Happy Easter

Easter Newsletter

As we approach Easter, we take this opportunity to reflect on all that has been accomplished over the last few weeks. A great deal of work has been done in classrooms throughout the school, with students showing commitment and determination in all areas of their learning. In particular, this term has been very important for our Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate students, many of whom have been working steadily on subject projects and coursework.  Beyond the classroom, school life has remained vibrant and active. Our students have taken part in a wide range of sporting activities, representing the school with enthusiasm, teamwork, and pride. Their participation and commitment, both in training and competition, have contributed greatly to the strong sense of school spirit that has been evident throughout the term. Our Newsletter will provide you with a summary of our school events over the past few weeks. Finally, we wish all members of our school community a happy and restful Easter break and look forward to another successful term ahead.

Once you get to Christmas time, you are pretty much halfway through the year although it doesn't feel like that. This spring term has probably been the busiest term of the whole year.  We kicked off things with a media talk with a former principal. His special guest was ‘We Are Meath’ podcaster Davy Rispin. Calling him a podcaster is a colossal understatement as we quickly found out that this man pretty much covers every piece of sport in the County.  With the Oscars being the main news in the last few days, it's impossible not to mention the ‘Rubbish Film Festival’ which produced some very captivating pieces on the importance of ethical recycling. Although it was a very important event, I would say Michael B Jordan isn't too worried about competition from St Pat’s in the years to come.  January was a very significant month for the collaboration between St Pat’s and our neighbours Mercy. Home Economics classes took place on Wednesdays in Mercy. This was a big advantage for those who took part as the St Pat’s Cook Off is coming down the tracks in the next few weeks. A video workshop also took place in Mercy this month with films like ‘Titanic’ and ‘Italia 90’ being recreated with the most precise and historically accurate writing. Great performances from both sets of ‘actors’ who beautifully delivered one of the most famous and emotional stories of love, passion and heartbreak. Titanic was okay as well.  We fired up February with a Driving School at Navan racecourse. I don’t know who signed this off but a bunch of Pat’s fellas driving around a racetrack in a Ford is a fantastic idea. We learned to handle automatic and manual cars while also trying to calm down the terrified backseat drivers. Definitely one of the highlights of TY so far.  The next two weeks in February consisted of work experience and midterm break. The first week back we had the Monday off for a teacher training day. Maybe it was needed but we haven't noticed any signs of improvement yet.  On the 25th of February, we went to a French film at the Solstice about a French marching band. Some of the Spanish students were allowed to go as well. Thank God they had subtitles or everybody would have been lost. It was particularly embarrassing when the Spanish students were able to recognize as much French as we French students. 5th year will be very interesting, n’est pas? The month was capped off with a fundraiser for esophageal cancer. It was incredibly successful and a true representation of how courteous and respectful this group of students can be.  We were boxing each other on the first day of March. It was an Irish speaking fella who ran the workshop showing us the ropes. People were practicing their japs and hooks for the rest of the week! For TYB, this was an especially handy thing to have learned as they visited Wheatfield prison the very next day. Meanwhile, TYC headed down to Loreto for a social justice talk with Sinead Burke. She spoke about her time in Loreto and her struggle with discrimination in her later life; a very moving and thought provoking speech.  From pretty much the entire year up until March, Mercy had been working behind the scenes to produce what had promised to be the TY show to end all TY shows! Pat’s were invited down to witness this moment of history. I was lucky enough to be there and I can't stress enough that it certainly was special.  The next day after we had time to recharge after the show, the Shamrock Festival lads began fundraising for this year's parade. It may have been coincidental that it seemed to be the day the pensions were being collected but all the senior citizens were very generous and we raised more than enough to make this a fantastic event.  TYC had their cook off practice on Wednesday the 11th of March but for some reason not many people in the other classes were in. The next day there was a weird illness that meant everyone in TY was absent. Thankfully it passed so people were ready for Friday.  And this Friday was significant. This marked the last day of preparation for the St Patrick’s Day parade which was partly being organised by St Pat’s and Mercy. It all started in October when Karen from the Shamrock Committee came into Pat’s to find helpers for the parade. Little did we know we were signing over our lives for the next five months. Blood, sweat, toil, tears and a whole lot of dossing went into this operation that made the moon landings look like a cheap Sunday drive. A football blitz and treasure hunt were planned for the week before Patrick’s Day. I myself along with my co-conspirator Conan Tansey played a significant role in the making of this event. We couldn’t do it alone however and were joined by the elite of TY to really secure the success. Karen joined the two schools together. Hours and hours of preparation were put into this and there was a mixture of nerves and excitement as the day of the blitz and hunt came around. On behalf of the schools and Shamrock committee, we apologise for the traffic jams and pure chaos caused by the sheer size of the events. We really didn’t expect the level of numbers, let alone the celebrities they would attract. We will try to tone it down for next year as after all, St Patrick’s Day is first and foremost about community involvement and local celebrations. The best thing I have been a part of this year without a shadow of a doubt! Thomas Connell TYC

