Great success for St Patrick’s pupils at Dungannon feis

THE curtain came down on yet another extremely successful Feis Dhún Geanainn for St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon, students in the Irish section.

Students from Year Eight right up through to the senior classes in the Acadamh impressed adjudicators Marcas Ó Murchú (musician and presenter) and Fearghal Mac Uiginn (BBC presenter and lecturer) across a range of events including poetry recitation, dialogue and public speaking.

Their excellent oratory skills and stage presence won them countless prizes and their exemplary command of the Irish language was particularly praiseworthy.

The feis is an excellent platform for young students to showcase their linguistic skills and Academy students were well-rewarded for their hard work and diligence over recent weeks with their substantial haul of prizes and accolades from first years right up to our senior students.

Meanwhile, there was also a clean sweep for Academy students at Gael Linn Public speaking final.

Gael Linn recently held the Ulster final of their prestigious public speaking competition ‘Abair’ in Armagh’s cultural centre Aonach Mhacha. Schools from all over Ulster and Louth competed in four different sections delivering speeches of an exceptional standard.

Academy student Ethan Hanratty produced a memorable speech on something very important to all Irish speakers – the ‘fada’ while Marianne’s topic was most definitely the topic most talked about in any language – the weather!

Only two places are awarded in each section and at GCSE the judges were so impressed with the Academy students that they placed Marianne second and awarded first place to Ethan.