St. Aidan’s C.B.S.,Whitehall, DublinScoil Aodháin, Fionnbhrú, Baile Átha Cliath

News UpdateNews UpdateNews UpdateEaster 2015

HAPPY EASTERThis term has been a very busy one kicking off with a full Whole SchoolEvaluation by the Department of Education. Needless to say it was all hands ondeck to showcase our terrific school. The inspectors were very impressed withthe teaching and the students. They were very taken with the student’sexcellent behaviour around the school, also their interaction with teachers andone another in class. It is one of the many reasons we as a staff are so proud tobe teaching in St Aidan’s.

The sporting achievements continue to flourish this year in the school thanksto the many committed, determined students and coaches, so make sure toread our sporting section! Upcoming events are “Take me Out” a fundraiser forImmersion on the 20th March. Transition Years will be jetting off to sunny Italyfor five days, 29th March – 2nd April under their leader Mr. O Deneher andeleven teachers. They will be taking in all the sights visiting Verona, Venice,Milan and not forgetting the theme park Gardaland. Drama Club andTransition Years are staging a co-production in the Axis Theatre, Ballymun onMay 13th an event not to be missed.

This year’s Awards Night takes place on Thursday 7th May at 7pm, always agreat night to see all our student’s wonderful achievements. This year as part ofour 50th Anniversary celebrations their will be a Past Pupil Exhibition takingplace on the 15th -17th May, so don’t delay submit a work of Art to celebratethis event. Contact Ms. D Mc Quaid at St Aidan’s in relation to this. Immersionalso are having an Art Exhibition the same weekend as a fundraising event runby the members of the Ballygall Art Studio who paint beautiful pictures to raisefunds for charity. It will be a wonderful cultural weekend

Wishing all the staff, students and their families a very happy and peacefulEaster.

Prayer for Easter

God’s Dream.I myself will dream a dream within you....Good dreams come from me you know....My dreams seem impossible,

not too practical,not for the cautious man or woman....

a little risky some times,a trifle brash perhaps....

Some of my friends preferto rest more comfortably,

in sounder sleep,with visionless eyes....

But, for those who share my dreamsI ask a little patience,

a little humour, some small courage,and a listening heart,

I will do the rest.

Then they will risk and wonder at their daring....Run, and marvel at their speed....Build, and stand in awe at the beauty of their building.

You will meet me often as you work...In your companions, we share the risk....In your friends, who believe in you enough

to lend their own dreamstheir own handstheir own heartsto your building –

In the people who stand in your doorway,stay a whileand walk away knowing that you too can find a dream.

There will be sun-filled daysand sometimes it will rain-

a little varietyBoth come from me.

So come now, be content – It is my dream you dream,

my house you build,my caring you witnessmy love you share

And this is the heart of the matter.

Charles Peguy

NEW Activity Camp in St Aidan's this EasterThe Get Up & Go activity camp is for boys and girlsaged 5 - 15 years old and will run for one weekduring Easter (30th March - 3rd April) and threeweeks during the Summer (13th - 31st July).

This fun and exciting camp will involve activitiessuch as sports, dance, arts and crafts - there issomething for everyone!!

For more information please visit our website at:www.getupandgocamps.com

We look forward to meeting you and your child this Easter!

Contact Hannah McDonnell today at:Phone 085 130 6500Email: info@getupandgocamps.com

Night at the Races

On the 15th December 2014 our students raised€777.85 with their bucket collection in the OmniShopping Centre for the Peter McVerry Trust.Paula from the Peter McVerry Trust wrote to thankthe students for helping out at this collection eachyear and to express how much they appreciate thecontinued support.

Fundraising for Peter McVerryTrust

To All the Boys who helped with ‘Toys forTemple Street’,

Thank you so much for your very kind donationof Christmas Gifts to the Play Department. Wewere delighted to receive donations such as

yours, as we can give each child a Christmas gift. You can be sure that your giftwill have helped to make hospital more enjoyable for our patients; - it was verygood of you to think of us. Big thank you to Ms. S Walsh for organising yourvery kind donation.

