Unique farewell to Coláiste Rís Principal

JUST before the midterm break there was a very special event in Coláiste Rís, which through modern technology and Youtube was shared with the school and wider community.

Former Principal Padraig Hamill who retired last year, returned to the school for a very special and emotional event.

Due to COVID-19 the return was very, very different than the normal kind of event that are held in schools when a former teacher, principal or long-standing member of staff retires, yet for that, it made it somehow more special and touching.

As a former student of Dundalk CBS, as it was known in my school days, I was taught maths, physics and chemistry by Padraig, subjects which have served me well in my career ever since. Those along with accountancy show that I was totally clueless as what I wanted to do when I grew up and I still say, I don’t know what I want to do when I do grow up.

As shown on the uploaded Youtube video, last Friday week, Mr Hamill returned to the school and walked in the gates of the Yorke Street entrance where students lined up to applaud his return.

Thereafter he toured the school corridors in the company of Principal, Noilin Ni Dhulaing and was clearly touched and humbled by the huge outpouring of warmth towards him, as class after class gave him a warm round of applause and teachers stood at their classroom doors greeting him with the now common place COVID elbow bump. Gone for now, warm handshakes, hugs and kisses.

True to the Coláiste Rís tradition of three cheers to greet any school achievement, so often in the past led by Padraig himself, he was celebrated in that manner.

Afterwards in the school garden he was presented with a Colaiste Ris school jersey and he planted a tree to mark his time at the school which included his own school going days.

All in all a very fitting ceremony for a much respected man.