Junior Poetry Prize 2026

Congratulations to Daniel Brady, winner of this year's Junior Poetry Prize for his poem 'Forgotten Times'.

Once stood tall
A glorious tree.
But Autumn called
And striped its leaves.
When winter arrived
It was deprived,
Bereft of summer’s greens.

A large, steep peak
This hill once had.
It now stands weak
Quite basic and bland.
Look back in time
And you might just find
Once stood a mountain, so grand.

In a wooden chair lies
A worn, aged man.
He glimpses back at his life
As he fidgets with his hand.
He prays and wishes 
For just one thing different
Before he has to leave this land.

The feeling of love
This man could once find.
He now lives alone
The good life left behind.
He stares up at the sky
And begins to cry,
Reminiscing forgotten times.
 

Articles of the Week

This is an ongoing listing of links to the Articles of the Week used with our Leaving Certificate pupils, from September 2013 onwards.

The idea came from the American teacher and writer Kelly Gallagher, and it fits very well into the Leaving course, getting pupils used to reading interesting articles and thus helping them in both the comprehension and composition sections of their Paper 1, as well as expanding their knowledge base and vocabulary and providing interesting topics for discussion.

Click here for Gallagher's current articles, and read more about the theory behind the scheme in his excellent book Readicide: how schools are killing reading and what you can do about it. Pupils have to mark up the articles with annotations before class discussion.

1. October 2025: 'Would you watch a film with an AI actor?' by Amy Hume, The Conversation, October 7th 2025.
2. September 2025: 'Ireland is in danger of ignoring the one big benefit of single-sex education' by Finn McRedmond, Irish Times, September 4th 2025 [education, gender, Ireland].
3. May 2024: 'Cramming for an exam isn’t the best way to learn – but if you have to do it, here’s how' by Jonathan Firth, University of Strathclyde, The Conversation, May 17th 2024 [study, cognitive science, examinations].
   
4. February 2024: 'How people get sucked into misinformation rabbit holes – and how to get them out' by Emily Booth and Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, University of Technology Sydney, The Conversation, February 23rd 2024 [technology, psychology].
   
5. September 2023: 'The case against pets: is it time to give up our cats and dogs?' by Ellie Violet Bramley, Guardian, September 13th 2023 [animal welfare}
6. September 2023: '‘Edtech’ offers no escape from reality' by John Thornhill, Financial Times, September 7th 2023 [education, technology].
7. January 2023: 'Why winter walks at the seaside are good for you' by Nick Davies and Sean J. Gammon, The Conversation, January 13th 2023 [mental health].
   
8. October 2022: 'There’s too much of everything. And it’s making us unhappy.’ by Seán Moncrieff, Irish Times, October 15th October 2022 [parenting, adolescence, consumerism].
   
9. September 2022: 'A comeback for nuclear power' by The Week staff writers,  September 4th 2022 [nuclear power, economics, environment].
   
10. September 2022: 'Why is our Government so happy to ignore the financial nightmare young people face?' by Gemma Haverty, Irish Times, August 30th 2022 [economics, society].
    
11. April 2022: 'A year of hunger: how the Russia-Ukraine war is worsening climate-linked food shortages' by Nenad Naumovski, The Conversation (Australia), April 26th 2022 [war, economics, climate change].
    
12. November 2021: 'The climate won’t wait. We need a carbon tax now
    The time for handwringing is definitively over' by Tim Harford, Financial Times, October 29th 2021 [environment, climate change].
    
13. September 2021: 'Leaks just exposed how toxic Facebook and Instagram are to teen girls and, well, everyone' by Siva Vaidhyanathan, The Guardian, September 18th 2021 [social media].
    
14. September 2021: 'Narcissists: there's more than one type' by Nikhila Mahadevan, The Conversation, August 5th 2021 [psychology].
    
15. May 2021: 'We must stop Covid shutting girls out of school forever' by Malala Yousafzai, Financial Times, April 29th 2021 [pandemic, education]
    
16. May 2021: 'Sang culture: how a reluctant Russian singer became the hero of young pessimists across China' by Xiaoning Lu, The Conversation, April 30th 2021 [culture, internet, China].
    
17. November 2020: 'Remembrance Day is an exercise in collective amnesia' by Samuel Earle, The Guardian, November 8th 2020 [history, politics, remembrance].
    
18. October 2020: 'Is Donald Trump a bully or bold protector? That depends on whom you ask' by Arlie Hochschild, The Guardian, October 10th 2020 [politics, bullying].
    
