St Ignatius College (Galway)

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For other uses, see Saint Ignatius College (disambiguation).
St. Ignatius College S.J.
Coláiste Iognáid S.J.
Motto Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Latin, meaning "For the greater glory of God."
Established 1645
Location 24 Sea Road, Galway,
County Galway, Republic of Ireland
Students c. 600
Chairperson
Principal		 John Humphreys SJ
Bernard O'Connaill
Staff
Homepage www.colaisteiognaid.gaillimh.edu.ie

St. Ignatius College (Irish: Coláiste Iognáid) stands on Sea Road in Galway, Ireland. It was originally founded in 1645 and has had numerous locations over the years before its current home. The college is a co-educational, non-fee paying secondary school and one of a number of Jesuit schools in Ireland.


Contents

[edit] Organization

St. Ignatius College is run by members of the Society of Jesus, the Roman Catholic religious order founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1540.. It is non-fee paying, co-educational and has no official uniform policy. Students study there from ages thirteen to eighteen and sit the Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations. Each of the six-year groups consists of approximately one hundred students divided into four classes. The four groups are Gaeilge (The Irish language stream) Xavier,Loyola and Collins (G, X, L, C). Students are not streamed by ability. The school is known colloquially as the Jes. The academic year runs from September to June.

[edit] Admission

Admission is based on a number of criteria. In no particular order:

  • Siblings already attending the school
  • Having unusual ability
  • Attendance of St. Ignatius Primary School
  • Parents working in the school

[edit] Transition Year

Transition year groups are divided into four classes which are named after various figures within the Jesuit order, Brebouf, Claver, Gonzaga and Ricci (B,C,G and R). St. Ignatius College was one of the first schools in the Republic of Ireland to have a compulsory transition year. The St. Ignatius College transition year program is not with out its critics. Some argue that it diverts attention from the Leaving Certificate program and that the range of activities on offer is of questionable academic merit. It has been suggested that too much time is spent preparing students for the Presidents Award Scheme and too little time in the Classrooms although various class projects would prove the critics wrong

[edit] Sport and Extra Curricular Activities

 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (November 2006)

[edit] Hockey

From 2001-2005 the Senior Girls Hockey Team won all four Senior A leagues and represented Connacht at the National Finals. The girls won two of their respective leagues in the 05/06 year, unfortunate to lose out in the Semi and Final of the other two competitions.

In the 2005-06 year a Senior B team was submitted for the first time since 1989. The team submitted in 1989 was the first hockey team formed within the Jes and they proceeded to win the competition. The following year they moved up to the A Division. The girls proved themselves worthy yet again, and went on to win the league, defeating Salerno 2-1 in a very close final.

Jes hockey shows great strength for the future as both the U-15 and U-16 teams reached their semi-finals (the Lupton and Griffin Cups respectively), unfortunate to be beaten for a place in the final by their opponents in two very close matches. The first year squad started their time in school strongly as they reached the Final of the Blackmore Shield. They show great promise for the years to come.

In 2008 the Senior team won a well-deserved victory over Taylor's Hill.

[edit] Rugby

The Senior Rugby Team (Jes S) have won the Connacht Schools Senior Cup four times in the last ten years (2002, 2005, 2006 and 2008). In all the school has won the Senior Cup on Ten occasions (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1979, 1985, 2002, 2005, 2006 & 2008) during the competitions ninety-five year (1913 - 2008) history, as well as being losing finalists on several other occasions.

Last year (2006-07) the Seniors lost to Garbally College in the quarter-final 5-6, and in the current season (2007-08) they progressed to the Connacht Schools Senior Cup Final where they met Marist College, Athlone on Wednesday 05th March at the Galway Sportsground. A 10 -7win for the Jes confirmed them as Connacht Schools Senior Rugby Champions for the tenth time in their history, and a remarkable third title in four years.

The Jes S has been very fortunate in recent years to have available a superb collection of players harnessed by the external coaching skills of some of Connacht's best Rugby coaches, including ex New Zealand Schools coach Bernie Kelly. The Jes team has had many of its players on the Connacht (provincial) Schools Team for some time now, and several have received Irish Schools Trials.

The Junior Rugby Team (Jes J) reached the final of the Connacht Schools Junior Cup in 2006 losing to Garbally 12-20. The Junior side have been Connacht Champions on four occasions (1918, 1978, 1981 and 1987) and have been finalists on many further occasions most recently in 1999 and 1989 (records are incomplete).

Of the school's recent players Daniel Riordan, a member of the 2002 Senior Cup winning side is currently a professional rugby player with Connacht Rugby. A Full Back/ Winger he has also represented Ireland at U-21 level participating in the 2005 U-21 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, in a squad containing current Ireland Senior International Andrew Trimble. During the tournament Daniel made four appearances scoring four tries, finishing joint fourth in the try scoring list (one behind current Leicester Tigers and England International - Tom Varndell. Ireland only lost two matches during the tournament to South Africa (eventual winners) and France (who finished Fourth; however, due to the unusual structure of the tournament finished ninth (9th) out of twelve participating teams .

[edit] Rowing

The rowing crew has been successful over the last few years in capturing pots for their school in regattas and Heads of the river all over the country. The school had students representing Ireland in the Home International and Coupe de la Jeunesse competitions last year 2007, and hope to do so again this year 2008. The Jes also sends crews to Ghent, in Belgium, for the annual KRSG international regatta. In 2007 the men's crew finished first in the junior-18 fours in Ghent. The club has recently in 2006 bought new boats, oars, and training equipment.

