Annual Awards Evening in St. Farnan's
The management and staff of St. Farnan's Post-Primary School in Prosperous welcomed a capacity crowd to its annual Awards evening on September 27th. The Principal, Mr. Eddie Collins, extended a warm welcome to the award winning students, their families and invited guests to what is one of the highlights of the school calendar.
Over 240 students received awards for their excellence in academic subjects, extracurricular activities, attendance and proficiency in the Irish language.
Among the many awards presented was the prize for the best academic achievement at Junior Certificate level, which this year was awarded to Bella Xue.
The prize for outstanding achievement in the Leaving Certificate was awarded to Liam McManus, while Dearbhla Whelan received the prize for outstanding achievement in the Leaving Certificate Applied exam.
Many of the school's sports stars received awards in recognition of their excellence and achievements in extracurricular activities and these included Jason Tyrell, Aoileann O’Mahony, Suzanne Carew, Nathan Muldoon, Amy Brereton, Michael Dempsey, Jack Musgrave and Jamie Stafford.
Mark O’Rourke received the Traditional Irish Music Award while Brionnagh Howley was awarded a prize for her excellence in the Irish language.
In a new category of awards this year, the hugely significant sporting achievements of the many students in the school who have represented their county, region and country in a variety of sports were also acknowledged. These included Killian Heffernan, runner-up at the Junior World Darts Championship, Lauren McArdle, multiple medal winner for Ireland at European level in gymnastics, Eoghan Ashe, multiple medallist at World Special Olympics in swimming, Liam Dempsey, Captain of the Kildare Minor Hurling team, Katie French, winner of 6 Red Titles and International Ladies Open Champion in Snooker and Eoghan Dempsey, member of the Kildare Minor Hurling team.
St. Farnan’s involvement in the Skills@Work programme was also celebrated and the audience was addressed by Victoria Carroll, coordinator of the project from SAP Ireland. Victoria said that the St. Farnan’s students had been exemplary in their participation in the initiative and were a credit to their families, school and community. Two students from this year’s group were selected for their outstanding contribution to the programme, Jay Dwyer and Niamh Clare, and they received special awards from Victoria on behalf of the company.
A number of students were also awarded certificates by Caroline Cooke, the School Completion Programme Coordinator, for their impeccable school attendance.
PJ Ewing was the recipient of the annual Colin Fox Award. Mr. Joe Fox presents this prestigious award annually in memory of his son, Colin, a past student of the school, who died in a traffic accident in 2002. The Fox family has given a generous prize and specially commissioned engraved mirror to the student in the school who is most gifted with his or her hands for many years now and before awarding this year's prize to PJ, Mr. Fox gave a heartfelt speech in which he spoke of how much both he and his son, Colin, enjoyed their years in St. Farnan's and that he, and his grandson, Aaron, are delighted to return to the school on Awards Night to present this award in memory of Colin.
Mr. Collins brought a very enjoyable evening to a close by commending the school's recently appointed Senior Prefects who assisted the school staff in all aspects of the evening's organisation. They ensured that all attendees received a warm welcome and expertly guided all students receiving awards through the ceremony and photography session afterwards.
Mr. Collins also paid special tribute to his staff, teachers, secretarial and ancillary, whose dedicated work and attention to detail ensured that the evening went seamlessly. Special thanks were reserved for the Awards Evening Committee, whose work in preparing for this evening had begun before the summer break.
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