KNOCK
On Thursday the 14th of September, our group of Transition Year students gathered in the Social Area during early hours of the morning, most of whom would have probably preferred to be at home deep in slumber, given the celebrations from the previous night after receiving our Junior Cert results. As I looked around me I could see the sheer delight on everyone's faces to be here, all thinking the same thing, that the teachers had chosen this day on purpose, just to annoy the students. We soon left on a bus destined for Knock, County Mayo, the Holy Land.
Some got a bit of rest, while others struggled to keep the contents of their stomach inside them from the night before, leading to a somewhat eventful bus journey. We arrived at Knock and were instructed to join the other schools who also had the privilege of attending the event. We were then divided into groups with other schools. Fr Peter McVerry kicked off the event in style with an intriguing talk about homelessness, and the challenges that come with it. Although his talk was interesting, we had already heard the majority of it previously, as we had watched his documentary in school.
As the day progressed, we participated in group activities and engaged with the students from other schools. We listened to talks from Dr Cara Augestenborg, who spoke about climate change, and John Lonergon, who told us about his time as head of Mountjoy prison. If I'm to be perfectly honest, I didn't take much from either of these talks, and i think the general consensus from the other students was the same. At this point my friends and I were delighted to get our lunch break, where I went and got myself a big juicy chicken fillet roll I had been craving all day, and it's fair to say I wasn't disappointed.
We returned back to the event for the final speaker of the day, Joanne Riordan, a possible future president of Ireland. Joanne told us about her living and coping with her condition, Tetra Amelia Syndrome, she is one of 7 people in the whole world affected. But being the amazing woman that she is, she doesn't let this affect her in any way. In fact, it makes her strive for success even more. Joanne's speech on her experiences and her every day life was positive, interesting, inspiring and the only speech that contained any humor. I think it's fair to say that while most didn't exactly enjoy their day, Joanne's speech cheered everyone up and made the trip a lot more worthwhile than it would have been without her.
Some got a bit of rest, while others struggled to keep the contents of their stomach inside them from the night before, leading to a somewhat eventful bus journey. We arrived at Knock and were instructed to join the other schools who also had the privilege of attending the event. We were then divided into groups with other schools. Fr Peter McVerry kicked off the event in style with an intriguing talk about homelessness, and the challenges that come with it. Although his talk was interesting, we had already heard the majority of it previously, as we had watched his documentary in school.
As the day progressed, we participated in group activities and engaged with the students from other schools. We listened to talks from Dr Cara Augestenborg, who spoke about climate change, and John Lonergon, who told us about his time as head of Mountjoy prison. If I'm to be perfectly honest, I didn't take much from either of these talks, and i think the general consensus from the other students was the same. At this point my friends and I were delighted to get our lunch break, where I went and got myself a big juicy chicken fillet roll I had been craving all day, and it's fair to say I wasn't disappointed.
We returned back to the event for the final speaker of the day, Joanne Riordan, a possible future president of Ireland. Joanne told us about her living and coping with her condition, Tetra Amelia Syndrome, she is one of 7 people in the whole world affected. But being the amazing woman that she is, she doesn't let this affect her in any way. In fact, it makes her strive for success even more. Joanne's speech on her experiences and her every day life was positive, interesting, inspiring and the only speech that contained any humor. I think it's fair to say that while most didn't exactly enjoy their day, Joanne's speech cheered everyone up and made the trip a lot more worthwhile than it would have been without her.