Hard luck to the Senior Rugby team who lost yestreday in the Vinnie Murray Cup quarter final to a very strong St Fintans Side. Attached are pictures taken from the game. (Many thanks to and courtesy of Paula Greif). St Pat’s try scoreres on the day were Michael Cahallane, Luke Brady and Ishan Dharmasena

All here at St Pat’s would like to thank our friends at Lydon Farrell Auctioneers for their support in sponsoring a set of Hoodies for our Junior and Senior Rugby Team. Pictured here, Ciaran Lydon presented the hoodies to Mr McGarry, Jack and Jimmy Shorten.   Both the Junior and Senior Teams play in Leinster League Finals tomorrow against Naas and Wilson’s Hospital. The Games take place at 12.00 (J) and 2.00 (S) in Mullingar RFC and all Support is welcome.

Well done to our Cross Country teams who were competing in the North Leinsters last Friday. Our minors placed 4th team overall narrowly missing qualification for Leinsters with Austin Barry qualifying individually. Our Juniors placed 3rd overall and qualified for Leinsters and our Intermediates and Seniors performed with great skills. Congratulations and well done to all students and their teachers Katriona Kelly and Cathal O’Reilly.

Presentation of our donation of €2000 to Jigsaw Navan of our fundraising for Christmas. Similar donations were also made to Meals on Wheels, Meath Women’s Refuge and SVP Navan. Thanks to everyone for their generosity during the Christmas period and a special thank you to Mr.Cathal O’Reilly for coordinating these fundraisers. 

Past pupil, Paul Connell gave a talk to the senior physics students in St Pats about his  career in the semiconductor industry . Paul holds a senior position in global operations for a  company called ASM (Advanced Semi-conductor Materials) which is shaping the future at  the atomic level. ASM enable the next generation of microchips by empowering leading  semiconductor manufacturers like Intel with advanced wafer processing equipment. Through  their mastery of thin-film deposition, they create the innovative tools and solutions that shape  the materials at the heart of tomorrow’s technology – powering everything from AI and next generation healthcare to cloud computing and smarter, more energy-efficient computing  devices.   Paul gave a fascinating talk about the advanced technology needed to create a silicon wafer and the processes involved in manufacturing the latest microchips used for advanced  computing. Paul brought a finished silicon wafer with him to the talk, it was 300mm in  diameter and contained over 250 microchips. These silicon wafers are very expensive and  are typically ten’s of thousands of euro each.  To the naked eye the silicon wafer looked completely flat but if you could walk on the crystal  at a nano level, it would be like walking around Manhattan such is the level of detail and  precision.   Paul very generously donated ten smartphones to the physics lab with a combined value of  4000 euro saying;  “ASM are delighted to provide funding for the science department in St Patrick’s Classical .  school. This helps us grow and stay ahead of what’s next through community partnerships  that advance ASM in society.”     Physics teacher in St Pats , Martin Cunniffe said we are always delighted to welcome back  past pupils to the school ,we love to hear their story about where life has taken them ,so  many of them like Paul have reached the very top of their chosen profession and they are  always willing to give something back .We are very grateful to Paul for his generous  donation ,smartphones with the advanced apps now available can act like mini labs ,  generating ,storing and analyzing real time data.

