Coláiste Eoin

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Coláiste Eoin
Coláiste Eoin
Crest of Coláiste Eoin
Motto Fiat Justitia
Latin for 'let justice be done'
Established 1968
Location Booterstown, County Dublin,
Republic of Ireland
Students 450 approx.
Chairperson
Principal		 Antain Delap
Seán Ó Leidhin
Staff
Religious order		 35 approx.
Christian Brothers
Homepage http://www.eoiniosagain.ie/eoin/

Coláiste Eoin is an all-Irish Catholic voluntary secondary gaelscoil under the trusteeship of the Christian Brothers located in Booterstown, County Dublin, Republic of Ireland. It prides itself in the Irish culture, having extremely successful Hurling and Gaelic football teams, traditional music bands, and Irish language debating teams. Despite this apparent emphasis on extracurricular activities, the school excels in State Examinations, with over 96% of students going on to third-level education in 2005.[1] The school is financed by resources from the Department of Education and Science, voluntary donations. The current principal is Seán Ó Leidhin, having succeeded the seemingly omnipresent Bráthar de Barra in 2000.

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[edit] Campus

Coláiste Eoin's campus viewed from the gaelic pitch.
Coláiste Eoin's campus viewed from the gaelic pitch.

The school is located 6km from Dublin city centre. The campus incorporates Coláiste Eoin and Coláiste Íosagáin's original 1970s-built buildings, a science block, an arts block, the newly built 3-storey classroom block and sports hall, and a large sports field with a football and hurling pitch. The school grounds originally covered a much larger area than today's 10 hectares, stretching out much further than its current confines. However a large amount of this land was sold by the Christian Brothers and has since been developed into housing estates, apartment blocks and a hotel.

[edit] New buildings

Coláiste Eoin's new buildings, the new classroom block (above) and the new sports hall (below).
Coláiste Eoin's new buildings, the new classroom block (above) and the new sports hall (below).

Early in the nineties, it was deemed that the school's existing single storey buildings, built in the 1970s, were far too small to accommodate the rapid growth and expansion of both Coláiste Eoin and Íosagáin. It was decided that the school would require both a new classroom block and a sports hall/auditorium. The project, however, experienced difficulties from the outset due to a lack of funds. It took many years of collecting voluntary donations from parents and other members of the public for the project to even reach the planning stage. A second barrier was posed by the fact that additional accommodation could only be placed in a constricted rear area of the site, because the existing grass, gaelic pitch to the south of this site was sacrosanct. This restricted site condition caused the new building to be formed into two shared elements: a four storey academic block, and a Sports Hall with performance space. Despite these difficulties, building finally commenced in 2001, of a Grafton Architects designed structure that met with all the schools requirements. The project was completed in 2003 and has since won a prestigious award at the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland Awards 2004.

[edit] Coláiste Íosagáin

Coláiste Íosagáin is an all-Irish Catholic voluntary secondary school for girls under the trusteeship of the Sisters of Mercy, which shares a campus with Coláiste Eoin. It was established in 1971, two years after Coláiste Eoin's establishment, to provide All-Irish education for girls in the South County Dublin area.

[edit] Extracurricular activities

The 1998 Coláiste Eoin football team in action during their unsuccessful All-Ireland campaign.
The 1998 Coláiste Eoin football team in action during their unsuccessful All-Ireland campaign.

[edit] Sport

Coláiste Eoin maintain a strong Gaelic Athletic Association tradition. The school has a history of success in both hurling and Gaelic football competitions spanning over thirty years. The school encourages students to participate in the games, entering four teams annually, first year, under 14, under 16 and under 18 teams into their respective competitions.

Coláiste Eoin were crowned Dublin Colleges Senior Football 'A' champions in 2006, this came after a spate of losses in Dublin finals for a number of years. The schools most successful team in their sporting history was without a doubt its 1998 senior football team which reached the All-Ireland final yet failed to emerge as victors. 2007 saw a first for the school in their success in the under 14 football championship, winning the title for the first time ever.They retained the title in 2008 and went on to win Leinster 'A' against Knockbeg College.The same group of players also lifted the Dublin Colleges u14 'A' Hurling after two years of losing in the final.They beat Coláiste Éanna in the final.

The school's success in football continued in 2007 upon retaining their title for the second year in succession in the Dublin Colleges Senior Football 'A' final. They stood strong to resist a fearless challenge from Benildus College.