19. October 2020: 'To combat conspiracy theories teach critical thinking – and community' by Thomas Roulet, The Conversation, October 2nd 2020 [conspiracy, social media, education].
    
20. September 2020: 'What can we learn about people from their social media?' by Gwendolyn Sideman, Psychology Today, September 21st 2020 [social media, psychology, behaviour].
    
21. September 2020: 'Oxford scientists: these are the final steps we're taking to get our coronavirus vaccine approved' by Rebecca Ashfield and Pedro Folegatti, The Conversation, September 8th 2020 [science, vaccines]
22. February 2020: 'Are First-Borns Really Natural Leaders?' by Clara Sabolova, The Conversation, February 7th [parenting, upbringing, nurture].
23. January 2020: 'What moral authority does the US have to kill Suleimani?' by Breda O'Brien, The Irish Times, January 11th 2020 [morality, politics, conflict}.
24. October 2019: 'A psychotherapist explains why some adults are reacting badly to young climate strikers' by Caroline Hickman, The Conversation, October 11th 2019 [climate change, teenagers].
25. September 2019: 'Curiosity: we're studying the brain to help you harness it' by by Ashvanti Valji and Matthias Gruber, The Conversation, September 13th 2019 [neuroscience, learning].
26. September 2019: 'A California high school found students' cellphones too distracting, so they're locking the devices up' by Safia Samee Ali, NBC News, August 21st 2019 [education, learning, teenagers, technology].
27. May 2019: 'How Exercise Affects Our Memory' by Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times, May 1st 2019 [exercise, physiology, neuroscience].
28. January 2019: 'Aviation is the red meat in the greenhouse gas sandwich' by John Gibbons, the Irish Times, January 29th 2019 [environment, aviation].
29. January 2019: 'Filling the Silence with Digital Noise' by the Nielsen Norman Group, November 18th 2018 [technology, learning].
30. November 2018: "Window for saving Earth from ecological annihilation closing" by John Gibbons, the Irish Times, October 16th 2018 [ecology, environment].
31. October 2018: "'Fortnite' teaches the wrong lessons" by Nicholas Tampio, The Conversation, October 12th 2018 [gaming, adolescence, technology]/
32. October 2018: "Why true horror movies are about more than things going bump in the night" by Aislinn Clarke, The Conversation [film, horror, comedy], October 3rd 2018.
33. October 2018:  'Is Serena Williams right? A linguist on the extra challenges women face in moments of anger' by Kieran File, The Conversation, September 11th 2018 [women, gender, sport].
34. September 2018: 'Why you should read this article slowly' by Joe Moran, The Guardian, September 14th 2018 [reading, internet].
35. September 2018: 'The ideal school would put children's development before league tables' by Sue Roffey, The Conversation, September 17th 2018.
36. September 2018: 'Another Angle: For the love of God, put down the phones' by Adrian Weckler, Irish Independent, August 20th 2018 [technology, phone].
37. May 2018: 'Neuroscience is unlocking mysteries of the teenage brain' by Lucy Foulkes, The Conversation, April 23rd 2018 [adolescence, neuroscience].
38. March 2018: 'The Tyranny of Convenience' by Tim Yu, New York Times, February 16th 2018 [modern life, technology].
39. February 2018: "The death of reading is threatening the soul" by Philip Yancey, Washington Post, July 21st 2017 [reading, books, internet].
40. January 2018: 'Why more men are wearing makeup than ever before' by Glen Jankowski, The Conversation, January 15th 2018 [make-up, masculinity].
41. January 2018: 'Why 2017 was the best year in human history' by Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times, January 6, 2018 [history, progress, health].
42. November 2017: 'Boys must behave if women are to be safe' by Fintan O'Toole, The Irish Times, October 31, 2017.
43. October 2017: 'A giant insect ecosystem is collapsing due to humans' by Michael McCarthy, The Guardian, October 21, 2017.
44. October 2017: 'We can't stop mass murder' by Shikha Dalmia, The Week, October 6, 2017.
45. October 2017: 'What every teacher should know about ... memory' by Bradley Busch, The Guardian, October 6, 2017 [learning, memory, teaching].
46. October 2017: 'Think the world is in a mess: here are 4 things you can do about it' by Alexandre Christoyannapoulos. The Conversation, November 16, 2016 [activism, citizenship, economics].
47. September 2017: 'The power of silence in the smartphone age' by Erling Kagge, The Guardian, September 23rd 2017 [technology].
48. September 2017: '5 reasons why people share fake photos during disasters' by A.J. Willingham, CNN.com, September 8th 2017 [journalism, psychology, social media].
49. September 2017: 'Can you identify the psychopaths in your life?' by Rob Hastings, iNews, August 29th 2017 [psychology].
50. February 2017: 'Our roads are choked. We're on the verge of carmageddon' by George Monbiot, The Guardian, September 20th 2016 [environment, transport].
51. January 2017: 'Girls believe brilliance is a male trait' by Nicola Davis, The Guardian, January 27th 2017.
52. January 2017: 'What do teenagers want? Potted plant parents' by Lisa Damour, New York Times, December 14th 2016 [adolescence, parenting].
53. November 2016: 'Trump makes it easy to vote for Her' by Carl Hiaasen, Miami Herald, November 6th 2016 [politics, America].
54. October 2016: 'How being alone may be the key to rest' by Claudia Hammond, BBC, September 27th 2016 [rest, reading, introversion].
55. September 2016: 'Why Parents are Getting Angrier' by Nicola Skinner, The Guardian, September 3rd 2016 [parenting, psychology, childhood].
56. September 2016: 'Burkini beach ban: must French Muslim women become invisible?' by Delphine Strauss, The Irish Times, August 22nd 2016 [culture, Islam, France].
57. May 2016: 'How can Lidl sell jeans for £5.99?' by Gethin Chamberlain, The Guardian, March 13th 2016 [economics, retailing, manufacture].
58. April 2016: 'Teaching men how to be emotionally honest' by Anrew Reiner, New York Times, April 4th 2016 [gender, adolescence, masculinity].
59. February 2016: 'Then and now: how things have changed for teenage girls since the 1950s' by Clare Furniss, The Guardian, January 29th 2016 [teenagers, gender, sexism].
60. January 2016: 'Teenagers risk being defined for life by their social media posts' by Karlin Lilllington, Irish Times, January 14th 2016 [social media, teenagers, identity].
61. January 2016: 'Welcome to the Anthropocene, a new geological era for the world', The Week, January 8th 2016 [geology, climate change, environment].
62. November 2015: 'Birth Order Determines ... Almost Nothing' by Jeanne Safer, psychologytoday.com [psychology, parenting, childhood].
63. November 2015: 'How psychopaths can save your life' by Kevin Dutton, The Observer [psychology].
64. November 2015: '10 benefits of reading: why you should read every day' by Lana Winter-Hebert, Lifehack.org [reading, entertainment, education].
65. October 2015: 'How much can you really learn while you're asleep?' by Jordan Gaines Lewis, The Guardian, October 6th 2015 [neuroscience, learning, adolescence].
66. September 2015: 'Fifth of secondary school pupils wake almost every night to use social media' by Sally Weale, The Guardian, September 15th 2015 [social media, learning, teenagers].

