Gaisce Hike
The Ursuline had 80 TYs and three Fifth Year students who hiked in the Slieve Blooms on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 7, 8 and 9 November to complete the adventure journey part of their President’s Award or Gaisce. TYs working towards their bronze medal walked around 30k over two days while Katerese Allen, Lucy Keane and Cáit Browne in Fifth Year did three days of hiking covering about 50k as a requirement for their silver medal. Thanks to all the teachers involved, Ms Egan, Ms Bourke, Ms Spillane and Ms Keane Butler.
Student Achievements
A number of Ursuline Thurles students have achieved highly in recent weeks in schools’ competitions and extra-curricular hobbies.
Ellen Cullen, Youth Theatre Ireland
Well done to Ellen Cullen, Sixth Year, who was one of fourteen post-primary students nationwide to be selected to participate in a three-day theatre workshop organised by Youth Theatre Ireland. Ellen was picked because of her excellent review of the play Sive, which she attended with her English class as part of their Leaving Cert comparative study. Over the course of the three days Ellen got to attend three shows and take park in a panel review with a live audience. On the strength of her engagement in the workshop Ellen was selected to participate in the Youth Theatre Symposium which will happen this month in TU Dublin.
Grace Keating, National Sailing Team
Congratulations to Grace Keating, TY, who has made the National sailing team. Grace and her teammate Gemma have only been sailing in their current boat for six weeks and attended the European Championships in Lake Garda last week. Their dedication and skill has earned them a place representing Ireland in sailing.
Jessica Sheffield, Irish Olympiad of Experimental Science
Ursuline Fifth Year student, Jessica Sheffield, has qualified for the next round of the Irish Olympiad of Experimental Science. She will attend the competition in DCU, so the very best of luck to her.
Mairéad O’Brien and Lily Duffy, National Youth Orchestra
Well done to Ursuline musicians Mairéad O’Brien, Sixth Year and Lily Duffy, TY, who have been chosen to be part of the prestigious National Youth Orchestra. Mairéad and Lily are both members of the Ursuline Senior Orchestra with Mairéad playing first violin while Lily’s instrument is cello.
Rosie Bradish, Lions Club Young Ambassador Competition
Rosie Bradish, Fifth Year in the Ursuline, has recently achieved runner up in the prestigious Lions Club Young Ambassador of the 21st Century Award. This is a competition that highlights young people who are making a difference through community service, leadership and communication. Rosie, who has represented the school on many occasions in Public Speaking, certainly impressed the Lions Club judges in all the areas of volunteering and personal endeavours they looked at.
UCC Quercus Scholarship
Congratulations to Aoife Bourke and Gráinne Callanan on being recently awarded the UCC Quercus Scholarship based on their exceptional Leaving Cert results. Best wishes to both in their continuing studies.
Ruth Schofield ETTA National Finalist
Ursuline 2024 Sixth Year student Ruth Schofield has been selected by the ETTA Engineering Technology Teachers’ Association to attend its National Awards Ceremony in Sligo on 23 November based on the excellent Technology project she completed as part of her Leaving Cert. She will receive a Certificate of Achievement and is also in with a chance to win either first, second or third place on the day. Congratulations to Ruth and her Technology teacher in UCT Mr Shane McGlynn on this illustrious honour.
The Merchant of Venice
On Monday, 4 November, all Third Year students had a theatrical treat when they got to attend a production of The Merchant of Venice in the Sr Ursula Memorial Hall. The play was a one-man interpretation of Shakespeare’s Venetian legal drama with actor Marcus Bale of the Cyclone Rep Theatre Company doing justice to an array of main characters. He took students through the main themes of the play in preparation for their Junior Cycle English exam and they really enjoyed revising this prescribed text in an experiential way.
Equestrian
Well done to Isabelle Kennedy, Ursuline Thurles, who won the HOPOTI Novice 80cm Individuals at the TRI Equestrian Inter-Schools event held at Hollypark Stables recently. Kate Murphy finished impressively in third place in the 95/1m individual category. Well done to Katie and Laura Coonan on their fantastic performances in the Equieire 90cm Qualifier and finishing in third and fourth place respectively.
Basketball
The Ursuline U19 Basketball team secured victory over Loreto Clonmel in their quarter-final game played last week. The final score was UCT 28-19 Loreto Clonmel.
The U16 Basketball team also had a quarter final win against their opponents from the Ursuline Waterford. They will face Ard Scoil na Mara, Tramore in the semi-final decider.
Hockey
The Junior Cs were out against Loreto Clonmel on the pitch last week. The final score was UCT 0-1 Loreto Clonmel. Despite the loss the UCT home side showed incredible tenacity against a very strong Loreto side. They had scoring chances multiple times and gave it their all until the very end.
BT Young Scientist Qualifiers
Well done to the three Ursuline projects that qualified for the 2025 BT Young Scientist Competition. The Ursuline had lots of interest from this year’s TYs and submitted six projects for the initial selection phase. Julie Johnson and Ella Frend are investigating if reducing the routine use of antimicrobials on dairy farms reduces the antimicrobial resistance in bacteria isolated from cows’ milk on those farms. Róise Glynn and Clodagh O’Dwyer are looking at interventions to decrease eco-anxiety and increase climate engagement in young people. The name of their project is No Environment, No Wellbeing.’ Grace Eiffe is doing a statistical analysis on the coverage of women’s sport in mainstream media in comparison to men’s. In her project entitled ‘Hot Off the Press’ she is also investigating if Vision 2020 has had an impact on how women’s sport is reported. Best of luck to all three teams as they work towards the National Final in January.
TY Rootine Workshop
Ursuline TYs had a hair care demonstration given by Ann O’Reilly of Rootine on Monday and Tuesday, 4 and 5 November. This is always a highlight on the TY workshop calendar because of the practical, fun and hands on nature of the class. Ann gave them plenty of tips for looking after their gorgeous locks and showed them how to master some basic and more elaborate up-styles. Each student had a doll head to practice on, while Ann took them through creating different looks step by step.
Camogie
The Ursuline Junior Camogie team played the first round of the Munster Championship against Scoil Mhuire Greenhill, Carrick-on-Suir on Monday, 4 November. The game ended in a 2-9 draw. Then three days later the Juniors were out again, this time they played Presentation Thurles in the second round of the Munster Championship. They secured the win in this game with the final score UCT 2-9 Pres Thurles 0-4.
The Ursuline First Year Camogie players had a chance to practice their skills and enjoy some competitive play against St Mary’s Nenagh last week. Thanks to Eire Óg for making their facilities available to the two schools. The First Years really enjoyed the day out in Nenagh and representing UCT on the camogie field.