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March 23rd 2007

Formula 1 in Schools National Champions 2007

Congratulations to Team "Gear Force", a group of five 5th yr. students who are just after winning the 2007 Formula 1 in Schools Technology Challenge National title. Not only did they win the senior event, they also won the overall title for 2007 which means that they will now represent Ireland in the 2008 World Championships which are to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in March 2008. The event will coincide with the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix. Prizes also included €2,000 of IT equipment from Dell and a trip to the Honda Formula 1 factory in Brackley, UK.

55 teams from all over Ireland took part in this years event. There were 3 regional finals which whittled the number of schools down to 25. These teams battled it out for the National Title in the Blanchardstown Institute of Technology on March 22nd. The standard of all teams increased enormously from the regional finals but the quality of the St. Ailbe's Team and project won the day.  A fantastic achievement to win the title for the second year in a row. (Team "Blade of Fire" were 2006 National Champions)

Teams were marked on car speed, reaction times, portfolio, display, marketing & sponsorship, verbal presentation and web site development. A truly comprehensive competition covering a very wide range of skills.

Team "Gear Force" consisted of Richard Childs, David Whyte, Graham Quirke, Eoin Kennedy and Jason Ryan.

Huge thanks must be offered to all our sponsors, to the Irish Computer Society (event organisers) and Honda Ireland (event main sponsors).

More information from www.f1inschools.ie - www.f1inschools.com - www.honda.ie - www.ics.ie - www.ailbes.com/gearforce

February 27th 2007

St. Ailbe's Bid for All Ireland Glory

Saturday, 3rd March, may well prove to be another historic chapter in the life of St. Ailbe’s School of Tipperary Town. At 2pm in O’Moore Park, Portlaoise, the Munster Champions take on Leinster Champions, St. Olivers Community College of Oldcastle Co. Meath, in what should be an enthralling affair – particularly since many of the matches to date have been heart stopping affairs.

 It is twenty four years since Ailbe’s last competed in an All Ireland Schools Football  Final. In 1983 St. Ailbe’s were backboned by a number of students who later starred in various codes. Players such as Michael Grace of Galtee Rovers, John McLoughlin of Golden/Kilfeacle and Pat Redican of Sologhead. Another player of note was Christy McGarahan of Galtee Rovers who was also on the Tipperary Minor Football Panel that reached the All Ireland Minor Football Final in the G.A.A Centenary Year of 1984. St. Ailbe’s were ably led by their captain Gerard Kelly of Lattin to Munster victory and all Ireland semi final success over the Connaught champions but narrowly lost out to Clara C.C. of Offaly in the final.

 This year, St. Ailbe’s remain unbeaten in all competitive senior football matches. In addition to this, they had eight representatives on the County Schools team that had a tremendous victory over Louth in the All Ireland Inter County Schools Final last December. The captain that day was Ailbe’s Brian Fox and the Annacarthy man has the distinction of leading his own school to the possibility of winning another All Ireland title in the same academic year.

 Reaching the final has been very much a team effort and this has been evident in every match to date, in particular the games against Dunmanway of Cork, Abbeyfeale of Limerick and Scoil Ruain of Killenaule in the Munster Final. Stephen Quinn and County Minor Kevin Fox have been the attacking force up front and are well supported by forwards - Rory Carroll, Graham Quirke, Willie O’Neill, Wayne Barry and Cian O’ Raghallaigh. Brian Fox and Richard Childs have been commanding at centre field all year, while Christopher Kirby, Christopher Doyle, Matthew Ralph, Pat Noonan, Donagh Heffernan, Tristan Greaney and County Minor Eoin Kennedy have all been in outstanding form. Tony Lowry, Eddie Ryan, Robert Ryan, Ricky and Willie Barry, Christopher O’Connor, Tommy Breen, Colin Power and Mark McInerney have also contributed significantly throughout the year.

 No matter what the outcome this Saturday, the team have already covered themselves in glory  with their positive attitude and never- say-die approach to all aspects of school life. Best of luck to all on their big day.