Transition Year English Evening 2025

 

This week we had the 30th Transition Year English Evening, the longest-established TY event in the College. It was planned primarily as a celebration of pupil work across the year, with an external guest speaker. There is no competitive element.

This year we were delighted to welcome back a former teacher, Mr Paul Reidy, who has been working at St Andrew’s College in Booterstown for 26 years, where he is head of Senior Cycle English. The event was compèred by Mr Kirwan.

There were eight readers of their work from the four sets; Mr Reidy’s comments on them follow each in brackets. Anna Hart kicked off with a narrative piece called ‘The Watcher’ (full of atmosphere and detail, tense and capturing fear very well, with a twist at the end). She was followed by Kayra Mbanefo with ‘The City That Dreams’ (a vivid phrase in the description was ‘like brushstrokes on a canvas’). Third was Issac Fang with ‘The Hidden Book’, a dense and interesting piece on body/mind (intriguing, getting across the thoughts of a teeming brain). As a total contrast, Isobel McKinley wrote ‘Testimonies’, an honest and personal piece about her relationship with religion (writing about character growth in a way which was gently wise).

Lexi Hunter’s ‘Underwater’ was a highly descriptive essay (very well written, with a strong sense of colour and cinematic). Alice Castagna’s ‘The Pulse of the Unknown’ on her time in London was next (a strong sense of nostalgia, and very good on the sounds and smells of the city), followed by Alice McCarthy with ‘Animal Farm at School’ (a version of the novel which was very humorous, with a touch of Lord of the Flies). Finally, Ferdia Murray provoked lots of laughter with ‘My First Love’, which started with lots of suggestive images which revealed themselves as references to his air fryer (very funny).

