News

The overall winner of the Blackrock College Master Chef this year is Eoin O'Malley. As his main course he cooked a "Rack of Lamb with a Herb and Mustard Sauce" and for dessert he made a custard tart. Second place was Andrew Hickey with "Spicy Moroccan Lamb Chops on a bed of Couscous Salad" as a main course and "Marrakech Lemon Cream with a Dark Secret served with Souk Raspberries and Chocolate Shavings" as a dessert. Allan Jenkinson got third place with a "Spiced Pear and Goats' Cheese Salad" as a starter and a "Fillet Steak with Porcini Mushroom and spring onion mash".

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"Waterloo High" the 2nd and 4th Year musical written and directed by Mr. Brian Savage was a great success. The show was performed by 2nd and 4th Years from both Blackrock College and Loreto Foxrock in the Jubilee Hall from Tuesday 8th May until Friday 11th. Also in the cast were Mr. Greg O'Connor and Mr. Alan Rogan, both teachers in the school.

Photos coming soon

The last 4 contestants for the Master Chef Final have been decided. Allan Jenkinson, Rory Heskin, Eoin O'Malley, and Brian O'Driscoll all qualified from the thrid for the final. The Grand final will be held in the School on Tuesday 15th May. The compeition will be judged by Bord Bia. All parents of the 9 finalists are welcome to attend the judging which will take place around 11am.

Two more contestants qualified for the Blackrock College Transition Year Master Chef 2007 final. David Young and Daniel McGann were the two qualifiers.

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The Transition Year 2007 annual "Master Chef" competition is now underway. This year there are over 30 entrants. The first heat was held this morning with Raymond Carley, Ronald Carroll and Andrew Hickey qualifying for the final next Friday. The judges today were Mr Toirleac O'Brien and Mr John Daly.

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The Goal / Aidlink St Patrick's Day Badge Project, which has been running for the past two months, has raised over €29,000. We would like to thank all the business and schools who gave very generous donations and made such an effort to sell badges in aid of GOAL and Aidlink. We will know the total amount that the project has raised for the two charities when we receive the money from all the newsagents around the country, organised by the Independent plc, in September.

"Greenwatch" the schools environmental magazine has just been launched. The magazine was made by Mr. James Campbell's 4.1 Geography class who have been working on producing it since the start of the year. The magazine costs only €3 and is on sale in the school.

14 Transition Years walked over 28km over the weekend as part of their Gaisce Awards. On Saturday they walked 20km from the Sally Gap to Glendalough along the Wicklow Way and on Sunday they walked over 8km around the Upper Lake in Glendalough. Mmost of the group participating the Gaisce Awards have now fulfilled the requirements and will receive the Bronze Gaisce Award.

Over €1,300 was raised by Transition Years bag packing in Dunnes Stores. The money raised is to fund the building of a feeding staition for 200 orphans with HIV Aids in South Africa. During the summer 38 of the Blackrock College 6th Years are going out to South Africa with "Friends in Ireland" the charity founded by Marian Finucane, John Clarke and Mary Corbally to build this feeding station.

The Colts (4th Years) beat the 4.5s (5th Years) in the Final of the East Coast Rugby League by an amazing score of 36-3.

Blackrock College defeated St Michaels College in the Leinster Schools' Junior Cup Final 13-10.

On Thursday and Friday over 120 Blackrock Transition Year students were out selling the St. Patrick's Day Goal Badges around Grafton Street in Dublin and Blackrock Village. Over the two days a massive €7,500 was raised. Well done to everyone involved. We would like to thank all the generous people who bought the Badges. This is just one part of the Goal / Aidlink project click here for more info on the project.

26 Blackrock & Loreto Foxrock Transition Years played in the Mixed Doubles Tennis Social tournament run by Ms. Dillon and Ms. Buckley (Blackrock College). The winners overall were Cormac O'Brolchain and his partner Louise and the runners up were Michael Cassells and his partner Deidre.

Joe Maume and Jamie Whelan organised a raffle in Willow Park in aid of The Irish Hospice Foundation. The Winner, William Britton, won an Irish Rugby Shirt signed by the Irish team. The runners up Roy Geary, Rory O’Reilly, Raef Tyrell & Conor Grogan each won an unsigned Irish Rugby shirt. The raffle raised an amazing €1,500 for the Irish Hospice Foundation. Thank you to all the students who bought tickets and well done to Joe and Jamie for organising it all.

