Thanks to all who attended and supported our annual Preslink Christmas Carol Concert held recently in the college theatre.

For those who were unable to attend attached is a link to give you a small flavour for what you missed. 

https://youtu.be/Cqz97wIuLWQ

Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas.

Preslink Committee

The annual Preslink Christmas Raffle has continued to grow from strength to strength thanks to the generosity of so many local businesses and private individuals. 

Thanks to all our sponsors who helped raise much needed funds for Presentation Brothers Schools in West Africa. 

We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. 

Preslink Committee

Movember 2022

Sincerest thanks to all in the Pres community who once again supported, donated and partook in this year's annual Movember campaign with such generosity. Once again, we have raised awareness and started valuable conversations amongst our student body about testicular and prostate cancers, and mental health. 

We were thrilled to welcome back Dr Derek Power, Consultant Oncologist in the Mercy Hospital to speak to our senior students about his work and preventative measures the young men can take to protect themselves. In addition, we have exceeded our previous best fundraising amount and have donated €2900 to the Mercy Hospital Cancer Appeal. Sincerest thanks and congratulations to all involved!

Please see attachment detailing our upcoming Christmas Carol Concert, making a welcome return on Sunday, December 18th, at 7pm in our College Theatre!!!

You will love it!!! 

Capt. Colm Keena, Deputy Flight Safety Officer for the Air Corps congratulating Lt. John Higgins on receiving his military pilots wings. Both past pupils of PBC.

Lieutenant John Higgins was presented with his military pilots wings by Brigadier General Rory O'Connor. This was the culmination of 3 years of training.

One photo shows John Higgins Snr. with John and GOC Air Corps.Brigadier General Rory O' Connor, General Officer Commanding the Air Corps and Director of Military Aviation

Our Senior Science Quiz Team made up of Leaving Cert students Patrick Moroney, Daniel Hegarty and William Hetherington, represented Pres. in the National Final of the ISTA Senior Science Quiz in Dublin on Saturday last 3rd December which was held in Trinity College Dublin.

The team qualified for this by coming in 2nd place in the regional round of the quiz held in UCC on November as part of Science Week. There were many weeks of extra study and lunchtimes given up to run quiz questions and extra classes were put on before and after school by their Physics, Chemistry and Biology teachers. 

Our boys finished in a very respectable 7th place out of the 41 teams from all over Ireland. This puts all 3 of our boys in the top 21 Gifted Science Students in Ireland this year, a remarkable achievement!

Well done to Patrick, Daniel and William. Thanks to all their Science teachers for giving up so much of their time in helping the team prepare so well. 

The TY students return for season 3 of PBC podcast on Spotify, Apple and Acast platforms and the boys have set the broadcasting bar at their usual high level.

And just as well as downloads of PBC Podcast has gone global and now reach well into 5 figures– our most recent data analytics from the Acast platform show that PBC podcast has been downloaded in 45 different countries alone, from Ghana to Grenada, Algeria to Australia, India to Iran with Ireland, The UK and the USA leading the way.

So what have we got for you on this jam-packed episode? 

·      For starters, a profile of Pres boy, current Liverpool goalkeeper and of course, recent toy show hero, Caoimhin Kelleher.

§  Ever wonder what it takes to play with the RTE Concert Orchestra? Brian O Leary speaks to their percussionist Steve Kelly.

§  Monster vs Fanta vs Coke? Sam Hernan talks to Luke Mullins and Fiachra Wall about their project for Sci-Fest while Ms Claire Lynch discusses the great success that was our recent science week here in Pres.

§  Ian Crowley reviews the classic western ‘High Noon,’ our raconteur John J Neville regales us with a scuba diving incident and for our first Big Interview of the season, we have a fascinating story of recently deceased artist, Herbert Kearney, a former Pres boy and world citizen with a truly wondrous life story. Stay tuned for some remarkable radio.

Kicking our show and new season off however is Ruairi O Donnchadha as he takes us deep underground in the cave systems of East Cork and offers us an insight into the world of speleology.