Well done to the following students who competed in the Leinster Senior Schools Swimming Gala in the National Aquatic Centre at the weekend: Josh Lowry (1R) , Fionn Lynch (1P), Cillian Caden (1T) and Ethan Kerrigan (3P). The Josh, Fionn and Ethan are members of the Kells swim clubs and the 3 lads had smashed PBs in each of their swims so a great achievement. The lads achieved the following results:   Josh competed in two events:  100 Breaststroke PB 1.25.88 200 IM (Medley) PB 2.47.97 Fionn: 100 Freestyle PB 1.14.64 Ethan competed in two events: 100 Backstroke PB 1.14.39 100 Freestyle PB 1.01.45 Cillian is a member of the National Aquatic Swim Club and competed very well on the day. All students represented St. Patrick’s Classical School. Brilliant achievements keep up the good work!!

Match Report

St Patrick’s CS 4-10 Coláiste Mhuire 3-12 St Patrick’s CS Navan retained the North Leinster JFC A title with a hard fought win against Coláiste Mhuire Mullingar in Abbotstown on Wednesday, For much of the encounter it looked like the Navan school would win at their ease thanks to a brilliant start which saw them take a 3-4 to no score lead after just 13 minutes. Wing back Oisin Giles got the scoring underway after breaking through the Mullingar defence to finish to the net. The impressive Harry McGuirk landed a two pointer before captain Conn Brennan lashed home another goal. A flurry of quick points and another goal from McGuirk had Pat’s 13-points clear. Coláiste Mhuire finally found their feet and hit four points in the second quarter but Pat’s replied with singles from Brennan and McGuirk to lead 3-6 to 0-4 at the interval. WIth a swirling breeze in their favour Coláiste Mhuire needed a good second half start but instead Pat’s stretched the advantage with points from McGuirk (free) and Johnny Finnegan. When Tomas Proudfoot set up Brennan for his second goal midway through the half, the Pat’s advantage was 4-9 to 0-6. With ten minutes to go Coláiste Mhuire had the deficit down to 12-points and got a lifeline when referee Brian O’Connor awarded a penalty after a Pat’s defender played the ball back to goalkeeper Ryan McDonnell. There was debate over whether it should have been a 13m free but Hugo Corroon made no mistake from the spot. Within a minute they had a second goal when full back Louis Dillon reacted the quickest to a shot that came back off an upright to first time to the Pat’s net. A two pointer from the Mullingar side brought it to four points as the game went into added time before Zak Bates hit his side’s third goal in the last play of the match with the full time whistle blowing as the ball was kicked out. St Patrick’s: Ryan McDonnell (St Ultan’s Cortown Gaels), Art O’Neill (Dunderry), Niall Rogan (St Michael’s), Ben Browne (Simonstown Gaels), Oisín Giles 1-0 (Skryne), Michael Gormley (Gaeil Colmcille), Conor Larkin (Carnaross), Conn Brennan 2-2 (St Ultan’s Cortown Gaels), Tomás Proudfoot (St Ultan’s Cortown Gaels), Eanna Kenny (Simonstown Gaels), Cormac McKenna (Wolfe Tones), Johnny Finnegan 0-1 (Seneschalstown), James Heery 0-1 (Senechalstown), Patrick Travers (St Ultan’s Cortown Gaels), Harry McGuirk 1-6 (Navan O’Mahony’s).  Subs: Joe Kearney (Simonstown Gaels) for Travers 36min, Eli Clynch (St Ultan’s Cortown Gaels) for Kenny 44min.  Unused subs: Zach Jacob (Navan O’Mahony’s), Ruairí McDermott (Simonstown Gaels), Conan Tansey (Navan O’Mahony’s), Liam Roche (Walterstown), Rian Carolan (Simonstown Gaels), Charlie Reuter (Skryne), Charlie McHugh (Dunderry), Ben O’Rourke (Dunderry), Eli Gibbons (Ballivor), Jack Kenny (Ballivor), Andrew Ormsby (Navan O’Mahony’s), Cillian Fitzsimons (Navan O’Mahony’s), Darragh Reynolds (Walterstown), Jayden Gillen (Dunderry), Joseph McCann (Slane), Conor Fitzpatrick (Simonstown Gaels), Sean Clarke (Skryne), Conor Kelly (Walterstown), Emmet O’Neill (Slane), Darragh Ward (Navan O’Mahony’s), Kealan Sheerin (Ballivor), James Comasky (Dunderry).

