Honouring St Colman’s
A YEAR of commitment and outstanding achievements has been celebrated by the school community at St Colman’s College in Fermoy at their annual awards night.
One of the undoubted highlights of the school years, the awards off the school an opportunity to honour its pupils for their curricular and extra-curricular successes.
More than 30 awards were presented for academic excellence and all-round ability to students past and present, while groups and individuals were also recognised for their leadership and service to the school and indeed the wider community.
Welcome the assembled audience of pupils, proud family members, staff and friends of the school, MC Deputy Principal Garvin Queeney stressed the importance of goal-setting and self-belief and how developing these qualities help when facing obstacles later in life.
School principal Veronica O’Donoghue welcomed the wide variety of awards and congratulated the leaving certificate class for their choice of future education.
Ms O’Donoghue also gave a warm welcome to past pupil and guest of Honour Captain Andrew O’Shaughnessy, in particular recalling his prowess on the field and his success as a Dean Ryan, Harty, Kilmallock and Limerick hurler.
“His chosen career path was as an Army cadet followed by a business degree in NUIG. Today Andrew is Cavalry Officer with the 1st cavalry Squadron based in Cork,” she said.
“Despite personal health difficulties which cut short his sporting career, Andrew has continued to serve his country, including a stint in Kosovo and a year with the conflict monitoring body OSCE in Vienna,” she added.
Another past pupil, multi-award winning former Corkman photographer Mark Condron, was also honoured on the night with an Outstanding Contribution to Photography award.