Alumni Newsletter - October 2024

Dear Past Pupils of St. Finian's College,

Thank you to all who continue to keep in touch with the college and to those who have recently signed up to our Alumni Mailing List. The 2024/2025 academic year has already been one filled with excitement and progress. Here is just a snippet of what has been happening at St. Finian’s College and what our past pupils have been involved in recently:

Exchange Programmes

The annual German exchange programme with Gymnasium Maria Stern in Augsburg took place in September and, as always, was a great success. In addition to our usual German exchange, the first ever French exchange programme took place at the end of September. Finian’s students were partnered with students from Collège Noël du Fail de Guichen. Strong friendships were formed in both exchanges and memories forged that will last a lifetime. The opportunity for students to travel and meet young people from other countries while learning a foreign language has been an invaluable part of learning at St. Finian’s College for many years now and we hope it continues well into the future.

Transition Year

The school’s Transition Year programme continues to thrive with four classes of over 100 students. Following a successful TY trip to Rome last April, the second TY foreign trip will take place in April 2025 when students will travel to Paris. This year’s musical will be West Side Story, taking place in March 2025. Students have already been working hard completing auditions and getting stuck into rehearsals.

New Build

The new building works are advancing with great speed. A brand new staff car park and a series of six new basketball courts were completed before the return to school in August. Meanwhile, the renovation works on the school gym are continuing and the new technology and humanity blocks are nearing completion. On top of this, the renovation of the college chapel and oratory are also on track to be completed toward the early part of next year. Students and staff will relocate to these new buildings when the project enters its next phase - the renovation of the main building of the college. Staff and students continue to make great use of the state-of-the-art astro-turf pitch which was completed at the end of the last academic year.

Sport & Achievements

Since the beginning of the academic year our students have been involved in a wide variety of solo and team sporting events both in and out of school events. The senior soccer team secured a great win in a home game on the new Astro-Turf pitch after extra time against Portlaoise CBS. The Junior Boys Gaelic Football team opened their Leinster Championship campaign with a great win against Gallen CS, Ferbane. The U19 boys basketball team made a strong start with a win against Kildare. The Junior Boys Rugby team have started the academic year with a recent win against Ardgillan CC.

Third year student Olivia Babiarz won gold representing Ireland at the 2024 IMMAF Youth World Championships in Abu Dhabi in August. She also won a bronze medal at the IFMA Youth Muay Thai World Championships in Bangkok this September. At that same event, second year student Emily Hannick won silver in her category. Fifth year student Ryan Bell was named on the Irish Basketball U18 squad for the 2024/2025 season. First year student Kian Newcombe has earned a place in The Nutcracker with the Irish National Youth Ballet. Kian will take the stage at Samuel Beckett Theatre in December, where The Nutcracker will launch the INYB’s 30th-anniversary celebrations.

Past Pupils

The outstanding results of three of our students from the class of 2024, Brian Gaffney, Alina Siddiqui (student of the year) and Zofia Bielicka were celebrated at our recent Awards Evening in the college. They were presented with a special award by Fr Joe Gallagher, President of St Finian's College, congratulating them for achieving maximum points in the Leaving Certificate in June. These students are currently studying Theoretical Physics, Medicine and Dentistry respectively.

Our special guest at this year’s Awards Ceremony was Darren Fenton (class of 2006), COO of the Bevcraft Group. The Bevcraft Group is the European leader in the ‘craft can’ packaging sector for craft beverage producers. Bevcraft was founded in 2016 by Darren and Ciarán Gorman, CFO of Bevcraft, also a past pupil of the class of 2006. Bevcraft has seen significant growth in a short period of time and currently employs people in a number of countries both in and outside of Europe. It has been listed on the FT 1000 Fastest Growing Companies list in Europe, the first time an Irish company has featured three years in a row. Darren presented the Enterprise Awards to a group of our young students who have shown great potential in this area.

Past pupil Eric Bates took part in the 2024 WorldSkills Competition in Lyon in September, applying his skills as painter and decorator using paint, decorative coatings, wallpaper, gilding, and sign writing both indoors and outdoors in a wide variety of working environments.

Triathlete Elizabeth Carr has been racing hard in recent competitions across the globe. Most recently she completed the 2024 World Triathlon Championship Finals in Torremolinos-Andalucia in Spain, racing alongside four gold medal olympians. Other triathletes among our past pupils include Tom Farrell, racing a full ironman distance in Portugal, and Jack Carton, completing a half-ironman distance in Amsterdam.

The class of 2004 held a reunion in June this summer to mark twenty years since their graduation from St. Finian’s. They were given a tour of the school and shared memories along the way while also getting a chance to see the progress of the new build. A tree was planted on the school grounds in memory of their classmates who have since passed away. Meanwhile, the class of 1964 also held a reunion to mark sixty years since their graduation from St. Finian’s College. A cohort of this class also returned to the college and were given a tour of the school by principal John McHale and deputy principal Aisling Ryan.

Get in Touch

As always, if you are interested in getting in touch with the school please contact us via email (alumni@stfinianscollege.ie).

All the best,
Daniel Connell
St. Finian's College Alumni