Mr Reidy then spoke a little about his time in the College from 1994 to 1996, his moving on to work for Concern in Rwanda, and then his return to teaching, which has become his career. It is indeed, he stated, a privilege to be a teacher, helping children learn. He concluded by reading out the names of the pupils who were awarded Premier grades this year,

Peter Dix Memorial Prize for Poetry

Congratulations to Stella Borrowdale, who has been awarded the Senior Poetry Prize 2025. The trophy marks the life of Peter Dix, who was killed in the Lockerbie bombing; the trophy is shown, and is on display in the Library. The sculptor is Joe Sloan.

 

Stella's poems were on the theme 'Forgotten People', and here are two pieces from her portfolio:

Penelope

She unweaves her shroud in darkness at sundown in solitude.
Candles are forbidden in this shrine.
Midnight interrupts - leaving space for prayer in His name:
Three words spoken three times, one syllable.

Specific breaths are taken, reserved only for this moment.
Three minutes delegated to His memory in her mind.
Aglow with finest offerings: two libations; a golden kylix
sits quietly at His setting, no name inscribed.
 
Absence shapes this deity, yet she prays He will be here.
No responses are required in this shrine.
His hand and word together are sufficient in her mind;
He speaks the words; she burns for ten more years.

To question is to be human, yet she removes her dampened veil
Lest this man beneath her stairwell be the one.
This deity is damned: bound to slay one hundred men
For one more hour to forget His forsaken wife.

Marigold

The year slips away after September
And again it will happen in March
As the last puddle dries. I try to remember;
Did you shudder when it fell dark?
Is there any freedom in knowledge?
Or are there wounds heard in the sound
Of a voice that isn’t yours,
Spoken watchdogged all around

This clock was never ticking,
Long out of use with no sense of time.
I have no strength; you have no freedom,
But you can laugh—I gave you mine.
In the heart of my desires,
You are more than fleeting shadows;
Solid and substantial,
Allowed escape from wildflower meadows.

Tomorrow will be summer,
But it won’t ever be the same
Since you left your precious garden
In monsoon, which you call rain.
A chrysanthemum on the sill,
A marigold in the mirror,
Hidden carefully so only you can see the damage.
You tend to her so softly, attempt to form connection,
Yet a flower with no mouth can’t help you manage

To speak the words you wish were spoken,
Words you kept inside your head
For the benefits of hidden comforts in the sound:
The sound you crave - of darkness,
So you’ll leave your greenhouse in the rain.
By August, I will promise to never write about you again.

 

Voices of Poetry 2025

 

As happens annually, and has done for about 40 years since former Head of English Mr John Fanagan initiated the event, Voices of Poetry took place on Sunday evening, the last major event in the BSR of the school year.

And as happens annually, many pupils and a handful of staff read or recited short poems in a variety of languages under a single spotlight in a darkened hall. It is a moment for attention and listening, a pause in the busy-ness of school life, and a celebration of our diversity. Mr Girdham presented the evening and introduced the speakers.

 

Violeta Mykhalova opened confidently with a Ukrainian poem about summer, appropriately as the holidays get close. An utterly different language is Akrikaans: Kasimir zu Bentheim used to live in South Africa and so read a piece in that language.

The first English poem of the evening was in ‘American’, in the extraordinary style of the great Emily Dickinson, ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’. Moving much further South, Spanish as spoken in Mexico was represented by Eleazar Reygadas Lopez, who read a piece by the 1990 Mexican winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Octavio Paz.

That variety continued in the first poem of the evening in Mandarin Chinese, recited vividly by Rachel Jiang, and it was further emphasised in Polish by Marianna O’Shaughnessy in a piece by another Nobel Prize-winner, Wisława Szymborska.

 

As Mr Girdham pointed out, it takes some courage to compose and then read out in such an arena your own words, and Nia Jessup was the first of the pupils to do so, with her poem 'The Wish I Regret'.

European languages came next, starting with Anna McGrath (French), Allegra Caccia (Montale in Italian), Otto Dalwigk (Bavarian dialect) and Carola Moreno (Spanish). The second composer-reader was Delia Brady, with 'The Green Island', about her family’s relationship to the Irish Famine of the 1840s. Irish was represented by Fleur Green. Then the third composer-reader was Finn Woolsey, who read an affecting personal poem about a friend, ‘Petals in the Wind’.

Four First Formers read short poems: Daniela Casasus Benitez (Spanish), Ella Girdham (German: ‘Wir’ by Irmela Brender), Fiona Zhong and Ada Yang (both Mandarin). Jason Otolorin returned us to English, with Ian Duhig’s ‘From the Irish’.

