There are two summer reading lists just out which visitors to the site may be interested in –

The Librarian, Ms Kent-Sutton, has compiled a list for pupils which can be downloaded here, or read online here.

The English Department is back with another parents’ reading suggestions list here (26 books over 6 pages), or if that isn’t enough there’s an extended version with all past issues here.  And again both are online as flippable Issuu versions here.

The evening of Sunday 28th May saw the annual Voices of Poetry magic in the Big Schoolroom. Expertly marshalled by Mr Swift, a mixture of pupils and staff read out short poems in English and many other languages.

Primary pupil Carl Krenski kicked off with a Robert Service poem, and, from the other end of the school Senior Prefect Blanaid Sheeran gave us ‘The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently‘ by the fine American Poet Thomas Lux.

The first Nigerian language, Urhobo, was represented by a poem read by Ella Ejase-Tobrise, and the second, Yoruba, by Seyilogo Braithwaite. Mimi Garcia (Catalan) and Casper von der Schuelenburg (Spanish) followed, and this foreign language section was completed by Elena Sirazetdinova reading her own poem in Russia with compelling intensity.

The winner of the Junior Poetry Prize, Tania Stokes, read this poem, ‘Resonance’, for which she was awarded the prize.

Kim Voggel (German), Aleksandra Murphy (Polish),  Lucas Cho (Korean), Vietnamese (William Zitzmann) and Irish (Katherine Kelly, with Megan Bulbulia providing the English translation) were next up.

Three long-term teachers, who are shortly retiring, gave their poetic ‘valetes’ – Dr Garry Bannister, Mrs Frances Heffernan and Mr Fraser Morris. There was a mixture of the light-hearted, the deeply personal and the grippingly emotional in the five poems they recited.

French (Nyla Jamison), Yoruba again (Harry Oke-Osanyintolu) and Latin (Julius Reblin with some Horace, and JiWoo Park with the translation) completed the foreign language poems, before the Warden gave a memorable rendition of Hilaire Belloc’s ‘Matilda’, which he knew off by heart.

Finally, another Primary pupil brought us full-circle, with Nikolai Foster reading Yeats’s beautiful ‘Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven‘, an appropriately magical end to the evening.

[first posted on SCC English]

On Sunday morning a group of 11 TY pupils walked along the Bull Wall to the lighthouse. Our run of luck with the weather continued and we enjoyed wonderful views across Dublin Bay.

The first new prospectus for some years has just come out. A beautiful production designed by Red Dog and with photography by Finn Richards, it can be requested from the College office by clicking here. It provides a thorough introduction to the school for any parent thinking of sending their son or daughter here, and is particularly strong visually. It includes 12 testimonials from Old Columbans who have been successful in a range of fields. Click here for a small selection of the photographs featured.

Congratulations to our Head of Irish, Dr Garry Bannister, on his latest excellent book, Proverbs in Irish, published by New Island Books.

An additional Columban connection is that pupil Tania Stokes has supplied the colour illustrations.

In the words of the publishers:

“Proverbs are like people – they can be humorous, sad, old, young, even have their own offspring. But they can also tell us a great deal about the time, the place and the culture that created them.

Proverbs are, however, much more than that. They are windows into our past, and a friendly nod from our ancestors. Sometimes they can remind us of our parents or grandparents as we once again hear their kindly voices speak to us in words of folk wisdom.

This book offers mainly Irish folk proverbs, but there is also a selection from Irish literature, the Bible, and other languages.

Garry Bannister travelled to Russia at the end of the 1970s, where he helped to establish the first Department of Modern Irish at Moscow State University. He has devoted many years to studying the writings of Tomás Ó Criomhthain, the literary works of Pádraic Ó Conaire, and the development of modern Irish literature in the first half of the twentieth century. Amongst his many publications he has to his name a number of popular dictionaries.”