf Academy and open our new state-of-the-art indoor golf studio. Paul toured the new indoor studio, practised his putting and hit some balls on the new golf simulator. Afterwards, he attended an intimate function in Whispering House and took questions from those in attendance.

The Golf Academy now have a fantastic indoor facility to match our evolving practice area (new greens under construction) and of course our amazing nine-hole golf course. Josh Adams, our resident PGA professional, has created a vibrant programme for our young golfers along with teachers Ian O’Herlihy and Liam Canning.

We were also delighted to welcome to the school representatives from five local golf clubs Kilmashogue, Stackstown, Rathfarnham, Grange and Edmondstown. The school is surrounded by fantastic golf courses (the five listed are all within walking distance, with Kilmashogue GC based on the College course) and our young academy golfers will get a chance to play them all over the course of the year.

You can find out more about golf at St. Columba’s here and check out the photos from the event below.

Golf Academy Official Launch
Golf Academy Official Launch
14 photos
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Form I & II Plays

The first drama productions of the year took place last Sunday night as our youngest actors took to the BSR stage for the annual Form I & II plays. Many of the young cast members were “threading the boards” for the first time and these short plays tend to serve as great stepping stones to greater dramatic challenges in the months or perhaps years ahead.

This year’s Form I play was a medieval comedy called ‘A Good Knight’s Work’ by Allan Mackey. The young cast were full of energy on the night as three brave knights battled each other, fire-breathing dragons and a bloodthirsty executioner for the hand of the fair princess. There were plenty of laughs and the odd groan at the brilliant terrible puns.

The Form II play was an adaptation of the Oscar Wilde short story’ The Canterville Ghost’. Once again there were plenty of laughs as Sir Simon, the 300 year old ghost haunting Canterville Castle, grows increasingly exasperated at the new American owners who refuse to be frightened by him and his ghostly companions.

Well done to all the pupils involved (listed below) and to the staff (Mr Stewart, Mr Boobbyer, Mr Jones and Mr O’Shaughnessy) for directing.

Form I CastForm II Cast
Chamberlain – Georgia DobbsMr Otis – Finn
Servant – Henry van den BerghMrs Otis – Giacomo Borrilo
Trumpeter – Hugo BellewWashington – Wilfred Hui
Lord Lilly – Seán HennessyVirginia – Alice Hutchon
Lady Lilly – Laurence SunStars – Jason Otolorin
Lord Fitzroy – Max HeidenfeldStripes – Elijah Kim
Lady Fitzroy – Mena SweetmanSir Simon – Harry Casey
King Ferd – Christabella Osereme LynchThe Spirit – Claire Higgins
Queen Maud – Oyindamola OniThe Skeleton – Merida Zhang
Princess Adeline – Maureen DengNarrators: Finn Breatnach, Amy-Anne Newell and Divyaansh Bhardwaj
Executioner – Andrea Beggy
Magician – Charlie Dunleavy
Sir Blufus – Ivor Guinness
Sir Angus – Winnifred Cawley-Comerford
Sir Richard Trueheart – Eric Wang
Form I & II Plays 2023
Form I & II Plays 2023
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Transition Year Half Term News

The first eight weeks of Transition Year 2023-2024 have been typically hectic. In the classroom, the pupils continue to expand their knowledge and skills across a wide range of subjects and most recently received their Junior Cycle results. While we place a strong emphasis on academic progression in TY at St. Columba’s, there is still plenty of opportunity to explore interests beyond the classroom.

So far this term, the Transition Year pupils have welcomed Stephen Kiernan (motivational speaker), Alex Hibbert (Arctic explorer), John Lonergan (former Governor of Mountjoy), Fiona Boobbyer (expert on human trafficking) and Stephen Conway from Team Hope’s Christmas Shoebox Appeal. Visiting speakers are a great way of expanding the worldview of the pupils and we’re enormously grateful for all those who come and speak with our pupils.

There have also been several expeditions, with a visit to Flynn Park for outdoor activities an early highlight. They’ve also visited the Seán O’Casey Theatre to see ‘Bullied’, an excellent play on the theme, which was a Bullying Awareness Week activity. More recently, the TY biologists visited Dublin Zoo for an evolution workshop and, of course, had a chance to see the impressive animals there and explore the conservation work taking place there.

Charitable work is always at the core of our programme and we’ve been delighted to help fundraise for the Hope Foundation and Team Hope. The Transition Year pupils also organised a ‘Colour Run’ to help raise more funds for the Hope Foundation – it was a brilliant, colourful event and will surely cement itself in the College calendar.

The annual TY House Speech competition also took place. There was a high standard overall. Rebekah Fitzgerald Hollywood and Safia Walker were equal second, the clear winner being Grace Koch with her account of her great-grandmother, Freda Ulman Teitelbaum – you can read her speech here.

This week, the Transition Year pupils are completing their Community Involvement placement. This new addition to the TY programme sees every pupil work with a charitable or not-for-profit organisation, gaining valuable insight into teach charity but also building their knowledge of the world of work.

There’s been time for some fun activities too and most recently the TY pupils honed their pumpkin carving skills.

Well done to Ms Lynch and her team for putting together and coordinating the complex machine that is the Transition Year.

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Leinster Schools Golf Competition

The College’s young golfers recently competed in the Leinster Secondary School’s Under 19 Golf Championship, after an absence of nearly twenty years. This is a gross score singles and team event held last Monday in nearby Stackstown Club. Each team comprised of four players with the better three scores counting for the team score. Due to illness, a key player had to withdraw late putting added pressure on our other three players Harry Smith Huskinson (5th Form), Rafael Martinez Tavio (Third Form) and Mateo Munoz-Rogas Salinas (in the First Form and the youngest competitor at twelve years of age). Rafael and Mateo had an impressive gross stableford score of 27 points, making them tied 26th out of 113 competitors; Harry, our team Captain, scored a creditable 24 points in 46th place. 

St. Columba’s was placed 16th out of the 39 competing school teams.

Josh Adams, our PGA professional and Golf Academy leader, was justifiably very proud of our young players who were playing the course for the first time.

Leinster Schools U19 Results Stackstown Golf Club.

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Transition Year House Speeches

Congratulations to Grace Koch, the winner of this year’s Transition Year House Speeches, which took place last weekend. Grace gave a powerful and well-delivered speech, with a personal connection to her Great Grandmother Freda Teitelbaum’s experience with anti-semitism and concentration camps. In joint second, Rebekah Fitzgerald Hollywood spoke confidently on Psychedelics and Psychology and the medicinal benefits of Psilocybin and Safia Walker on the fear and benefits of making a speech. Iona were the House winners.

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