TRANSITION YEAR

TY SPORTS WEEK

The inaugural Clongowes TY Sports Week took place before the midterm with a jam-packed itinerary of exciting and challenging sport-related activities. The boys were met with generally good weather which will have made the week even more enjoyable. Sports Week is a new important date in the Transition Year calendar – offering the boys a great opportunity to sample different sports and activities while being tutored by professionals in their respective fields. Sport plays an important part in the boys’ life at Clongowes and several of our OCs are currently pursuing successful sporting careers at the international level. Participation in sport helps build friendships, teamwork and a sense of camaraderie.

We were delighted to announce that this year our students partook in eight separate activities:

GOLF: Kenny Fahy PGA Professional, Carton House GAA: Johnny Doyle, Kildare GAA Development Officer SOCCER: Rory Feely, League of Ireland Professional Player TENNIS: Paraic Kilcoyne, Clongowes Wood College Tennis Coach SELF DEFENCE: Guru Liam ORIENTEERING: Mr McIlmurray SWIMMING: Niamh Moran, Clongowes Wood College Swim Coach BASKETBALL: Hillary Nets, Irish Super League Player

A PORTRAIT OF A TY BARISTA

During the first half of the year, a group of Transition Year (TY) students were brought to a local coffee roaster for an introduction to coffee roasting and barista techniques. Our TY programme is rich and varied with time set aside for fun learning activities such as the barista course.

We would like to say a big thank you to PS Coffee Roasters for giving the boys a fantastic day and to Mr McGovern for organising yet another enjoyable TY activity.

DUCK PUSH

Clongowes Duck Push 2021 is the continuation of a 27-year long tradition of fundraising by the Transition Year students at Clongowes. The boys aim to raise funds for Crumlin Children’s Hospital in the spirit of ‘Kids Helping Kids’. The Duck Push set a target of €40,000 to purchase a Luminex Magpix machine to test for respiratory viruses. During the year, despite Covid restrictions, the TY students managed to run some fantastic mini-companies and events for the Duck Push with all donations via the Gofundme page.

5KM/10KM FUN RUN

The annual Clongowes 5km / 10km Fun Run in aid of Duck Push 2021 took place on Saturday, April 24th. Each year group took to the route around the College in groups with Elements off first! The 5km run took runners in familiar paths like the main avenue and the rugby fields but also less trodden roads up to the farm and round the old walled garden.

Each Year Group was well represented with just over 200 students taking part and nearly 140 signing up with locally-based Pop-Up-Races to support the Duck Push. In all, over €3,000 was raised for the Transition Year fundraiser. We want to thank ‘Medals and Pedals’ Clane for sponsoring the medals and trophies.

Thank you to everyone who supported the run including students, teachers, parents and OCs who took part in the run ‘virtually’ from all over Ireland and overseas. Congratulations to all of you who took part and our winners who are listed below.

5KM AWARD WINNERS

MEN’S 1. ERIC BOLAND 2. KEVIN DONAGHER 3. JAMES KEENAN WOMEN’S 1. EMMA BOLAND 2. ALISON DUFF 3. KERRY POLLOCK

10KM AWARD WINNERS

MEN’S 1. DAVID SCOTT 2. DAVID SLAUGHTER 3. ADRIAN GAHAN WOMEN’S 1. LAURA DUFFY 2. KAREN COLE 3. GERALDINE HEALY

U-16 BOYS WINNER

BEN SMYTH

DUCK PUSH 24HR RUN

On Tuesday morning May 25th our Syntax students embarked on a 24hr run with the goal of running the length of Ireland. They ran in groups around the athletics track over the course of 24hrs, including through the night. This event was a first for the Duck Push and was the brainchild of Paddy Cosgrove who was assisted by his fellow classmates in putting the event together. The goal was to run 486km which is the length of Ireland but after the first four hours, the boys hit 200km and it became apparent that the goal would be exceeded! Some of the runners really excelled: Toby Griffin ran steady for three hours solid covering 30km, Finn McGarry ran a marathon, Harry Martin ran 63km, Oscar Ramsdale and Paddy McMahon each ran 50km and many others ran half marathons. The tallymen were Felix Felton & Paddy Cosgrove At the end of the 24 hours, we reached a total distance of 1411.4km and raised €3,585 for Children’s Health Ireland Crumlin through our GoFundMe page.

