| Spiritan Youth Day 2011 | |||||||||||||||
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On April 7th, our first ever Spiritan Youth day was launched! Get the Flash Player to see this rotator.
We had a wonderful insight into life as a Spiritan Brother given by Dr Marc Tyrant who is a doctor in Pakistan, an energising take on faith by Kathryn McKiernan from RTE and Gold medal cross country captain Brendan O’ Neill and a breathtaking view of belonging to the Christian community in the 21st Century by Ger Gallagher and Ger Brennan from the Dublin GAA Team! We prayed with Ronan Barry and Trish O’ Connor who married our 7 Spiritan core values with the 7 moments of Creation in an intriguing video presentation. We heard Eugene Harrington who in his own words in ‘an ordinary person having done extraordinary things’ tell of his Spiritan related aid work in many countries , Tom McCormack share his long standing relationship with the Spiritan schools and Rónan Lynagh who spoke eloquently about his ongoing work with the St Vincent de Paul which began as a student in a Spiritan School. We invited Luke Fitzgerald and Johnny Sexton to be with us but alas they were training hard for their big win on the following Saturday evening! Congrats Leinster! However, the great rugby players were kind enough to record a message for the students. This went down extremely well and was greeted with thunderous applause! 
The day came to a rousing close with the most reverend Archbishop Diarmuid Martin celebrating the liturgy of the Eucharist. Our students showed a genuine respect for the liturgy and joined Elation Ministry to sing their hearts out. Archbishop Martin spoke of our Spiritan values and how they were at the heart of every student’s life, he urged them to have the courage to be open and stay faithful to this value based system long after they leave school. To close our liturgy we sang ‘Your Invitation’ our theme song written by Dave Sheridan, a teacher from St Michael’s College. The day was a great success as can be seen from the amazing photos taken by Miriam Hubbard (one of our junior school parents) and Caroline Clarke from the DEA. We also hope to add parts of our video of the day taken by Garry Lyons from the DEA. The Committee who tirelessly worked throughout the entire year for this day were: Sheila Murray, Dave Sheridan, Oliver Doolan, Eamonn Murphy, Niall McGonagle, Marc Whelan C.S.Sp., Hyacinth Nwakuna C.S.Sp., Francis Toochukwu C.S.Sp., Owen Brennan and Orla Walsh. 
The wonderful logo was created by Conor Merriman from Templeogue College and both Conor and all the runners up were awarded on the day.
We had a major piece of work undertaken by Dave Sheridan and Oliver Doolan which punctuated our day. This took the form of a School Vox Pop video. All the schools were included and the filming and extensive editing was completed by Dave Sheridan and Conor Igoe, a student from St Michael’s College. These pieces are a great resource now and for the future, they were a huge undertaking and deserve much credit to Dave and Connor who spent many hours working on them. The students who spoke on behalf of their schools were from first to sixth form and were a credit to their families and their schools, well done to all. We hope to have these Vox Pops online in the near future for all to enjoy. Well done to all and a huge thank you to the DEA for funding much of the day. |
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| Spiritan Youth Day 2011 - Review | |||||||||||||||
Arriving at the D4 Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin there was a sense of excitement in the air as the first ever Spiritan Youth Day was to take place. Students from St Michael’s, St Mary’s, Templeogue, Holy Family, Rockwell and ourselves (Blackrock) gathered and it was obvious we did not know what to expect. Soon after, we were all given our t-shirts with the Spiritan Youth Day logo on them and led into the hall. We were no longer identified by individual school uniforms, we were now all Spiritans.