The Junior Poetry Prize was this year won by Suvi-Helene Cully, and Mr Kirwan read out her winning poem ‘When the Storm Comes’. As usual, the Warden recited a poem from the store of works he has learned off by heart, this time Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’. Then Mr Canning announced the winner of this year’s Peter Dix Memorial Prize for Poetry, Stella Borrowdale, whose prize-winning poem he read out.

Finally, Senior Prefect Harry Smith Huskinson closed proceedings with Sylvia Plath’s ‘Song for a Summer’s Day’, which he had read at his mother’s wedding. This echoed the opening poem of the night: another about summer, and its lovely image ‘Sunday’s honey-air’, a perfect note on which to end.                                                                                                                                                                                                     

'The Green Island'

At Voices of Poetry on Sunday night Delia Brady read out her own poem, 'The Green Island', based on her family's connection to the Famine of the 1840s. It had impressed Mr Canning as an entry to the Senior Poetry Prize this year.

 

The Green Island

Just home
To the sheep that
graze,
the ruins of the cobbled
house-now used for shearing-
once held
Us

Before the land turned to ribs,
And with bleak November came
funerals-
no headstones, no plaques-
only the keening of the women,
heard from across the lake

How many infants-
Born with tired eyes and faces-
Thrown into the waters for
their heinous crime,
Unworthy in the graying priests' eyes,
of entering the kingdom of God

Their bones found, and left-
No names-
Never even given them-
Dead on Arrival
from starved mothers
in starving fields.

'The Wish I Regret'

 At Sunday's Voices of Poetry, Nia Jessup from Third Form read out her interesting poem 'The Wish I Regret:

 

The wish I regret …

A teenager 

Not an adult but not a kid either 

That's what we are

The between

We have to act like adults

But also have fun 

And enjoy our younger years 

While we're still young.

5 years. 

That's all it is,

It sounds so short.

Yet it feels so long. 

The wish to grow older 

The wish to be free 

From all the things that our parents see. 

I regret the wish.

We sit in neat rows,

But our minds are a maze,

Wandering far,

Through uncertain days.

We carry our futures

In our minds each day,

While pieces of childhood

Are slipping away.

The wish to grow older—

It burned like a flame,

But age came with shadows

And burdens with names.

I wanted to rush,
Through the long restless days.
Not knowing I'd look back
And long for those ways.

I regret that wish …

 

Junior Poetry Prize 2025

Congratulations to the winner of this year's Junior Poetry Prize, Suvi-Helene Cully. Here is her poem 'When the Storm Comes'.

When the storm comes
It is an unexpected turn,
an emotional wave of change
an unusual gust that at first feels haunting.

the wind will sway and mock you
the rain will hand you your sorrow
the trees will pity you, standing tall above you.
 
But when all seems lost,
Birds will hum
light will shine through
the beautiful sky will renew.

And It will no longer be nothing but a breeze.
Something to look back on,
Part of who you are.
A memory of the past.

Petals in the Wind

At the Voices of Poetry event on Sunday night, Finn Woolsey read out this affecting poem he wrote, about a childhood friend in difficult circumstances.

 

Dear Rose, 

freshly sprung from seeds, deserving of kindness from the soil and gardener that feeds.

Just beginning to bud, so tender, so frail,

No thorns yet to guard you, no armour or veil.

Before you knew what it meant to bloom, 

Hands meant to cradle instead sealed your doom,

Held you down, stripped your petals away,

Leaving your vibrant hues faded and gray.

On my top bunk, surrounded by our crew of stuffed rabbits and bears,

We played pirates, out sailing the silent storm,

While I told you about the wolf that follows me in the shadow of the moon,

and you told me about the gardener that smothers his lips to yours at noon.

Silently and swiftly, the storks swept down and whisked you away,

while the soil wept and the wolf began to prey.

You were gone, without goodbyes, without a petal for me to treasure and clutch to my chest.

I asked the Northern Pintails in their nest if they had seen traces of you in winds from the west.

They turned away, their wings heavy at rest.

I'm haunted by memories of a faceless girl, 

Dragging me down the rocky shore in a whirl,

Her bare feet on stone, while I trailed behind,

Yellow wellies splashing, our shadows intertwined.

Now I search for her in every face I see,

Hoping she smiles back at me from the sea’s golden shimmers,

as the sun disappears behind the waves, 

and so does she.