However, the school is not merely a Gaelic Games focused school, in recent years the school has branched out into a wide variety of sports including athletics and basketball. The fruits of these endeavours were witnessed in 2002 when Seosamh Mac Suibhne brought the school to All-Ireland glory in the field of senior cross-country running.

Basketball has come to the fore greatly in the school also. In the year 2006 the school, in its first foray in the sport, reached the All-Ireland 'B' basketball final at the under-16 age group. The school had a senior team in contention in their respective competition for the first time in 2007, in which they reached the semi-final.

2007 saw Coláiste Eoin expand further its repertoire of games with the establishment of an ultimate team. The team won the first ever competition in which they competed, an inter-varsity tournament. The team was joined by a past pupil and current member of the Irish Ultimate squad, Cian Ó Móráin, who has taken on the role of both player and trainer.

[edit] Music and drama

Traditional music has always been a key part of the rounded cultural approach to education that is maintained in the school. Coláiste Eoin has long been a breeding ground for talented musicians, with many famous performers emerging from the college's gates, most notably Kíla and Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna Ó Braonáin of the Hothouse Flowers. This tradition continues to this day where bands are annually produced to perform in various competitions such as Siansa (formerly known as Slógadh), an All-Ireland competition for traditional musicians. The school succeeded in winning Siansa in 2002 and in 2007 and have been close runners up most other years.

2006 saw the school's first ever musical production, a modernised dramatisation of the great Irish mythological epic Táin Bó Cuailgne written and directed by Colm Ó Foghlú. The musical was staged by the school's Transition Year in conjunction with Coláiste Íosagáin. The production was met with huge acclaim, selling out all four nights of its run and gaining significant publicity for the school, having been featured on the RTÉ, TG4 and TV3 networks.

The school's Transition Year is expected to continue staging musical productions annually due to the success of the 2006 production which came into being due to two main establishing factors, the first being that the school has access to a newly built auditorium and secondly that a Transition Year system has been put in place in the school since 2004, thus accommodating such extracurricular activities. The 2006-2007 Transition Year showed a production called Opus Iv which was rated highly, with Colm ó Fóghlú and a team of dedicated producers

[edit] Debating

Recent years have seen a resurgence of VSF activity in the school, in Irish, English and German. The school entered both Junior and Senior teams in Gael Linn's annual Irish Language debating competitions for the first time in nine years in 2004, where they found immediate success, winning the senior competition. The junior team followed in their footsteps in 2005 to win their respective competition. The school's senior team was defeated in the 2006 final. 2007 saw the junior team once again reach the final.

German debating has also come to the fore in the school, having successful teams for the past two years and even reaching the All-Ireland final in 2007. A small number of students have entered English language debating competitions, in which they were reasonably successful.

[edit] Publications

Over the past few years various groups of students in Coláiste Eoin have worked on and off in writing, designing and publishing school magazines and newsletters. In recent years this practice began in the school year 2003-2004, when a group of students put together a newsletter called IrisEoin (literally "Eoin's magazine"); the newsletter was published on a semi-regular basis throughout the schoolyear.

It wasn't until 2005-2006 that another group of students came to the fore, (this time from transition year, led by Diarmuid Ó Muirgheasa and Donncha Ó Muirthile, and assisted by Tomás Ó Meachair, Ciarán Ó Crócaigh and Niall Ó Moracháin, facilitated by the Máistir Dara MacGabhann), and resumed student publishing. The fruit of their labours was the Summer edition of IrisEoin 2006 (also referred to as Issue #1), which was less concerned with school issues, but rather concentrated on sports, politics, technology, music etc. The subsequent Christmas edition was entered in the Irish Times School Magazine competition, but failed to reach the final.

In 2007 two issues of the school newsletter "An t-Iolar Dóite" (literally "The Burnt Eagle" - a reference to the cover of the Summer '06 issue of IrisEoin, which lightly satirised the school's crest for the way it portrayed an eagle being apparently impaled and burnt on a flaming sword). The newsletter carried reports of school events, in particular the recent Dublin football final; the school had won, and both the front and rear cover (of the four page publication) were devoted to coverage of the final, with captain Ciarán Ó Gormlaigh reporting on the rear page and Gregóir de Stanlaigh filling the front page.