The Goal / Aidlink Administration Committee and a few other transition year students went to Croke Park to officially launch the Goal / Aidlink St Patrick's Day Badge Project with DJ Carey. This is the 19th year that the Students of Blackrock College have been running the project. Over the years, the shamrock badges have brought in over €2 million for Goal & Aidlink, both of which fund programmes that benefit the poorest and most vulnerable people on earth.

On Friday and Saturday, a number of Transition Years volunteered to sell lollipops in aid of the oesophageal cancer fund. The aim of the lollipops were to make people conscious of swallowing as difficulty swallowing that is one of the common symptoms of Oesophageal cancer. Also the profit made from selling lollipops will enable more research and better treatment and amenities for patients suffering from this disease.

Click here for more on www.lollipopday.ie

Many 4th years volunteered to bag pack in Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt for the day to help fund Father Molyneaux to fight HIV in South Africa. More students will be bag packing next friday also.

 

You can now purchase St Patrick's Day Goal / Aidlink Badges on-line. Click here for more information

 

At lunch today the Greenschools Committee all turned out in bright yellow high vis jackets and green caps with rubbish clippers and bags highlighting Litter Awareness Day in the School. They toured the school picking up litter, and raising awareness. They also had a display stand with a presentation about the recycling facilities available in the school and were distributing free stationery made from recycled material. more

 

In the replay vs Kilkenny College the Blackrock College SCT were narrowly defeated 14-13.

The largest school fundraiser in the country has just got underway, The Goal / Aidlink St Patrick's Day Badge Project. Last year the project raised over €200,000 for the Developing World. This year, over 140 students are involved. They will visit national schools and secondary schools, approach businesses for support and distribute over 280,000 badges nationwide.

YOU can help us!
If your business would like to buy badges to give out to your customers or if you would be able to place a box of badges in you place of work for people to buy please contact us at goalaidlink@rockty.com or on 01 2752169

Click here for more info on the Goal/Aidlink Project

Greenwatch, the Blackrock College environmental magazine, is currently being made by Geography 41 and their teacher Mr Campbell. The finished product is due out very soon after the Mid Term break.

Thanks to the Parents Committee since January Transition Year have received 7 lectures as part of their lecture series. The Series began on the 8th of January with Rossa Fanning, a barrister and lecturer in law, talking about Law as a career. On the 24th of January John O'Shea (Director of Goal) came to talk about the upcoming Goal / Aidlink St Patrick's Day Badges Project and its importance to the third world.
Other lectures in the series included Ailbe McCormack, a physiotherapist (formerly with the Irish rugby team) who gave a lecture about physiotherapy as a career, John Harrington from the "Irish African -Asian Conservation Wildlife Trust" raising awareness of endangered species, Paul Sharkey from "Brainwave" raising awareness of epilepsy, Stephen Minton from Trinity College talking about Bullying, and John Lonergan, Governor of Mountjoy talked about the Prison system in Ireland.

 

On Thursday Paul Sharkey gave a lecture to Transtion Year raising awareness of epilepsy. On Friday over 50 Transition Year students went out collecting for Brainwave, the Irish Epilepsy Association as part of their annual collection.

More info on Brainwave

 

Sixteen Transition Year students did the Safepass course. The Safepass course is a Safety Awareness course run by FAS and its purpose is to reduce the risk of accidents at work, particularly in the Construction Industry. As such, the course is intended for all employees who work in construction and aims to increase their knowledge and awareness of health and safety issues. This means that during the summer these 16 students will be able to apply for jobs working on Construction Sites. The course was a great success with all 16 students passing and as a result another course may be run in April.

Click here for more info about Safepass

The Leman Concert took place last night in the National Concert Hall. Transition Year students were very invovled the Concert through the choir, orchestra, and several of the bands.

(Click here for more on the Blackrock College Website)

Transition Year visited theYoung Scientis' Exhibition in the R.D.S. It was a great day out and very interesting seeing all the different projects. A 5th Year Ciaran Doyle was among the hundreds of entrants and won two major awards with his project.

On Friday 22nd of December 184 Food Hampers, made by Transition Years, were delivered to needy people in the Killinarden area by Transion Year students, their parents and past pupils. more

Santa Claus ran into some difficulty this year as he had such a huge volume of post to read and answer. The Transition years came to his rescue and helped him to answer several thousand letters. Santa was so pleased with their help that he is going to make a donation to the St. Vincent De Paul.