 

February 1st 2007

County Post Primary Schools Cross Country Championships 2007

This year’s Cross Country Championships was held on Wednesday 31st of January at Thurles Crokes Track. There were eight events: Minor, Junior, Intermediate and Senior for both boys and girls. Twenty pupils represented the school. It was a good day to run and the conditions were favourable. Catherine Kelly competed in the Senior Girls Under 19 event (2000m). She finished first overall by a long way in a time of 7mins 31sec. Well done Catherine. Catherine will now compete in the Munster Schools Athletic Competition on the 6th of February in Dungarvan. Kieran Daly and Kevin Breen ran a good race and would have finished in the top twenty. The other pupils to run were Jodie Bullivant, Ciara McGhee, Adrian O’Brien, Kevin Breen, Cathal Coughlan, Sean Finnan, Jason Parker, Damian Barry, Simon Ryan, Kieran Daly, Michael Barry, James Collins, Naill Quinn, Chris Finnan, James Power, Danny Crotty, Stephen Peters, David Hanahran and Xavi Moreno.

Midlands Senior Girls Basketball Play-Offs

On the 24th of January the senior girl’s basketball team travelled to Ramsgrange in Wexford to play for third position in the Munster/Midlands Basketball Play-off.

It was a tough game and St.Ailbes’s managed to keep ahead in each quarter. The court had a sprung floor so the girls were a little on edge as they were not used to the surface. They pulled it off in the last quarter and won by a basket. The final score was 22-20. Blathnaid Watters played real good defence and got many of the rebounds. There was some good scoring from Stephanie Walsh and Catherine Kelly. Ciara Ryan was on form as usually and Stephanie Tracy played well in post position. Stephanie Barry came on for some of the quarters and did her best considering she wasn’t feeling well. The team members were: Ciara Ryan, Stephanie Walsh, Catherine Kelly, Blathnaid Watters, Stephanie Tracy, Stephanie Barry, Claire Ryan and Shirley-Ann Murphy.

January 8th 2007

Esat Young Scientist Competition

Best of luck to the nine students competing in this year’s Young Scientist competition, taking place this week at Dublin’s R.D.S. All the team have put a tremendous amount of work into their projects and great credit is due to Mr. O’Dwyer who has assisted them every step of the way.

 Munster Semi Finals

With victories over Cappamore and Tralee C.C., the Senior Soccer Team is due to play Thurles in the Munster Semi Final this week. With players of the calibre of Wayne Barry, Rory Carroll, Christopher Kirby, Graham Quirke and Kevin Fox, hopes are high of securing a berth in the final. Best of luck to all concerned.

Well done to the Senior Footballers who qualified for the Munster Semi Final with a well deserved victory over Kildysart of Clare. They now play Dunmanway C.C. of Cork for a place in the Munster Final.

Athletics

Catherine Kelly competitied in the Junior County Cross Country Championships
on the 7th of January in Hollyford.  The distance ran was a hard 3km. 
She came in first position.  She will now race in the Munster Cross
Country Championships on the 14th of January in Limerick.

 

November 21st 2006

Athletics

Catherine Kelly, one of our 5th yr. students, competed in the Under 18 A All Ireland Cross Country Competition in Dungarvan on the 9th /11/06. She finished 13th overall and she was part of the Munster team that came in 2nd position. Well done Catherine.
On the 9/12/06 Catherine travelled to Athlone for the Under 19 A All Ireland Cross Country. She ran extremely well and really liked the course. She finished 6th overall which is some achievement as Catherine is only seventeen. The Munster team finished 1st, Catherine was the second member of the Munster team to finish and the Tipperary County team were 3rd. Catherine brought three All Ireland medals home from Athlone!

December 21st 2006

Awards Night

Congratulations to past and present St. Ailbe’s students Mary McDonnell (Best Leaving Certificate), Eoin Kennedy (Student of the Year), Sean O’Connor (Best Leaving Certificate Applied) and Catherine Kelly (Sportsperson of the Year) who were all honoured at the South Tipperary V.E.C. Awards night in Minella Hotel on Friday last.

All Weather Facility

The new and much improved Sports Facilities at St. Ailbe’s, including the All Weather Pitch, Basketball Courts, G.A.A., Soccer and Rugby Pitch are now open. It is a pleasure to see so many students benefiting from them for training and leisure purposes at lunchtimes and after school. It stirs memories of the forty-a-side that used to take place every lunchtime between Oola and the rest of the school, back in the mid nineties. Parents, Past Pupils, or both are invited to have an inspection any time in passing.

St. Ailbe’s Selected for National C.S.P.E. Project

St. Ailbe’s is once again flying the Tipperary Flag at National level with the announcement that it is the only Vocational School in Ireland to be selected by the Second Level Support Service, to produce a D.V.D. for the training and inservicing of Teachers in Civic, Social and Political Education. Leading the project is St. Ailbe’s Teacher Ms. Lewis, who was recently informed of the decision and the fact that this D.V.D will be disseminated to all seven hundred second level schools in Ireland, assisting teachers in the organisation and management of Action Projects.