COLOUR RUN

Coming towards the end of our school year, and to mark one of the Duck Push 2021 final fundraising activities - the boys decided to host a colour run!

The boys ran a set route, where along the way there would be five ‘colour stations’ where they could throw environmentally friendly dye powder at each other! The inspiration for the event comes from the annual Hindu festival of Holi.

Congratulation to our Syntax students who hit their fundraising target for the day, they were blessed with good weather and the event was a real hit with the student body.

COOKING AT HOME

Impressive work from our TY students who put together a delicious-looking Mexican Leek and Black Bean Chili for their Health Education Class on Zoom.

A thank you to Ms Dooley who organised the event and helped the boys create their tasty dishes. We may have a few Michelin Star chefs on our hands in a couple of years!

ERIC DONOVAN VISIT

Our Transition Year students donned their virtual gloves on September 25th as they welcomed the arrival of professional boxer Eric Donovan for a socially distanced sparring session. Eric, a native of Athy in our home county of Kildare is a former five-time Irish Amateur Champion and twice European Championship bronze medalist. While in the professional ranks, Eric this past summer challenged for the vacant IBF Inter-Continental junior-lightweight title. The boys were put through their paces as Eric showed them a multitude of shots, feints, and fitness drills that he and other professionals are put through in the top ranks.

Boxing has been long-heralded as a sport where respect for your opponent, self-courage, and mental fortitude are key tenets and we hope that our boys have taken away some of these life lessons from their morning with Eric. Who knows, we may have a future world champion in our ranks!

TOBY & PETER GRIFFIN

Well done to Toby Griffin (Syntax) and his Dad, Peter OC’87, who ran 10km on Easter Monday for Duck Push 2021. Toby & Peter secured over €600 in donations for their endeavours.

Well done to you both!

SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Our thanks to Garda Shane Smyth from Clane Gardaí who joined us in December for a discussion on substance abuse.

We hope that the boys came away with a better understanding of the dangers surrounding illegal drugs.

MINI-COMPANIES

As part of the Duck Push this year our Syntax students were tasked with tapping into their entrepreneurial spirit and coming up with mini-companies that would help raise funds to help them reach their goal of €40,000.

We were lucky enough to have some fantastic ideas this year and everything proverbially flew off the shelves.

At Christmas, we had beautifully handcrafted Christmas tree baubles. The white bauble, featuring a drawing of the Castle, hand-applied gold glitter and finished with a gold ribbon.

Mr Conry then helped the boys in selling oak saplings to parents, these proved to be a big hit! We then had George Strickland (Syntax) selling Clongowes Marmalade, produced by his father’s company Gees Jams in Malta. “While in lockdown in Malta I was thinking about how we might raise funds for this year’s Duck Push Project. My Dad enjoys producing award-winning artisanal jams and marmalades, using only the freshest, local produce so you might say that the answer was under my nose. With help from Gee’s Jams, we decided to make a great marmalade for Clongowes ‘kids helping kids’ or even Old Clongownians helping kids!” Paddy McMahon teamed up with his Dad Aran (OC’88) from Rua Café and Delicatessen in Mayo, to bake a delicious basket of goods for ‘Cake for Crumlin’. The boxes were available for order online and were delivered to customers all around Ireland. Such was the appeal of Cake for Crumlin, they sold out in a matter of hours! Finally, the boys turned their hands to selling phone cases. The boys designed and sourced limited edition, Eco-Friendly Clongowes-branded phone cases. The product is bamboo-based, and therefore recyclable and overall easy to handle. Well done to all the boys who took part in the mini-companies and to OCs, parents and everyone who supported their efforts.