As we entered into the hall we were greeted by the Christian rock music of “Elation”, and numerous strobe lights breaking the smoke produced from dry-ice machines – it all leant an impressive atmosphere to the event. By the looks on the faces of some of my fellow students it was not at all what was expected. When everyone had arrived and settled down, a countdown clock was beamed on the big screen creating a great sense of excitement and anticipation. Then onto to the stage came the bubbly and excited MC Kathryn McKiernan (presenter of RTE Junior). She introduced the main ideas of the day to us – “Believe, Belong, Become” – key concepts in the Spiritan ethos and gave us some insight into her own experiences in a Spiritan school. The main message of the day was for each of us to “take something home with you.” Throughout the day we were introduced to various speakers, many of whom had associations with the Spiritans. These included Eugene Harrington, Malcolm O’Kelly, Senator Ronan Mullen, Brendan O’Neill, John Fogarty to name but a few. The speakers involved throughout the day were all of a high standard but in my opinion the most memorable contribution came from Fr Jack Meade C.S.Sp. He told us of his time in Africa, illustrating it with some memorable anecdotes – including a very powerful story of how an African woman had offered the boys he was travelling with some water. Despite the nearest well being some distance away and the fact that she had carried her water those miles on her head, the woman gave freely of her water. However, when Fr. Meade discovered her situation he immediately told the boys to return the water before they drank it. This simple story brought to life the concept of how someone with very little for themselves could still give to others. He also referred to a Fr Felim McAllister CSSp, who was killed by rebels in Sierra Leone, while working selflessly with the poor there.
Prayer and reflection was included during the day. Ronan Barry and Trish O’Connor led us in a reflection on the Creation story including thoughts on the 7 core values of the Spiritan ethos. Then to conclude the day, mass was celebrated by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. Overall the day went very well and it is hoped to be continued in the future and lead to a new tradition beginning among the Spiritan schools. Eoghan Kinirons |
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| Spiritan Youth Day 2011 - Reflections | |||||||||||||||
When I heard about the Spiritan Youth Day, I was somewhat intrigued by the idea. The scheme of the Holy Ghost schools meeting up for the first time as a large group displeased me but I was later proven wrong as the sister schools got on quite well. The day started off well especially when we entered the large room and were blinded by the lights and by the upbeat music.
The guest speakers were well chosen by the organisers. I was truly impressed by the preparation of the speakers; they had seemed to have spent a lot of time putting their speeches together as well as the PowerPoint presentation. Each school was represented by a sports personality. Malcolm O’Kelly was speaking on behalf of Templeogue College and made the school proud! The day could have had a few minor upgrades as there could have been some activities to amuse us young adults during our lunchtime. Overall, I thought the day went as hoped for the teachers and organisers. I believe us students enjoyed the day out and will spread the word of this annual event to a younger generation. Aaron McMahon, Templeogue College: I was looking forward to Spiritan Youth Day as I had never imagined that something like this existed or did I ever hear of such an event taking place in other schools. With this, I anticipated the day with excitement and when I entered the Conference Suite of the D4 Hotel, my expectations had come to life. The music was booming, the suite decorated really well and the huge monitors made me feel like it was going to be a day to remember.
I really enjoyed the guest speakers from all schools especially Malcolm O’Kelly as I am a huge rugby fan and it was great to know how he believed in himself and when he said if you believe in yourself you can accomplish your dreams. It made me believe in myself. The music was great but I don’t think anyone knew the songs and for me I thought that if the students from all the schools knew the songs they would have stood up and sang along with the band. The overall presentation was good; I was shocked with all the lighting and decoration being so good. I personally had a good experience of Spiritan Youth Day and would recommend that it continues for future TY students each year.
There were many things I liked about Spiritan Youth Day. I thought that many of the speakers were interesting in their experiences and ideas that they wanted to put across to us. I thought that the music played at the start when we entered, and also the lively music played by the band throughout the day was good because it loosened up the routine of the day and made it more enjoyable. The intervals were much needed as well, as it gave us a change to mingle with the other students from the other schools, more importantly the girls.
I think some things from Spiritan Youth Day could be improved. I think the students could learn more and get more out to the day if we were in smaller groups. Although most of the speakers were important in the messages they were trying to get across, if there was more interaction or activities which involved the students it would have spaced out the various speakers and enabled us to get more out of the day. I found people’s concentration slipping as the day came nearer to an end, so if the day was shortened the speakers would have had our full attention for the full duration of the day. Overall, I thought that the day went well and that a lot of new things were learnt from that day as I was able to take ideas home to think about, and it was nice meeting all the students from the other schools, as it gave us a sense of community. |
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