G.A.A.

Well done to the Senior Footballers who have qualified for the County Semi Final and Munster Quarter Final with victories over Comeragh College, Carrick and Kilmihil of  Clare, respectively. Well done also to the Tipperary Vocational Schools Senior Football team, captained by Brian Fox, who were victorious over Limerick in the Munster‘B’ Final at Rathkeale last Friday. They now meet Kerry in the ‘A’ Semi Final in two weeks time.

Soccer

The Soccer leagues are up and running, with our U/16 and U/18 teams both recording wins over Mitchelstown and Cappamore respectively. Jason Parker deserves special mention for scoring four goals in the U/16 encounter, Daniel Fowler and Alan Hayes adding a brace between them.

Basketball

The Ladies Senior Basketball team play their Regional Final this week. Training has been going well and the girls are confident going into this vital tie. A full match report will be available next week.

Athletics

Catherine Kelly has been selected for the Munster U/19 Ladies Cross Country Team. It is just reward for the enormous effort she puts into everything she commits herself to, both Sporting and Academic.

 

October 23rd 2006

Ladies Basketball

Pride of Place this week goes to the Ladies U/19 Basketball team who are on a very successful run at present. With good victories over Rockwell, Killenaule, St. Anne’s and Ballingarry, the girls have put themselves into a strong position to qualify for the Regional semi final. Their remaining game takes place this week against Presentation, Clonmel. The panel of Blathnaid Watters, Catherine Kelly, the Stephanies - Treacy, Barry and Walsh – Martha Roche, Rachael Casey. Ciara Ryan, Claire Ryan, Shirley Anne Murphy and Catriona Clough, have been training diligently with Ms. Whelan since the start of the year. Best of luck to the girls in the coming weeks.

Athletics

Well done to Catherine Kelly who finished fourth in the Munster U/18 Cross Country, held in Tralee last weekend. Catherine is hoping to finish in the medals next week when she runs in the Munster U/19 Cross Country in Dungarvan.

All Weather Pitch

The new All Weather Facility and Basketball courts are now almost completed. An official opening date will shortly be announced.

Fifth Years travel to University Open Day

The Fifth Year Class travelled into Limerick last week to attend Open Days at University of Limerick, Limerick Institute of Technology and Mary Immaculate College. The students found the experience very worthwhile in defining course content and career choice.  

Fourth Year Work Experience

For the next fortnight, our Fourth Year class have been placed on Work Experience. This is a great opportunity to help them establish a sense of which career they might chose following their Leaving Cert.

Senior Football

Let’s hope our Footballers don’t suffer from Jetlag when they return from their Rugby Tour in Barcelona. They have a fixture in the County Championship the next day against Comeragh College of Carrick. A full Report on this game will be available next week.

County Finals

Finally, best of luck to the Annacarthy Intermediate and Minor Hurling Teams, who will be competing for County Honours in the coming weeks. Also, we would like to wish Aherlow the very best when they compete in the County Senior Football Final. Anybody who has dealt with students from either Parish will know the commitment and determination they bring to every team. 

October 2nd 2006

Higher Options

The Fourth Year Class travel to Limerick Racecourse this Tuesday, to attend the Higher Options Careers Exhibition. This presentation allows students an early opportunity in their school life to further contemplate future subject and career choices. Prior to this arrangement, a guided tour of St. John’s Castle, will be undertaken by the group.

Build a Bank

The Interviewing process is underway in St. Ailbe’s for the annual Build a Bank competition. This is our fourth time competing in this prestigious National Event and hopes are high that recent successes can be further built upon this year. Best of luck to all involved.

 Senior Football Win

Well done to the Senior Footballers who were victorious over Abbeyfeale in their first round of the Munster Senior Football Championship. Despite going behind to two early goals in the second half, Ailbe’s battled back bravely to win by four points in a highly competitive game. The team lined out as follows; Mark McInerney, Tony Lowry, Pat Noonan, Cian O’Raghallaigh, Richard Childs, Christopher Kirby, Willie O’Neill, Brian Fox, Christopher Doyle, Rory Carroll, Eoin Kennedy, Graham Quirke, Wayne Barry, Stephen Quinn and Kevin Fox. Subs used, Tristan Greaney and Christopher O’Connor.