Rowing

Colaiste Iognaid Rowing Club arguably had its most successful year in its history during the 2005/06 season, the women's junior crew won the women's junior eights and fours championships of Ireland (Siobhan Sumption, Sadhbh Ni Cheallaigh, Leah Coughley, Katie Oliver, Jane Foley, Katie Barrett, Grace, Annie McKeon O Donovan and Alicia Griffin) The women's crew also went on to win the Connaught Tribune Team of the year which was the first crew ever C.I.R.C have won such a prestigous award. After the female's side of the club's success at the all ireland championships 2006 4 oarswomen (Siobhan Sumption, Sadhbh Ni Cheallaigh, Leah Coughley and Katie Oliver) and the coxswain (Alicia Griffin) went on to represent Ireland at the Home Internationals 2006. Also in 2007 another 5 female members of C.I.R.C (Siobhan Sumption, Leah Coughley, Georgina Rushe, Jane Foley and Eavan Collins) went on to represent Ireland at the Home Internationals in Cork and brought home a total of 10 medals between them! A huge success for the Club!!

The men were successful too winning men's novice 4's championship of Ireland (Niall Kenny, Luke Smith, Michael Freeney, Edward Fitzgerald and Keith Duffy). Eddie Mullarkey won the junior 15's final by 4 lengths. Niall Kenny and Edward Fitzgerald represented Ireland at the coupe de la junnesse in Amsterdam in a coxless four with Jason Wall from St. Michaels and Stephen Penny. They finished in silver on the Saturday and 4th on the Sunday. The same pair went on to win the junior pairs at the national championships in 2007.

Cormac Folan, an ex-Jes oarsman, has qualified for the Heavyweight Four in the Olympics in Beijing, after finishing 7th in the World Championships last year. Another ex-jes rower, Paul Murray, won gold at the worlds student games in Lithuania. Domininc Burke (Jes rower 95-99) also represented Oxford University in the reserve boat, Isis, at this years boat race.

[edit] Debating

Colaiste Iognaid has a rich tradition in debating and is very much part of the schools identity. The school is undoubtely the stronghold of debating in the West of Ireland, with Denny's West of Ireland Final wins in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Colaiste Iognaid has its own debating society which convene every week and allows students from all years to debate against each other.

The greatest recent success for Colaise Iognaid, was when Manus Lenihan and Ciarán Garrett were awarded runners-up in the 2008 Denny's All-Ireland Debating Final at Trinity College. This is the highest the school has achieved in the tournament and it is also the greatest achievement for the Connacht region in recent times. The duo came extremely close to winning the tournament, however, the chief ajudicator gave his deciding vote to the team representing Ulster. This was the third year in a row, Colaiste Iognaid have been the in the All-Ireland Final and it strongly re-affirms the schools position as the strongest debating school West of the Shannon and one of the top debting schools' in the country.

The 2005/2006 season successes included: Donncha Lenihan and Jamie Brown Denny's All-Ireland Finalists - Donncha Lenihan and Jamie Brown Denny's West of Ireland Final winners

The 2006/07 season successes included:

Donncha Lenihan and Jamie Brown Denny's All-Ireland Finalists - Donncha Lenihan and Jamie Brown Denny's West of Ireland Final winners - Leah Coclough Denny's West of Ireland Finalist - Manus Lenihan and Ciarán Garrett Trinity College Philspeaks Finalists (Manus Lenihan Runner-up) - Concern team last 16 -

The 2007/08 season successes included: -

Manus Lenihan and Ciarán Garrett coming 2nd in the Denny's All-Ireland Final - Manus Lenihan and Ciarán Garrett winning the West of Ireland Denny's Final - Alan Power progressing to the European round of the EYP - Darragh O'Brien, Leah Coclough & Jake Hansen-Shearer West of Ireland Denny's Finalists - Cormac McGuinness West of Ireland Denny's quarter finalist - Cormac McGuinness & Jake Hansen-Shearer N.U.I.G Mace Finalists - Jake Hansen-Shearer, Ciarán Garrett & Manus Lenihan national team trials finalists - Jake Hansen-Shearer & Ciarán Garrett winners of West of Ireland AIB Trinity Philspeaks - Jessica Hannon West of Ireland AIB Trinity Philspeaks Junior Winner - Concern Team national quarter-finalists -

The school also has internal debating competitions throughout the year, which promote the participation and overall development of debating in the school.

[edit] Other activities

The school has been less successful at other sports. It has rarely been able to field football (though this is picking up) or hurling teams in successive years, due to lack of interest and lack of qualified coaches. It has no adjacent playing fields and which puts it at a disadvantage compared to other schools in the city. It has however had very successful Boys\girls Basketball teams with the boys U 19 recently getting to the All Ireland Quarter finals losing to Marist eventual winners and the U 16 Girls narrowly losing to Gortnoor (Laois) only just missing out on the All Irelands, however, on this matter, no one really cares.

St. Ignatius College has a well-regarded[citation needed] music department and stages a musical each year. Most recently it was Smithy which was nominated for ten different categories in a Connaught School's show Award Ceremony..

[edit] Notable Alumni

[edit] External links

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