A Thank You from Temple St. Children’s HospitalDublin Senior All-IrelandWinner Shares his BusinessSuccess

Double All-Ireland winner for the Dublin Seniorfootballers, Kevin McManamon, visited St. Aidan'sto discuss his business, Fresh Foods Direct with ourtransition year students. Kevin discussed his journeyin starting up his own business at a young age whilststudying Business and Management at the DublinInstitute of Technology, Aungier Street. Manytopical business concepts were illustrated by Kevinduring his talk such as how he marketed his product,decided on the name of the company, sourcedfinance, registered his company and the importanceof his relationship with clients. Students were giventhe opportunity to engage in a Q&A session withKevin and find out both the benefits and drawbacksof being successful a sole trader whilst managing ademanding training schedule for the Dublin Seniorteam.

The fundraising committee would like to thank everyone for theircontributions towards the "Night at the Races". The support and kindwords leading up to, on and indeed following the night itself were greatlyappreciated by all. David Finn, a fine young man in fifth year won thebuster prize of €1000. The raffle on the night was a huge success. To date the total money raised after expenses was €4397 !!!! This moneywill go towards sports equipment for the new gym. Well done everyone!

Catholic Schools Week

On Tuesday 27th January 2nd years attended the localmass in Holy Child as part of celebrating CatholicSchools Week. They were so well behaved, well done.

Stop Everything andRead

This year's Stop Everything and ReadWeek took place Monday 9th -Friday 13th February. Teachers put upposters of their favourite book at themoment on their doors and thestudents stopped everything to readfor 20 minutes a day. Monday kickedoff with a short story for everyoneand all the students really enjoyed theday the sweets appeared during theirreading time.

St. Aidan's Return ToAxis Theatre,Ballymun

We are delighted to announce thatDrama Club and TY are staging a co-production in Axis Theatre,Ballymun on May 13th! Rehearsalshave begun for what promises to bethe best year yet! Tickets will be onsale in the coming weeks, look outfor the posters in the GPA.

Last year's TY production in AxisTheatre

IMMERSION UPDATEThe boys from the Immersion Team have been working extremely hard since December and have raised €12,000.They have busywith various creative fundraising projects including a very successful clothes for cash where families in the school dropped in bags oftheir old clothes which was a great success. They have gone bag packing at various locations, non- uniform day and have pedalled onthe spot to Tanzania in the Omni on Saturday 28th February, while bucket collecting. A community walk was held on SaturdayMarch 7th which had a great turn out and the craic was mighty. Next up it’s the one that everybody is talking about, the Take MeOut is on Friday March 20th in Whitehall Colmcille's hall!! There is no shortage of lads who want to try and impress to hopefully geta date on the night! It should be great craic. Tickets are €10 and are selling fast. It will be a great show and we would be delighted ifyou can make it. Keep up the good work, a big thanks for all your support from Mr. P Traynor, Ms. N Bhraonain, Ms. T Nash and theboys from the Immersion team.

Love is all we Need

The annual talent show took place Thursday 11th December 2014 to anenchanted audience. It is always great to see the many talents our students have.They entertained us with a variety of acts from dancing, piano playing, jugglingguitar playing and singing. It was a tough decision but the winners on the daywere Jason Liu, Frank Udama and the band (John McCardle, Peter Greene andDaniel Rock). Well done to all involved and special thanks to Mr.R Gill and Ms.ZKennedy and the Student Council.

XFactor St. Aidan’s Style

Winners ofPerfectAttendanceAward atAssembly with Mr. BHarringtonand Mr. M McCafferty.

Well done to all 1st and 2nd years whoparticipated in this year's ValentineReadings. Special thanks to GeorgePaatashvili, 5th year, for reading hiswonderful poem "Together". We arelucky to have such a wealth of poetictalent here in St. Aidan's!

Happy DaysThe boys enjoyed their non-uniform day in aid ofTanzania, a very good cause last Friday 30th January2015. The Immersion team collected the money andwe are awaiting the final total raised. Well done to allinvolved.

