Our senior debaters travelled to C.B.S Kilkenny last night to oppose the motion, ‘Thirty years on the world is still no closer to ending the HIV and Aids epidemic.’ Unfortunately we were defeated to an experienced debating side. This was our first debate of the year and for all our debaters it actually was the first debate they ever competed in. It was a fantastic display from our debaters who put in a tremendous effort. Our next debate is away on the 16th of November against Presentation Secondary School.

This year’s First year Choir came together in mid-September and they rehearse for one class each week. There are 50 singers in this choir and they already make a really good sound. At the moment they preparing three songs for the Christmas Concert in December and these include; Yesterday, By the Waters of Babylon and This Little Light of Mine.

Christmas will be a busy time for them as they will be performing in The Christmas Concert at DLS and also the Carol Service. They will sing at Carols by Candlelight in the Sacred Heart Church on Monday December 17^th and this year they will perform at Winterval on Wednesday December 19^th. So they have lots to look forward to after Halloween and no doubt they will be great.

On Friday 26 th October a number of De La Salle Transition year students participated in a St Vincent De Paul Workshop.

The students engaged in group work and discussions on social justice, volunteering and awareness of SVP.

Ms Debbie O Halloran, SVP Education Officer and Ms Mc Manus Liaising Teacher assisted the students in setting up the  SVP youth  Conference  of 2018

Ultimate Frisbee takes flight in De La Salle College.

Destination: All Ireland Indoor Championship Finals in Kilkenny on the 13th March 2019.

On Friday 19th October 2018,  52 senior cycle students from De La Salle College Waterford represented our school for the first time in the South Regional Indoor Qualifiers in Ultimate Frisbee. The competition took place in the W.I.T. Arena and there were teams from Limerick, Cork and Waterford in attendance.

Our boys competed against the best in Munster claiming an astonishing 4 qualification spots from a possible 6 in total. They displayed their developing skills where one of the teams were victorious against the team who claimed top spot. They demonstrated their sportsmanship through the Spirit of the Game of Ultimate Frisbee. We are extremely proud of their achievements and we are now making plans for the finals in March.

Congratulations to the De La Salle College swimming team who represented the school in the Munster Schools competition in University of Limerick on Sunday 21st October.

Those involved were 2nd year student Rohit Das, 3rd year student Noah Cowman and Transition year student Cian Barrett.

These students distinguished themselves in their individual events and achieved personal best times in their respective events. Noah reached the final of the Backstroke 100m event and broke a new personal best time. Well done to all three students.

De La Salle Harty have played their first challenge on Sept 5^th against Ard Scoil Rís in Golden. Our 2019 joint captains are Cormac Power and Conor Ryan. We played 29 players in the challenge game that was competitive and a good start to our campaign this year which kicks off on October 17th v St Flannans of Ennis. We have a number of clubs involved – Ballygunner, Roanmore, Mt Sion , De La Salle,  Erins Own, Passage East, Mooncoin,  Ballyduff Lower and Butlerstown. The management team are Dermot Dooley,  Jonathan O Mordha and Marie Meagher. Our strength and conditioning coach is Gary Walsh of Waterford Warriors. We look forward to our next challenge game v st. Colmans next week. The players wanted to support Touching Hearts by printing and displaying the logo on the back of the jersey. It’s a charity that was set up to build a new early intervention centre for children between 0-6 years with additional needs. The centre also offers respite for families through aftercare and the project is ongoing.

De La Salle College Harty Cup Panel 2019

Management Dermot Dooley Jonathan O’ Mordha and Marie Meagher

Physio Stephen Flynn S&C Gary Walsh

The annual Awards ceremony was held on the 14th May. Thomas Barr past pupil gave the keynote address. Thomas is a very accomplished athlete. Thomas won gold in the 400 metres hurdles at the 2015 World University Games in South Korea with a time of 48.78 seconds. In April 2015, Thomas was named the European Athlete of the Month for, in part, being part of a national relay record and having a world-best time in the 400 metre hurdles. On 15 August at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Thomas finished second in his heat of the 400m hurdles. The following day he broke the Irish record and won his semi-final to qualify for the final in a time of 48.39. He finished fourth in the final.

The Junior Cycle Awards Scheme aims to recognise a pupil’s contribution to class and school life. The following criteria are used by teachers to nominate students for a Junior Award – courtesy, co-operative attitude, punctuality, attendance, classroom effort, excellent homework, improved behaviour, appearance/neat uniform, initiative, leadership qualities and extra-curricular
involvement.

