Year 14 student Ciaron O’Hanlon, will start his first senior game for Armagh in Sunday’s Ulster Senior Football Championship opening tie against Cavan.

The 18-year-old was called up to the senior squad by manager Paul Grimley after starring for St Paul’s during their run to the MacRory Cup final.

Ciaron has never played for the county senior team before, but manager Paul Grimley had no hesitation in naming Ciaron in the starting fifteen and said ‘selecting Ciaron for Sunday’s Ulster SFC clash with Cavan was an easy decision’.

We wish Ciaron and Armagh the very best of luck on Sunday.

Armagh: Philip McEvoy, Paul McKeown, Declan McKenna, Mark Shields, Aaron Kernan, Brendan Donaghy, Ciaran McKeever, James Lavery, Stephen Harold, Caolan Rafferty, Ciaran O’Hanlon, Kevin Dyas, Tony Kernan, Jamie Clarke, Stefan Forker

Pictured above are students who are currently working on their first Science project. 

Year 8 students Aiobheann Murphy, Cliodhna Tierney, Chloe Quinn and Jordan McCann are currently working on their first Science project and need your help.

The title of the project is called ‘Lets Talk Biscuit’ and they aim to see if the new breakfast biscuits are a suitable replacement for a proper breakfast.

Throughout this project the four students will be burning biscuits, comparing data and also tasting the biscuits.

Please CLICK HERE to complete their survey.

Back L-R, Jarlath Burns, Vice-Principal, St Paul’s, Noel Doran, Editor, Irish News, John Rafferty, Head of PE & Sport, St Paul’s, Oliver Mooney, Principal, St Paul’s, Martin McAviney, Ulster GAA President

Front L-R, Students Conor Boyle, Gregory McCabe, Louise Kenny, Aimee Mackin and Ciaron O’Hanlon

St Paul’s High School, Bessbrook has been named as the Best Second Level School, in the highly contested Irish News Club & Volunteer Awards. The awards initiative, now in its second decade, recognises and rewards GAA clubs, schools and volunteers throughout Ulster for their commitment to gaelic games and their community irrespective of their playing ability.

At a special ceremony in Belfast, Principal of St Paul’s, Oliver Mooney was presented with the award by Noel Doran, Editor of the Irish News, who congratulated all the clubs, schools and volunteers that received awards adding that ‘the Irish News Club & Volunteer awards are tangible proof that our clubs, our volunteers & our schools are indeed the foundation of the GAA.’

He added, ‘the Irish News Club & Volunteer Awards have proven to be overwhelmingly successful as recognition for the hard work of the winning clubs, volunteers and schools. The awards are a great celebration of the vibrant communities that are created by schools, clubs and volunteers right across Ulster.’

Mr Mooney, who was accompanied to the presentation ceremony by representatives of both boys and girls Gaelic teams at St Paul’s, spoke of the dedication, commitment and drive of the students of St Paul’s.  Mr Mooney said that the promotion and development of gaelic games was part of the lifeblood of the school, and paid tribute to the extensive support offered by local GAA clubs which is critical to the long term success of the school.

Head of PE and Sport at St Paul’s, Mr John Rafferty, thanked the Irish News for their commitment to gaelic games, and their support of schools through the Club & Volunteer Awards.  Mr Rafferty paid tribute to the commitent of staff at St Paul’s to the development of gaelic games and to the massive contribution of parents and families who support students involved in teams.

Martin McAviney, Ulster GAA President commented, ‘Comhairle Uladh CLG are delighted to partner the Irish News Club & Volunteer Awards which recognise the work and vision of the GAA grassroots in Ulster. I commend the Irish News on this excellent venture and I would like to congratulate the winning clubs, volunteers and schools.’

Attending the awards at the Wellington Park Hotel was Paddy Tally St Mary’s University College who offered words of advice and support to the clubs, schools and volunteers attending.

As a winning school, the students were awarded a £1,000 Irish News development cheque, and a £1,000 O’Neills Sportswear voucher.

SMALL CLUB AWARD WINNER – Thomas Davis GAC, Corrinshego
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Gowna GFC
MEDIUM CLUB AWARD WINNER – St Marys GAC, Aghagallon
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Silverbridge Harps GAC
LARGE CLUB AWARD WINNER – Cumann Pheadair Naofa, Warrenpoint
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Killyclogher St Mary’s GAC
CLUB AND SCHOOL INITIATIVE AWARD – Killyclogher St Mary’s GAC
SMALL CLUB VOLUNTEER AWARD – Cormac McMullan (St John’s GAC, Drumnaquoile)
MEDIUM CLUB VOLUNTEER AWARD – Gerry Lavery (St Mary’s GAC, Aghagallon)
LARGE CLUB VOLUNTEER AWARD – Brendan Smyth (O’Connells GAC, Tullysaran)
SCHOOL, PRIMARY – Mount St Michaels PS, Randalstown
SCHOOL, SECOND LEVEL – St Paul’s High School, Bessbrook

Principal of St Paul’s, Oliver Mooney is presented with the Irish News Clubs & Volunteers Award for Best Second Level School by Editor of Irish News, Noel Doran.

