With the State exams coming to an end last Friday, a temporary calm has descended on the campus in advance of the various summer schools and sports camps due to take place in the school grounds. The sense of relief was palpaple as students left the exam halls for the last time last week. They can now enjoy a well earned rest and will hopefully relax before the results are issued in the Autumn. For Leaving Cert students the day is Wednesday, August, 18th and until then there is nothing to be done but to leave it behind and enjoy the break.

on Saturday night last, the Leinster U-14 A Football champions were presented with their medals at a function held in the college dining hall. Fr. Hennebry welcomed all the boys and their parents while team mentors Kevin Kehoe, Leigh O'Brien and Declan Wall introduced each player as he collected his medal. The team's feats were recalled anecdotally and through a photographic slide show.
5 students who each achieved international caps during the course of the year were also presented with awards in recognition of their outstanding achievement. Tadhg Furlong, Jack Allen, Nicholas Murphy, Jack Murphy and Luke Fitzgibbon represented Ireland in Rugby, Gymnastics, Badminton, Showjumping and Swimming respectively. To have 5 international athletes in 5 different disciplines attending the school at the same time is an incredible honour. We wish them all continued success.

Stop press! Make that 6, 6 internationals!  Eoin Power, 3CN, having won gold in the under 15, 100m hurdles in the Tailteann Games on Saturday last was today confirmed on the Irish Schools' team to compete in an international event in Scotland on July 17th. Well done to Eoin on his national title, achieved in a time of 13.7 seconds, a personal best, and best wishes to him in the Scottish event.

The Schools' Inspectorate at The Department of Education and Skills has  recently published its subject report into the provision of Physical Education in Good Counsel College and this can be accessed on the Department's website, 
http://www.education.ie/insreports/school_inspection_report_listing.htm.
The report is very complimentary of the work being done in the school and its findings and recommendations are very much welcomed.

And finally, as occasional mention has been made here during the year of Fr. Michael's horticultural enterprise in conjunction with the Transition Year students, we bring you evidence of fruits of those labours. The potato crop promises a bumper yield, while the lettuce, onions and cabbage have already met with the approval of several culinary experts. There will be no need for the famine ship, the Dunbrody, to set sail from the quay of New Ross for some time yet -  the harvest is plenty.


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I received an e-mail and some photos attached from past pupil recently, a man who attended Good Counsel in the 1950's. Rather than trying to paraphrase him, I include below his own account of the photos and of some of those pictured. Obviously we would be delighted to post on the site any other material relating to the school from years past. It helps mark the long tradition of the school and is of great interest to many who passed through.
 
''I enclose 3 photos. Two are of students. The Prefect System (where the prefects were supposed to be in charge) was introduced to GCC around 1957/58 by Fr. Jackie Power and the school was divided into three house, Villanova, Casca and another.

One photo is of the Villanova house . Another photo is of the senior students around this time and the third is the winning Junior Hurling Leinster team that beat Portlaoise CBS by 1-8 to 0-3 in the final in Dr. Cullen Park in Carlow.

Most of that team played senior the following yearn and met St. Peters in the first round in Wexford Park, going down by a small margin. This was the backbone of the Peters team that won the All-Ireland B title and then the senior title in hurling. Our star player was Sean English of Ferns who later won senior All-Ireland with Wexford in 1960 and also played senior for Tipperary.''







OtherPhotographs from the 50's 
 
The photograph below is of particular interest because it shows the four legendary teachers, Maurice Foley, John Moore, Toby Kavanagh and 'Danno' Mahony with the entire school around the mid 1950s. In the 2nd row from the bottom right to left are: Tom Finucane (brother of RTE's Marian), Ken O'Hara (former head of ESB), A N Other, John Moore, Maurice Foley, Fr. Greg O'Leary, Fr. Hand (?), Fr.Jackie Power, Fr Coffey (Prior), ??,   Fr. Codd, Fr. Brendan Coffey, Toby Kavanagh, 'Danno' Mahony. Also in this photo is
Maurice Keane former CEO of Bank of Ireland and now a director of Anglo Irish Bank

 
 
The following photo is of the GCC Leaving Cert class of 1958/59.


The photograph below is of the Dungarvan Cup winning side of 1958/59 and to the right is the renowned trainer from this time in the school's history,Fr Whelton. The annual Dungarvan Cup games no longer take place, the last one having been played about 22 years ago, but there are growing links between the only 2 Augustinian schools in Ireland as the staffs of both colleges have an annual get together and representatives from both schools travel to the annual Augustinian Values Institute. In the current school year there was also a rugby blitz involving both schools and Austin Friars school fromm Carlisle in England.

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