Students are nominated by their teachers for Academic Awards at senior cycle. Extra-Curricular Awards are a very important part of the Awards scheme and include Sports awards, Young Scientist, Science Olympiad, Junk Couture Award,

Chaplain’s Award, Community Spirit Award, Lasallian Award, Senior Debating, Green Schools, Student Council Award, Construction Studies and Technology Wood best project awards. Specialist awards include Year Head Award, Principal’s Award, the Lesley Leahy Award in memory of our former beloved colleague Lesley. For the first time a special Music Bursary was presented on the night.

Andrew Mulhall with Kim Leahy who presented him with the ‘Lesley Leahy Award’

Oran Kelly with Brid Mulhearn who presented him with a Music Bursary.

David O’Hare with Thomas Barr Winner of the ‘Principal’s Award’.

De La Salle College, Senior Choir won on the double at this year’s Navan Choral Festival, coming first in two of the festival’s three competitions for secondary school choirs. They didn’t enter the third competition!

Three choirs competed in the Irish Song competition. De La Salle came first with a mark of 88. Later in the day, the Waterford choir performed in the main competition which had 17 entries. De La Salle out-performed some of Ireland’s top second-level schools such as Wesley College, Alexandra College, Ursuline Thurles and Maynooth Combined Community Colleges, coming first in the competition. They are now the 2018 Navan School Choir of the Year.

This is not their first success this year. In April, at the Cork International Choral Festival, they won the prestigious Irish Federation of Musicians Associated Professions Trophy for the best performance of a song in Irish by any school choir competing in this year’s festival.

Congratulations to the boys and their mentors. This is a great achievement.

De La Salle College captured the U15 Gaelic Football Eamonn Martin cup in style against Ennistymon of Clare on Monday last in Lattin in Co Tipperary on a score line of 1-9 to 0-5. De La Salle led from the off and were very unlucky when an early James Aylward goal was controversially disallowed as it was deemed to be a square ball. While De La Salle had most of the possession in the first half, they struggled to get scores. Mark Fitzgerald kept the scoreboard ticking over while Evan Hayes and Alex Keane worked hard in the forwards to show for the ball and were a constant threat. In fact most of De La Salle’s scores came from frees which was a reflection of their dominance up front. The backs and the goalkeeper, Luke Horgan, worked tirelessly and were solid as ever. Despite this dominance, De La Salle only led by a single point at half time, 0-4 to 0-3.

The second half saw a renewed determination and everyone upped their game significantly. With much more movement in the forwards, the scores started to come, both from frees and from play. Sean O Dwyer set up James Aylward who with cool deliberation slotted the ball past the Ennistymon goalkeeper for the only game of the match. This goal was the catalyst for the rest of the game with De La Salle ruling the roost for the last 20 minutes. Even when reduced to 14 men for an unfortunate red card, De La Salle kept their composure and with two points from Evan Hayes and a lovely dummy and point from Patrick Fitzgerald, it was only a matter of time before a Munster Gaelic Football title returned to De La Salle College for the first time since 2004.

Rugby in De La Salle College has exploded on to the scene this year. Both the u15 and u17 teams made a huge impression both in Waterford and beyond. The u17 team missed out on a place in the Munster finals by one score which was difficult for us all.

We managed to regroup and celebrate getting that far. Both Ms Walsh and Mr. Brady have so much admiration and respect for the boys.

The u15 team were able to take their 17 wins to the Munster finals and beat a very good opposition from Midleton in the final. Ms Walsh and Mr Brady knew before the game something magical was going to
happen that day. The boys were not leaving without a win. It was fitting that the entire team heaved to push Brendan Flynn over the line in the last second of play to score the winning try. We don’t think we will ever forget it…

This is the first time we have won any cup or trophy it is simply huge for us. All of the time spent standing in the rain on cold winters evenings suddenly seemed to make sense! In addition to the cup the boys also won tickets to see Munster take on Ulster. We had a great day out and the icing on the cake was to sit back and watch Jack O Donoghue captain the Munster team. Jack was captain of De La Salles first rugby team, that is something that we are very proud of. There are many boys breaking through to the Munster team and indeed the Irish team. To say that in some small way we played a part is just magical. We look forward to building on this year’s success next year and for the senior boys we are as proud of you as the u15 team. You carried yourself with dignity, you played with passion and we know the best is yet to come. Thanks everyone, have a lovely summer.