Photo by Tomás Tyner UCC
St. Brigid’s NS., received some really good news recently when they heard 6th Class had won first prize in the prestigious ‘Decade of Centenaries’ all-island schools history competition. This was a joint history project from both Mr. Dodd’s & Ms. Murray’s Sixth Classes. The competition is an annual one, sponsored by the Department of Education, Mercier Press & UCC’s School of History and supported by the ‘History Ireland’ magazine. The students from St. Brigid’s won in the ‘Women’s History’ section. New principal Mrs. Máire Costello was delighted to announce the news and to congratulate both 6th classes and their teachers.
With the support of a proud Board of Management, a group of the children represented the school at the prize giving in the Aula Maxima of University College, Cork, (UCC’s own Hall at Hogwart’s) on Monday 21st May 2018. The prize was a history trophy and mini library from the Mercier press website to a value of €200. All winning entries will be digitized online and one of the winners will be considered for publication in an issue of ‘History Ireland’.
St. Brigid’s entry was based on research originally done for a dramatic re enactment of scenes from the lives of Muriel & Grace Gifford, Kitty Kiernan & Sinead De Valera. These women all had a connection to Greystones in those revolutionary times 1916 – 1922. In September 2017, 6th Class students performed episodes from these women’s lives, with musical accompaniment at the La Touche Legacy’s annual Festival of History. This was at the invitation of the La Touche Legacy committee.
6th Class were very happy to receive congratulations from local TDs; Minister for Health, Mr. Simon Harris and Stephen Donnelly. ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ and the children from 6th Class St. Brigid’s would like to acknowledge the encouragement of Councillor George Jones and local historian Rosemary Raughter and the members of the La Touche Seminar Committee, whose original invitation to participate in the La Touche Seminar inspired the children’s interest in this particular aspect of local history.
By the same token, students would like to thank the Greystones Guide for the great articles on the history of Greystones and the treasure trove of photos of Greystones long ago that feature on the Guide. The children in St. Brigid’s take a lively interest in local history as you can tell from this blog.