Divison 2 Leinster finals runners up. Well done to the following students: Eoghan Sheridan, Sean Lahart, Cormac Prior and Ben Greif. A special thanks to Ms.Egan their coach. 

Congratulations to 1st Years Sean Rogers, Tom Lawlor and Harry Kelly and 2nd years Aodhan Finegan and Leon Egan who both won 1st place in Innovation and 1st place in their category in the County Final of the Student Enterprise Awards. Aodhan and Leon also won best Dragons Den Pitch. They won €500 and Sean, Tom and Harry won €400.  They will both go on to represent Meath in the National Final of the Student Enterprise Awards in Mullingar on the 7th May.

Twelve of our 6th year Higher level Maths students took part in the regional IMTA Team Maths Competition on Thursday 5th March. The competition took place in St. Patricks college in Cavan and the standard was extremely high. All our teams performed really well with one team coming in 2nd place and the other two teams coming joint 6th place. Congratulations to all involved.

Congratulations to Eoin Keveney, Niall Seery, Abdo Osman and Max Greif (absent from photo) who were presented with IMTA trophies by Mr Mc Garry for achieving 2nd place at the Team Maths Regional Competition. Team Maths is a challenging maths competition for 6th year higher level students. Well done to all the students who took part. Thanks also to Mrs.Tobin for organising the helping the team. 

Well done to all twelve 3rd year students who took part in the Pi Maths Regional Competition today in Drogheda Grammar School. A total of 29 teams took part in the competition and the standard was extremely high. Special congratulations to Cormac Prior, Daniel McCaughey, Ryan McKenna and Jack Kenny who came 1st place to win the competition. They will now progress to the National Finals of the Pi Maths competition in Portlaoise. 

Our 5th Year French students took a trip to the IFI in Dublin on March the 19th to watch a screening of the French film La Fanfare, The Marching Band. All the students agreed it was an excellent film and a great day out was had! 

Our First Year Basketballers made history today becoming the first St. Pat’s team to win a Regional ‘A’ Final. The team was dealt a blow over the weekend with our captain Patrick Shorten being ruled out with an injury.  Vice Captain Jack Farrell stepped up to the plate and led his team from tip-off. The team faced a tough Dunshaughlin side who topped their group a number of weeks ago.  The lads got off to a fantastic start with one of the best displays of basketball by a St. Pat’s team preventing Dunshaughlin from scoring at all in the first quarter while putting 11 points on the board themselves.  As the game progressed the team kept pressure on Dunshaughlin who never got within nine points of the Pat’s lads.  The game finished on a scoreline of 50-24 securing this historic win for the school.  This is a massive achievement for this team as they won the Boys ‘A’ School’s Final today with no club players on the court.  Today’s win is a testament to the hard-work and diligence of this team who have trained hard since October.  They have shown that with commitment, hard-work and a positive attitude they have the potential to be one of the top teams in the country.  The lads have a fantastic sporting future ahead of them and we wish them all the best in their preparations for the All-Ireland Competition in the University of Limerick in May. A massive thank you to Mr. Bellew & Mr. Murphy for coaching them all year. 

Well done to all our track and Field team today in a wet and wintry Santry. Big congratulations to our Second year team who placed Bronze…Logan Cudlipp Cholette Adam Kirwan, Kyle O’Donohoe and Cian Reeves. Fantastic achievement in Leinster. Thanks to Mr.O’Reilly and Ms.Duffy for organising the team.