To listen, tap on links below -Apple, Acast or Spotify

https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/pbc-podcast/id1550646073

https://shows.acast.com/the-pbc-podcast

https://open.spotify.com/show/2zFzN11iNiDxxphR4Sw0tB

NOVEMBER LIBRARY REPORT 2022

While students were busy organizing study groups for their winter assessments, the library played host to a decidedly more relaxed gathering. November saw the launch of the Sen ior Book Club in the library, where students can discuss their favourite books – and discover new favourites too. The Unfinished Book of Poetry  also made its base in the library, holding workshops for students interested in learning how to write poems.

Senior Book Club

As of November, every Friday lunchtime sees the library become  a reading circle for members of the school’s senior book club. The book club is a place where students can introduce others to their favourite titles, whether they be perennial classics like  1984 or popular manga series like One Piece. Every month, book club members will be assigned a book to read  together, and then gather in the library to discuss their progress over lunch. However, keeping in mind that the students are busy preparing for winter exams, the first few book club meetings kept things light, and focused on breaking the ice as st udents were encouraged to recommend their favourite books to fellow members, and to discuss what about the books affected them so much. Already the book club has explored the meteoric rise of  Junji Ito’s unique brand of cosmic horror fiction, the enduring simplicity of The Lord of the Rings, and the reason why Orwell’s visions of dystopia arestill widely referenced today.

The Unfinished Book of Poetry Workshops

Presentation Brothers College library was proud to play host to a series of poetry workshops this November, helmed by Paul Casey of Ó Bheal , a group that creates a platform for local poets. The workshops were part of The Unfinished Book of Poetry,  an annual anthology of poetry that features work from the young poets of Cork. Each Wednesday in the library, a group of students learned how to write everything from haikus to sonnets , and read poems from poets all around the world. Mr Casey generously contributed several volumes of The Unfinished Book of Poetry  to the library, and the library was happy to supply the group with books of poetry to read through and take home. The new edition of The Unfinished Book of Poetry  will be published in the spring of next yearwith a gala launch at City Hall on World Book Day . Best of luck to all the students involved.

Book of the Month

The most popular book in the library this November was The Maze Runner , a dystopian teen novel by James Dashner. The first in a series,  the book is a high-octane thriller about an isolated group of teenagers who are forced through a deadly maze as part of a strange experiment. All of the books in the  Maze Runner trilogy proved popular this month, as well as the two prequel novels,  The Kill Order and The Fever Code. Fans of these books will likely enjoy similar YA dystopian thrillers, like Orson Scott Card’s  Ender’s Game or Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking , or James Dashner’s other novel The Rule of Thoughts.

Word of the Month

Defenestrate 

formal  

To throw  or push someone out of a  window :

They threatened  to defenestrate him.

 humorous: 

To force  someone, especially  a leader, out of his or her job :

It would not be a good time  to defenestrate the Prime Minister.

Coming Up in the Library

Christmas is coming, and the library will be celebrating with a Christmas book exchange for book club members. When they return next year, the book club will be  reading Animal Farmas a group.

Well done to ALL our students and Staff who fully embraced our annual Preslink Christmas Jumper Day.

€1,571.02 was raised from students and staff and all funds raised go towards supporting Presentation Brothers projects in Africa. 

WELL DONE!

Congratulations to Thomas Mc Carthy in 6th Yr. Thomas won the European Powerlifting Championship in Poland over the weekend for the subjunior (U18) 83 Kg.

After taking an impressive lead in the first event (Squat - 250kg), Thomas was pegged back in the second event (Bench press) to leave him just 2.5kg ahead in the combined totals. However when the 2nd placed Czech althlete failed in his final deadlift, Thomas clinched gold with a 275kg lift, in the process setting Irish and World Records. While the world record was to fall shorlty after, Thomas finished with an incredible combined total of 650kg (17.5kg more than his nearest competitor).

Thomas ended the event taking a silver medal in Deadlift, gold in the Squat and gold in the overall competiton. A truely awesome acheivement!! 

He will now turn his attentions to rugby where he will be a significant boost to the frontrow forward with the School Senior Rugby team.