Another copy of the magazine was published in Christmas 2007, and every one of over 350 copies was sold (in fact there was a second-run printed, after the initial 150 copy run was sold in under 3 hours at the school Christmas fair). Another copy of "an t-Iolar Dóite" was also published during the schoolyear to date, and plans are afoot to proceed with further publications throughout 2008 and beyond (although Editor-in-chief for the past 3 years Diarmuid Ó Muirgheasa announced in his editorial for issue #3 (the Christmas issue) that he does not intend to continue in the role).

[edit] Music bands

Coláiste Eoin's rounded cultural approach to education has always encouraged music amongst students and teachers alike, the fruits of this witnessed in the large number of bands whose roots trace back to the institution.

Moving Hearts.
Moving Hearts.
Rattle and Hum.
Rattle and Hum.
Na Fíréin.
Na Fíréin.

[edit] Hothouse Flowers

Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna Ó Braonáin began their musical careers in Coláiste Eoin, where the pair first met. They were known, during their time in the school, to busk on the streets of Dublin as "The Incomparable Benzini Brothers". They were hugely successful, winning an award for street entertainment within a year. It was not until a third member, Peter O'Toole, joined the group that it was renamed "Hothouse Flowers". It was at this stage that the group began their careers at a national and international level and have since become one of Ireland's most successful bands.

[edit] Kíla

Kíla was formed in Coláiste Eoin in 1987 by Eoin Dillon, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Rossa Ó Snodaigh, Rónán Ó Snodaigh, Karl Odlum and Dave Odlum, all 16 and 17 years old at the time. Their early days saw them earn most of their money from busking, as their first gigs were attended by as little as three people. Over the next number of years the band gradually became more successful as their line up evolved, seeing Colm Ó Snodaigh, Dee Armstrong, Dave Reidy and Eoin O’Brien join and losing Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Dave Odlum to fellow Irish band "The Frames". The band blossomed in the 1990s with a string of successful records and awards which continues to this day.

[edit] Moving Hearts

Davy Spillane, founding member of "Moving Hearts", began his uilleann pipe career at the age of 12 in Coláiste Eoin. For the next three years he played at sessions and met many prominent Irish musicians. At the age of 16 he started to play at concerts in Ireland, Britain and Europe. In 1978 he appeared on a compilation album of promising young uilleann players called "The Piper's Rock". It was in about 1980 that he established "Moving Hearts", an Irish folk-rock band, with fellow musicians Christy Moore, Donal Lunny, Declan Sinnott, Keith Donald, Eoghan O'Neill and Brian Calnan. They followed in the footsteps of Horslips in combining Irish traditional music with rock and roll, and also added elements of jazz to their sound.

[edit] The Frames

Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Dave Odlum, whose musical careers began in ernest while attending Coláiste Eoin where they were founding members of "Kíla", later left the band to join "The Frames" in 1990. The band had only formed that year riding on the crest of Dublin's prolific early 90s rock and roll scene. The band found success in the mid-nineties with their second album "Fitzcarraldo" and have since become one of Ireland's leading rock bands. Dave Odlum left "The Frames" in 2002 to pursue a career as a music producer, working largely at Black Box Studios near Angers in France. He has produced albums for "The Frames" themselves as well as Gemma Hayes, Josh Ritter, Halite and Mic Christopher.

[edit] Rattle and Hum

Unlike his musical counterparts in Coláiste Eoin, Uisneagh Ó Treasaigh found his taste in music unwelcome in the school. Being a bassist and fan of rock music as opposed to the traditional music favoured by the school, his dreams to form a band were not realised until years later when he returned to the school as a teacher. Fellow staff member Michael Malone was interested in forming a U2 tribute band and so the two Coláiste Eoin teachers along with a guitarist and drummer formed "Rattle and Hum". The band has garnered huge critical acclaim, Bono himself claiming they are his favorite U2 tribute band.[2]

[edit] Na Fíréin

Colm Mac Séalaigh, a former teacher in Coláiste Eoin since its foundation, formed "Na Fíréin" in May 1984 with fellow members Eoin Smith, Gearóid Ó Murchú and Franny McBride. It was an attempt to create the first true rock band that sang in the Irish medium. Colm himself wrote a large number of the band's songs including their most famous song "Tír na nÓg", which has become a cult classic and a song known to anyone who has attended a Gaeltacht course in the past 20 years.

[edit] Famous past pupils/teachers

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Irish Times schools ranking 2005 (subscription required)
  2. ^ Rattle and Hum band reviews
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