St. Brendan's Boys Primary School

Dance with Lisa
Thanks to Gravity Dance Academy for our final dance session with Lisa Hogan- huge thanks to Offaly County Council Arts Department for their grant support with this programme. The theme of this years programme was called “ Dance boost” “ and was designed especially for our boys, we aimed to provide them with a unique opportunity to explore a different form of self-expression and physical activity.

Medal Presentation night at our school hall
Wow ! Thanks to Offaly Dual star Cormac Egan for presenting the Offaly Cumann na
Mbunscoil football winners medals to our school panel this week ! ⭐️ Parents Association St. Brendan’s Boys School, Birr Gaelscoil na Laochra Cormac got a great entrance
with “ The boys of Offaly “ blaring out in the hall which brought back great memories !
Cormac spoke so eloquently to the large crowd and to the panel of players .The boys all
received their winner medals and got the photo with Cormac too .
Both school principals Mr Crofton and Ms Ni Chlerigh spoke and thanked the coaches
Mr Kennedy / Mr Carroll and Mr Crofton for their time and congratulated the panel of
39 boys on their achievement
Mr Crofton also thanked the parents and staff of the boys school for their support along
with BOM chairperson Pat Teehan for his support of GAA in the school –
What an absolute role model to all young players- Cormac did a QnA with Mr Crofton
about balancing the demands of dual games along with making sure your studies and
future are focused also – very wise words from such a young man who has a bright future ahead of him both on and off the field
Birr boys / Gaelscoil na laochra Gaelic Gaelic season by numbers :
2 schools 39 players 3 coaches 100% support from all staff / parents
3 matches / 2 challenge matches / 1 final = good game time for all players ( 5 bus trips
paid for by BOM / player contributions)
10 training sessions ( mostly after 3pm) Lunchtime catch and kick league supporting
Gaelic with 40 boys over 4 weeks 19 players who lost last years final = resilience
1 trophy and gold medals = memories for a lifetime

12370c Gaelic Games newsletter term 1 2023

Boys had their cross country running trials around the school last week which brought great excitement to 2rd to 6th classes and the top 4 boys from 3rd to 6th will travel to tullamore harriers this week to take part in the Offaly primary schools cross country 👍 Offaly Sports Partnership

Well done to the 16 boys who travelled to the Harriers tullamore to take part in the Offaly primary schools cross country event – Boys all ran well and placed high- Special congrats to Harry Watkins who came 4th place in the Offaly fifth class boys run – Well done Harry 🙌 Thanks to Ms Doyle and Mr Parsons who travelled with the teams today 👍👍

Great to have 2 Irish rugby jerseys now taking pride of place at our school entrance hall – these jerseys were presented to our school by past pupils Ronan Loughnane and Peter Dooley after they represented Irish teams ⭐️⭐️- hopefully these will inspire a new generation along with the coaching for classes ( 4th / 5th / 6th ) which will begin next week with coach Wren Higgins 🙌 – We look forward to cheering on the Irish Rugby team at World Cup this weekend !! Birr Rugby Club

A thrilling contest between St Brendan’s PS / Gaelscoil na Laochra and St Rynaghs Banagher ended in victory for Birr earlier today.
This was the sixth match since easter for the panel of 29 boys with all boys involved in games leading to the final so well done to all the boys involved.
The pitch at St Brendan’s Park was in excellent condition as both sides lined up behind the piper to be cheered on by a large crowd in the stand.
Both sides were matched well and referee Kieran Shannon let the game flow well.
Rynaghs took the lead and this was answered by a free from Ryan Legace ( won by Cathal Mooney who was lively in the forward line)
Rynaghs scored a brace of points but the back line of Darragh Hand and Jamie o hIarnain were hurling well. In front of them Jack Carroll, Lorcan MacEoin and Billy Carroll were clearing an amount of ball and supplying the forwards. The boys picked up a great goal from Tadhg O Gradaigh and point from full forward Harry Watkins along with a brace of points from Ryan Legace – the latter a super score off the left wing on the run. Half time St.B / GnaL were leading 1-4 ( 6) to 0-4 ( 4) .💪
Pause for Jaffa Cakes / drink / jellies and team talk from Mr Kennedy- focus – heart – workrate- win!
Second half began with the same tempo as the first with Rynaghs scoring a free to be answered by a Ryan Legace free. Midfield of Michael Conneely and Ryan Kelly were working for everything and suppling good ball in. Ryan L scored and goal and then the score of the game with a gorgeous sideline cut from the 45 that sailed over the black spot. He followed that with another point from a Harry Watkins assist. The boys were leading 2-7 to 0-5. Then Rynaghs came storming back with 3 goals over 8 minutes only broken by a super Joey Canham point from play. Birr led 2-8 ( 12) to 3-5 ( 11) with only a point in it. Keeper Sam Cleare was finding his men with the puckouts and calmed the game down.
Sub Yi Xuan Yang came on to steady the back line and another sub Justin Touhy scored a great point on the run from wing forward. Rynaghs had a goal chance and then the joint captains took charge with a clearance from the magnificent Lorcan MacEoin to the star man Ryan Legace to put the ball over to finish with a personal tally of 1-7 🙌🙌
Ref blew the final whistle on final score of 2-10 ( 14) to 3-5 ( 11) and the supporters and panel invaded the pitch to celebrate.
Joint captains accepted the Fr Vaughan cup from Mr Jonathon Dunne to huge applause. Ryan thanked Birr GAA, ref , Cumann na mbunscoil, Rynaghs for a great game and the coaches Mr Kennedy , Mr Crofton, Mr Gorman and the other staff who have supported this season.
The lads then took the cup back to the school via a stop to Pilkingtons shop on the way where they proudly displayed the cup to Birr and Offaly legend Johnny Pilkington ( who kindly sponsored them an ice-cream too ). 😎
We look forward now to the rest of the in-school hurling leagues and medal presentation ceremony in coming weeks. Biorra Abu !! Birr Gaa Gaelscoil na Laochra

