On April 30th last, a past pupil of Good Counsel College, Dr. William P. Howlett was preseented with the MGA Distinguished Graduate Award by the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Sciences.
William graduated from Good Counsel in 1964, and from UCD in 1970. He went on to work in Tanzania as a neurologist and has been published in Brain and The Oxford Journals. He has conducted extensive research on the disease, Konzo, and was the first to identify the role played in this disease by high dietary exposure to Cyanide from Cassava roots.
Dr. Howlett has also published extensively on Aids and African Neurological related diseases. He was centrally involved in setting up a medical school in Moshi and has written a text book, 'Neurology in Africa'.
The alumni gathering at which Dr. Howlett was presented his award was attended by graduates from the classes of 1950, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 2000. He was the only one from these classes to be presented with the Distinguished Graduate Award, a measure of the significance of his achievement.
On behalf of all at Good Counsel College we congratulate Dr. William P howlett and wish him well for the future.

(Many of Dr. Howlett's publications can be accessed on the web. The Wilkipedia entry for 'Konzo' contains links.) Continue Reading...

Below is an article I came across about the man mainly responsible for the World Cup playing surfaces in South Africa this summer.  Continue Reading...

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.

 Continue Reading...

The Good Counsel College Diaspora are making  their mark in all corners of the globe.

In a recent ceremony, John Murphy, Leaving Cert. class '93, was honoured by New York City Council for his 'outstanding contribution to the city and beyond'. The Proclamation with which he was presented cited his chairmanship of IN-NYC of which he was also a founding member and furthermore mentioned his record as a defence lawyer for the city fighting personal injury claims on the public's behalf.

John Murphy making his acceptance speech.

The Proclamation also refered to John's birthplace of Ramsgrange and to his time in Mercyhurst College where he, like many Good Counsel Students before and since, undertook his third level education.

The prestige of the ceremony is underlined by the fact that John shared the stage with Caroline Kennedy who was receiving an award on behalf of her late uncle Senator Edward Kennedy. It won't have been lost on either that their journeys to the hallowed halls of this great city began very much in the same place.


We congratulate John on his great honour and thank him for his ongoing interest in his Alma Mater in New Ross.

Another Good Counsel and Mercyhurst graduate, Stephen Nolan, stepped into the ring in Hong Kong recently for his maiden fight against Ben 'Boom Time' Hartwell. Anyone of us who know or remember will have maximum respect for 'Boom Time's' courage, if not so much for his sense, in sharing the canvas with the Foulksmills giant.
Suffice to say our man dispatched his poor opponent with a minimum of fuss and we have no doubt there will be bigger fish to fry.



It should be pointed out that Stephen, who won a Leinster Senior Football medal with GCC in '95, has a considerable sporting C.V. having played for the Irish International Rubgy League side, The Wolfhounds, and having been captain of Terenure Senior Rubgy Union team for a number of years. We wish Stephen, and indeed all our past pupils well. Continue Reading...

It was heartwarming to see so many people brave the freezing weather conditions and turn out for the get together in the Brandon House Hotel on Monday, December 28th last. There were over 160 present with a spread of alumni from across the decade. There was a lot of catching up to do and therefore the need for proceedings to go on long into the morning.
The men mainly responsible for making this event a reality were  Ciaran Lynch, John Murphy and John Phelan.  Continue Reading...

Just a quick update/reminder on reunion taking place on Dec 28 in Brandon House Hotel. It is based around, but not exclusive to, the college teams of 89 to 99. During these years the college won 17 Leinster titles and 2 All Irelands. Those on the senior winning sides of this era have been contacted. There are a number who were on winning U-14 and U-16 sides who may not have been contacted personally. Please accept this as your invitation. Get in touch at deputyprincipal@goodcounselcollege.ie. We would like to see all those from that time there on the night. At the moment it looks like we may have more in attendance than we have tickets available but we don't intend turning anyone away. Continue Reading...

Have mentioned already how a reunion of the 1993 senior football team has grown to include other successful teams from '89 to '99. A lot of effort has been made to contact as many as possible from the Junior sides of 89 and the senior sides of 93, 95, 96, 97 and 99. Now there were other great sides during those years who won juvenile and junior titles. I could mention the Junior A hurling champions of 1989/90 and 1991/92, the juvenile football champions in successive years 1994/95 and 1995/96 among others. Many of those involved will have been contacted as they also played on those winning senior sides but some will have slipped through the net because they may have left or just not been on a successful senior team later. If anyone out there was involved in those years and has not been contacted, I would invite you to get in touch and to take this as your invite. We want to get all from thart era there. Continue Reading...

Good Counsel College Past Pupils Facebook Fan page is now live. This page allows immediate contact with our friends and past pupils, an provides us with the opportunity to share images, updates and links that relate to Past Pupils news and events. Continue Reading...

Welcome to the Past Pupils news section of the Good Counsel College website. This website was launched in November 2009 with a view to providing information about our school to all who might be interested, parents, staff, students, friends and of course the many former students of the school who have passed through GCC over the years. We will post a weekly newsletter to keep people abreast of current happenings in the college and to make them aware of events which may be coming up. Continue Reading...