Sadly for Year 14 students at St Paul’s, their time is up as they received a sad farewell from Principal Mr Mooney on their official last day at St Paul’s.

Vice-principal Mr Burns recalled some of his great memories with Year 14 students and sent out a heartfelt thanks to Ms Fearon for being an ‘inspiring Year Head’ to this wonderful Year group throughout their final Year at St Paul’s.

Mrs McMahon also received a lovely acknowledge as she was the original Year Head of this group throughout their first five years at St Paul’s.

Our School Chalpain Fr Dermot Maloney spoke of his praise for them throughout their time at St Paul’s and everyone said  the ‘Prayer to St Paul’ for the final time as a Year group.

Before they went, we left them with this Goodbye video that we put together for them.

On Thursday 2 May, St Paul’s Year 9 Boys’ team lost out in the Danske Bank Ulster Colleges Corn Cholmchille Final as Patrician High School Carrickmacross won by a scoreline of 5-09 1-07.

This was a very hard fought game with Patrician High School making the most of their chances and coming out deserving winners.

On Thursday 25 April, St Paul’s Learning Support Centre Choir travelled to Mullingar to take part in the All Ireland Choir competition.

Prepared by Mr Peter Slane, St Paul’s were competing against fifteen choirs from all over Ireland and finished second overall after singing three pieces.

The adjudicators commented on the wonderful atmosphere of happiness and joy St Paul’s brought to the stage and praised the beautiful harmonies and the seven solo parts in the performance. They loved the chorus and how attentive they were to their conductors Jack and Karyn, who along with Mr Slane and Head Girl Afreen, have worked tirelessly all year to get the choir ready for this competition.

Well Done to all involved.

L-R Mrs Una McNulty (Vice Principal) Ciara Jones, Ailis McDonnell, Rose Duffy, Katie Boyle, Aoife Fearon (missing from the picture Georgia Smith).

Last week six Year 9 pupils from St Paul’s were selected to represent the southern area in the upcoming Netball Northern Ireland U13 Regional Development Academy Tournament, which is being held in Antrim Forum on Saturday 11th May.

These girls will join a squad of 18 other girls from schools in the southern area, all of who have been training on a Monday evening in Cookstown Leisure Centre in preparation for this tournament.

Best of luck Girls.

As part of our recent Careers week at St Paul’s, a group of Year 12 students visited Dundalk Institute of Technology for a taster day in engineering and computer games development.

The students were given two practical sessions and demonstrations on the use of mathematics in engineering and computer science.

The engineers showed how maths is used in a variety of engineering fields including mechanical, civil and electronic engineering.  The students were shown the role of maths in developing and testing the components for building aircraft and other large machinery; measuring the flow of water in a river to predict flooding; and in building electronic circuits.

The computer games developers demonstrated how straight-line graphs and quadratic equations are used to model the movements of characters and objects in computer games.  The students were shown how the movement of a bullet in a game such as “Call of Duty” would have been created using mathematical equations.  They were then given the opportunity to work with 3D Max software to create their own “minion” characters.  This is the same professional software used by Disney Pixar and other film studios and computer games developers to create movies and games such as “Toy Story”, “Finding Nemo”, “Avatar”, “Splinter Cell” and “Gears of War”.

The St Paul’s annual Pilgrimage to Lourdes takes place from the 6th – 11th July 2013.

For more information contact Fr Dermot or Kathleen on 028 30 830309.

For all of us whether pupil or staff, in school and in the wider world in life is a learning curve.  We have all learned many important lessons, through our association with Rachael Sands – lessons about life and living and acceptance.

Each Lent it has become the accepted custom that Easter eggs appear in the Religion block and raffle tickets are sold and the now customary cake sale takes place to raise funds for charity.  The choosing of the charity rests with the Rainbow group, our school bereavement, loss and trauma support group who are responsible for this very worthwhile practice.

Rachael, because of her battle with cancer is the catalyst and drive behind this practice.  She has in recent years been the encouragement and incentive and the push.  This year the cancer charities will again benefit from the hard work and torturous selling.

A very big thank you to all who have supported us in the past and who continue to do so.

We remember in a special way all of our staff and students who are experiencing difficulty at this time – hopefully with God’s help they will soon see the light at the end of the tunnel.

With every good wish, The Rainbow Group