Scoil Mhuire Kanturk

Catholic Schools Week

On Wednesday, Jan. 25th S.M.K. opened its doors to welcome and honour grandparents during Catholic Schools Week. The day began with mass, which was celebrated in conjunction with our new local primary school, Scoil Naomh Padraig. Following mass, both students and grandparents gathered in our school for a special celebration. While enjoying refreshments, grandparents were entertained by our many talented students. The talent on display included piano playing, Irish dancing, singing, trad music, modern music and group singing, to name but a few. A fantastic day was had by all, as testified by the wonderful atmosphere in the hall.

Amy Green Linehan, William Green

Neil Murphy Ciarán McKeever, Kayla McKeever

Patsy Geasley, Mary Savage, Alex Geasley

Joan O’Donovan, Leah O’Donovan

Fiadh park, Marie Shone, Sarah Kate Murphy A

A great turnout for Catholic Schools Week in Scoil Mhuire Kanturk

We are already looking forward to next year!

Irish Angus Competition

Certified Irish Angus, ABP and Kepak, run the Certified Irish Angus Schools Competition which aims to encourage second-level students to gain an understanding about the care and attention that is required to produce and market the highest quality Irish Angus beef for consumers. The initiative challenges groups of students to rear 5 Certified Irish Angus calves for 18 months and carry out research on a chosen topic. Scoil Mhuire, Kanturk is one of 42 groups that have been called forward to exhibit project ideas at the next stage of the Certified Irish Angus Schools Exhibition to a panel of Agri-food industry experts in Croke Park on the 31st March, 2023.

The five schools who demonstrate the best understanding of the project will be announced as finalists and will be presented with their calves at the National Ploughing Championships in September 2023. A record number of over 170 school groups entered this year’s competition and Scoil Mhuire’s ‘Foliar Four ‘ group was one of 72 to be called to the interview stage in Limerick in January. Our group created a 3-minute entry video based on the chosen topic of foliar application of fertiliser on crops. Living in a time of rising costs of energy and with fertiliser prices remaining high for yet another year, our 4 transition year students Oisin Bourke, Rachel Morton, Sean O’Connor and Brion O’Keeffe decided to look at the advantages of Foliar application of fertiliser on grassland. This is a process of fertiliser application used by a few farmers including a family attending Scoil Mhuire where the fertiliser is applied in spray form other than conventional granulated form. The group are hoping that their results will show that the use of the foliar fertiliser will be economically viable while also helping to protect our environment. Our students have visited Kanturk mart over the past few weeks carrying out surveys on the use of fertiliser and methods of slurry spreading in the Duhallow region and will continue to be at the mart in the coming weeks as they prepare for the final round of judging on March 31st in Croke Park.

Brion O’Keeffe, Rachel Morton, Oisín Burke, and Sean O’Connor