24 boys from 5th and 6th represented our school today in Tullamore for FAI Offaly 5 aside competition. The boys were delighted to wear the school jersey with pride and had a very enjoyable day.Thanks to Mr Cunningham and Ms Grace for travelling with the team.

Gaelic Football
A great season for our schools Gaelic Football team 22/23. The boys really bought into the idea of playing the game for September and October and we had huge numbers 40+ playing. We had lunchtime football each day on the top field and then training Mondays after school and Fridays in school. As other schools preferred the one day blitz option we organised challenge matches with Banagher and Corville so all boys got good game time. We were delighted to once again link with Gaelscoil na Laochra and the 4 boys involved fitted in really well with the panel and were a credit to their school.
The blitz day was held in terrible conditions in Faithful fields and Mr Kennedy / Mr Gorman took a panel of 22 on the day. They defeated Crinkill / Dromakeenan and Shinrone then losing a tight match to Banagher to reach the top 2 and be in the finals day.
The final was a great occasion in St Brendans Park in lovely sunshine on 20th October. We started well with a goal but Banagher played well to lead at half time by 5 points. The boys tried the second half and pulled it back to 2 points at one stage but banagher pulled away to win by 6 points—Final score 4-8 to 1-8.
Thanks to Mr Kennedy for his passion and dedication to the team– the school staff who supported the team at training , various matches and attended in great numbers at the final and to the great parents for support as each match too. GAA IN OUR DNA— Biorra abu !

Cross Country Trials 2022
3rd Class:
1. Andrew Plunkett
2. Jayden Deane
3. Luke Obrien
4. Joey Ward
5. Erikas Ciparis

4th Class:
1. Joey Canham
2. Brooklyn Fitzsimons
3. Jack Gleeson
4. Lewis Byrne
5. Jayden Guinan

5th Class:
1. John Plunkett
2. Nataniel Szoma
3. Jack Abbott
4. Callum Rock
5. Cillian McAteer

6th Class:
1. Yi Yan Xang
2. Robert McDonagh
3. Ben Swanepoel
4. Hugh Plunkett
5. Fionn Whelehan

Champions !!!!!!!!!!
St Brendan’s PS Birr and Gaelscoil Na Laochra Biorra Congratulations to the boys ( All 29 of them ) who played an amazing game to beat a strong and skilful Rath NS team in Offaly Cumann Na Mbunscoil Division A final – Great start and super performances from our 6th class leaders to lead at half time 2-5 to 0-4 The boys kicked on in second half to put their bodies on the line and deny Rath any momentum . Goals win matches and second half provided these to come out on top in final score 7-8 to 2-9 🏴🏳️🏴🏳️🏴🏳️🏴
Joint captains Robert Landy and Barry Bennett raised the cup to great cheers !⭐️⭐️ Well done to Mr Kennedy ( coach ) 💪and Ms Pilkington / Mr Crofton and all the staff who support and promote school hurling along with the excellent groundwork being done on a weekly basis by GDO Adrian Clancy 👏
Thanks to staff /Parents Association St. Brendan’s Boys School, Birr, Birrand all the younger boys for the amazing support at St Brendan’s Park Birr on a gorgeous pitch by Birr Gaa- Thanks to Declan Cooke for his excellent refereeing and to Declan Ward and his fantastic committee of volunteers at Cumann Na Mbunscoil Offaly 🙏🙏
Biorra Abu !!