 Athletics Success

Congratulations to Fifth year Student, Catherine Kelly who finished second in the U/18 County Cross Country run at Ballynonty last weekend. Catherine competes in the U/19 County Cross Country this Sunday and we wish her every success. Well done also to Staff member, Miss Whelan, whose team won Gold in their category. And finally to former colleague R. Devitt, who collected a team silver medal!

 Ladies Basketball

The Ladies Senior Basketball team were also in action during the week agains ‘Pres’ from Cork City. With only seconds remaining in this first round of the Munster Senior Cup, they endured the heartache of conceding a three pointer and duly lost the game by the odd point, on a scoreline of 25-24. Well done to the girls who put up a typically inspired display and for their willingness to play the game after school, despite having to face the long journey to and from Cork. Training continues this week for the upcoming Shield Competition.

September 19th 2006

Formula 1 Champs. visit Honda F1

Just another day at the office – Rebuild Jenson Buttons Formula1 T Car after its trip to the Monza Grand Prix, test all 600 metal parts of the car in the Non Destructive Test Lab using truly amazing methods, cut out the templates for the various carbon fibre parts from expensive carbon fibre fabric.  Normal to some of the hundreds of skilled engineers working in the Honda Formula 1 Centre of Operations in Brackley in the UK - a truly amazing experience for the 5 students and 2 teachers from St. Ailbe’s School who recently visited this centre of cutting edge engineering.  Imagine standing beside and having a chat with Honda Engineers as they work on Jenson Buttons car, holding the Stg£25,000 steering wheel used in Monza the week before, touring the newly built Stg£30 million state of the art wind tunnel.  All of the college open day visits in the world cannot compare to this real world experience, a real eye opener that left everyone in complete awe - not a bad career guidance lesson. 

The tour was part of the prise for winning the National finals in the Formula 1 in Schools Technology Challenge sponsored by Honda and organised by ICS. 

After launching the 2007 season this week, we have a large number of very talented, highly skilled and eager students ready to take up the challenge, with one clear aim in mind – to bring another national title to St. Ailbe’s. 

Once again congratulations to the victorious team of Stephen Quinn, Pat Noonan, Stephanie Tracey, Siobhan Daly and Anthony Power and the best of luck to them in their Leaving Cert. year.

Tom O’Sullivan (ICS), Gillian Farrar (ICS), Pat Walsh (Honda Ireland), Siobhan Daly (St. Ailbe’s), Stephanie Tracey (St. Ailbe’s), Anthony Power (St. Ailbe’s), Stephen Quinn (St. Ailbe’s),
Sean Fitzpatrick (St. Ailbe’s), Pat Noonan (St. Ailbe’s), Neil Dalton (Honda Ireland),
Michael Quirke (St. Ailbe’s)

September 18th 2006

Exam Results

Congratulations to all students who received their excellent Junior and Leaving Certificate results within the last month. It is a nervous waiting time for Students and Parents and we would like to thank both for the diligence and dedication they displayed throughout the year. In particular we would like to wish all outgoing Leaving Certs the very best of luck in their chosen paths.

 Honda Formula 1 Visit

Last Thursday, a team of Students and Teachers were guests of the Honda Formula One Team in Brackley, the large Honda Engineering section near Silverstone. It was a fantastic experience for everyone to see a top Formula One racing car being reconstructed for the next Formula One race. The car belonged to none other than Jensen Button, who was preparing for the next outing in Shanghai, China. A more detailed report will be available next week.

 Trip to Delphi 

A group of forty students took part in a very enjoyable trip to Delphi Outdoor Pursuit Centre in Co. Mayo last weekend. The students participated in a range of activities that included Surfing, Canoeing, Abseiling and Hill walking, as well other various pursuits. Well done to all for challenging themselves and being so interested in the sports they were involved in.

 All Weather Facilities

This week sees the completion of the three new All Weather Sports Pitches and the new Basketball courts towards the rear of the School. The new pitches are FIFA approved but can be used for most field sports including Hurling, Hockey, Gaelic Football, Rugby, Soccer etc. The new Basketball courts are designed for students in the school who wish to practice at break, lunchtimes or after school. Along with these developments, netting has been erected at either end of the playing field to further enhance the ability to train and play School matches there.

 Sports 

All Junior and Senior Teams are back at pre season training presently. The Senior Footballers have had a very tough draw against Abbeyfeale in the opening round but are well capable of getting a result. Meanwhile, the Senior Rugby team are in training for their first round in Munster and the forthcoming tour to Barcelona next month.