It seems that our senior footballers get some strange pleasure out of

dragging themselves and all of us through every emotion possible. They

did it last year – they did it this year. They ultimately ended as Dublin ‘A’

champions and narrowly beaten Leinster quarter-finalists; but this

synopsis certainly doesn’t tell the tale of another remarkable year.

At a meeting in October our senior team set out two simple targets – win

a first Dublin ‘A’ title in 43 years and have a run in Leinster. No mean

ambitions for a school which hadn’t been at this grade in decades. Early

victories over St Fintan’s and Ardscoil Ris set up a semi-final with St

Benildus and this is where the fun began. 5 minutes in – Aaron Elliott

breaks his finger and has to go to hospital. We go behind, pull it back. Go

ahead, are caught in the last minute. Benildus miss a last-minute free to

clinch the game. Gavin King is sent off. The match goes to extra-time. St

Aidan’s finally pull away and reach the final. Meanwhile, training sessions

are moved to before school. 7.30am starts seemed to energise many of the

lads who were intent on challenging for a Leinster title. Christmas

sessions and challenge game defeats to Good Counsel, Wexford and St

Colman’s Newry left us ready to tackle former Leinster kingpins St

Peter’s of Wexford in the first round of Leinster. St Aidan’s has been

involved in many memorable GAA matches recently but few will rival

this one for drama and excitement. On a windswept pitch in Carlow our

lads went 9 points down but rallied to earn a draw. They went behind

again in extra-time but produced an extraordinary effort against the wind

in the final 15 minutes to sneak home by a single point. This game

epitomised all that is great about this panel of players. The courage and

never-say-die attitude; the willingness to work tirelessly for each other;

their incredible composure under pressure; their true footballing ability.

These qualities were evident again in the quarter-final as a St. Mel’s team

who have more Leinster Colleges Titles than any other were forced to

point a late free to defeat our seniors. Sadly, a poor first half performance

on a snowy pitch in Killoe proved our undoing, and despite a brave

comeback St Mel’s snatched a one point victory. Many teams would find

it difficult to recover from such a loss, but not this one. They regrouped

and prepared to face Maynooth PP in the Dublin ‘A’ Colleges Final, a title

that 17 schools have won since St Aidan’s were last managed to glory by

Br Coffey. Maynooth were going for 3 in a row here. This, coupled with

the fact that they fielded 6 Kildare minor panellists gives some indication

of just how special this performance was. St Aidan’s completely

outplayed the champions who have years of experience at this level,

scoring 2-16 just as they did in the semi-final. It was a performance

befitting of such an historic win, and one which showed just how good

this team are. It was also a fitting manner for some of our lads to end their

involvement in St Aidan’s GAA. A huge thanks to our Sixth Years Sean

Brennan, Elliot Craig, Cathal Doran, Aaron Elliott, Conor Kavanagh, John

Connell, Jeff Rafter, Peter Hunt, Niall Norman, Kevin Ross, Conor

Farrell, Aidan Giles and Michael Curley. The other panel members will

have their names written in future reports here. More glory beckons.

Congratulation to our basketball team on winning the Dublin A Plateon the 9th December 2014. St. Aidan's CBS are the Dublin U16 Abasketball plate winners 2014. Congratulations to all involved. The firstand second year basketball teams have been very successful this year.Both teams qualified for the Dublin A quarter finals but sadly they lost49 31 to Presentation Bray first years. They are full of talent enthusiasmand commitment keep up the good work.

Senior Football 2014/2015

Well done to the U14s A badminton team. They are enjoying everyminute of practice and participating in the matches. They narrowlylost to Ardscoil B but were victorious against Ardscoil. They narrowlylost out against Gormanston College and they drew 3-3 to St. Fintan’s.Keep up the good work!

