National Youth Orchestra of Ireland - Again!

More congratulations are due to another TY member as Siobhan Brady received word earlier this week that she has been offered a place in the 'cello section of the  National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. Siobhan will be well known to all Columbans as she is a regular performer in school. As well as her talents with the 'cello she is also a talented vocalist and no less than the daughter of our illustrious Director of Music, Geraldine Malone Brady. Siobhan will have fellow TY-er Clara Booth (Harp) for company during rehearsals. Well done all!

Under 18’s Hockey Inter-Provincials

Harry in his Columban colours

Harry Morris has written below about playing representative Hockey for his province. 

The  final  squad  for  the U­-18 Leinster  Hockey  team  was  selected  two weeks  ago. There was a lot of  preparation  leading  up  to  the  interpros.  We played the Irish women’s team twice before the interpros. We beat them comfortably both times.  On  the  18^th  of   November  the  Leinster  squad  met  at  the  Stillorgan  Park  hotel  at  11 o’clock  and  checked  in .  From  there  we took  a 10  minute  drive  to UCD  and  did  short   practice  and  set  plays.

The atmosphere  leading  up  to  this  game  was  very  tense. I  had  not  really  experienced  anything  like  this  in my  hockey  life. I  was  excited  but  nervous  at  the  same  time  which  you  would  expect. From UCD  we  went  back  to  the  hotel  we  got changed  and  then  went  down  to  our  meeting  room  where  we  had  lunch  and  talked  about  our  tactics. It  was  around 11.30  when  we  got  there  and  are  game  started  at 1.

3-2. That  was  the  score  that  nearly  lost  us  the interpros.  We played terribly. When  we  got  back  to  the  hotel  we  talked  about  what  we had done wrong. After  that  we  just  relaxed  and dozed  off  to  bed, tomorrow   was  even  more  important  for  us  now. We  got  a  reception  call  at  8 o’clock  and  went  for  a  relaxing  jog  to  wake  the  body  up. We got breakfast  at  9 o’clock. Our first game was  at  1:00  against  Munster. We left  the  hotel  at  11:30  and  arrived  at  11:45.

We  won  comfortably  against   Munster  (9-2)  and  this  set  us  up  for   a  crunch  match  against  Ulster  later  that  day  as  Ulster  had  also  beaten  Munster. This  meant  that  Munster  had  to  beat  Ulster  for  us  to  have  a  chance of  winning  the tournament. To  our  amazement  Munster  beat  Ulster  (1-0)  with  Ulster  missing  a  stroke  on  the  final  whistle. It  only  remained  for  us  to beat  Munster  in  order  to  win  the  tournament  we  did so  by  beating  Munster  (9-2).

 It  was a  huge  honour  to  play  for  my  province  and  the  standard  was  better  than  anything  I  had  played  in  before.

Shortly after the interpros I received word that (along with R. Canning VI) I had been shortlisted for the U-18 Ireland squad - another great honour and no doubt another leap in standard.

For a full report on the tournament click here:

http://www.hookhockey.com/index.php/2011/11/advantage-ulster-at-u-18-leinster-u-16-on-top/

And here: http://www.hookhockey.com/index.php/2011/11/leinster-record-rare-interprovincial-double/

 

National Youth Orchestra of Ireland

Many congratulations to TY member Clara Booth who has been selected to play the harp in the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. A most accomplished musician, she has played in front of the college on several occasions already and we look forward to hearing her again soon.

Both Clara and fellow TYer Siobhan Brady have been awarded music scholarships by the college. Bravo!

International Maths Olympiad

Following an outstanding performance in his Junior Certificate Higher Level Mathematics Exam, William Wood has been invited to attend enrichment classes in UCD run by the International Mathematical Olympiad. These classes lead into Olympiad training classes where he may be selected to represent Ireland in the next IMO in July. The IMO is a prestigious annual team competition for mathematically talented second - level students. Ireland has participated in the competition since 1988, and Irish students have won medals in eight of those competitions. We wish William all the best and congratulate him on this fantastic achievement.