U14S A BADMINTON TEAMBasketball Dublin A Plate Winners

Having competed magnificently in both the Umbro Cup and Metropolitan

League competitions, St .Aidan's soccer team fell agonisingly short of glory at

Home Farm F.C. on Tuesday 3rd March 2015. Both newcomers to Schools'

soccer, St. Aidan's CBS and St. David's CBS played out a thrilling

Metropolitan Cup Final the coveted prize a place in the respective school

history books as the first to win a trophy. St. Aidan's last representative team

had reached a final way back in 1990 and sadly the same fate lay in wait for Jeff

Rafter's team. Extraordinarily vocal and witty support made for a fantastic

atmosphere among both sets of supporters as the teams were led out for

Amhrán na bhFiann in brilliant blue sunshine and icy temperatures. St.

Aidan's played in their changed colour of White and Argentina blue but were

offered the title of Home side. A St. David's side, representing their school at

soccer for the very first year and comfortably reaching a final while doing so

proved tough opposition from the off and seemed to play with more purpose.

Somewhat against the run of play however St Aidan's opened the scoring on

15 minutes. An Andy Gorman free-kick from the right hand side was headed

authoritatively to the back of the net by Captain Jeff Rafter to the sheer

delight of the St. Aidan's legions. More of the same was to follow from

Captain Fantastic, but not before an error at the back allowed St.David's

through for the first of their two fortuitous goals. From the same position but

this time from the left boot of an inspired Adam Mc Mahon,Jeff Rafter

powered his second header past the St. David's keeper and all could be

forgiven for thinking that as the set pieces were bearing fruit, our luck was in.

A Liam Brady text that arrived that morning resonated: "A message for the St

Aidan’s soccer team. I want to wish you the best of luck in today’s final.

Getting there is an achievement but winning is what's it is all about! You only

remember it if you win. Liam Brady". The fresh second half start that our

boys made seemed to drain David's somewhat of their earlier pomp and slick

ball retention; and had the ball fallen more kindly to Dylan Buckley in the

box, a third Aidan's goal would likely have seen us home. However, a ball

played across the box fell kindly to the David's number 9 who gratefully

slipped the equalizer home. It was everyone's privilege to witness the best of

Andy Gorman's sorcery as he constantly delighted supporters with his

weaving runs and craft. Sadly, the final draft of this season's script was to

contain no glittering prize, as the well taken 3rd goal for David's delivered the

killer blow. Jeff Rafter showed maturity, class and composure beyond his

years in his captain's speech. Messages arrived complimenting the

marvellous contribution of players and supporters. Mr. Kelly and Mr.

Humphreys echo them. The beauty of sport is that there is always another

team, another Andrew Gorman, another Jeff Rafter waiting in the wings for

their shot at this elusive prize. Who would argue that the collective talents of

Eric Whelan, Adam Mc Mahon and Jamie Lennon cannot handle this

responsibility?

Holy Grail continues to evade St. Aidan's crusaders:St. Aidan's CBS 2 - St. David's CBS 3

ALL-IRELAND SENIOR TITLEFOR ATHLETES

This was another historic day in the illustrious annals ofSt. Aidan's athletics. After winning the Leinster title inemphatic style 3 weeks ago, the school's runningmachines turned their attention to the All-Ireland Finals. The Minors topped off a great season by finishing 8thoverall. Dan Lacey glided around the Junior event tobreak the top 50. The Inters ran at full pelt and narrowlymissed out on the medals by finishing 4th. However, therace on everyone's lips was the Senior 6,500m battleroyale. The team of Greg Hossenny, Thomas Ward, RossKearney, Alex Gibbons, Adam O' Brien, Brian Flanagan,Cathal Doyle and captain, Niall Norman executed therace plan to perfection. And then came the news. Third-St. Malachys, Belfast (101), Second - St. Flannan's,Ennis(91), and in first, for the sixth time in their history,St.Aidan's on 90 points. And that was it. We had reachedour destiny. Thousands of hours of preparation, just tohear those words. We are back at the top of the top table.And we ain't moving. Thanks to all the supporters whoroared us to victory. And a huge words of thanks to theClonliffe Crew for helping us on our journey.

U14S A BADMINTON TEAM