Congratulations to our 1st Yr. Chess players who were South West winners in the Cork Chess League. 

Picture shows L - R: Ruan Van Gendt (2nd Place), Gabriel Amado, Matthew O'Neill (1st Place), Abdullah Kiani, Tom Philips (5th Place), Joe Thomas, Ahmar Ahsan and Liam O'Keeffe 

Congratulations to 1st Yr. student, Eoghan Looney who finished in 2nd place in the U-14 National Cross Country Championship in Enniskillen.

Eoghan was representing Cork and Munster in the race so he won THREE medals!!

Eoghan runs with Blarney Inniscarra AC.

All in Pres. are very proud of Eoghan's achievement.

As part of our very busy science week this year, PBC was delighted to welcome James Geary, the Lead Quality Engineer at the European Space Agency.  We were thrilled to hear the wonderful talk and insight into the work of the ESA and the possibilities of future space travel.  The 2nd and 3rd year students that were lucky enough to attend the talk this morning were blown away by the detail and enthusium shown by James.  Thank you very much to James for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk to us.

Today, PBC's Science Magic Show 2024 brought Science Week to an electrifying close! Our Transition Year Chemistry and Physics students showcased a range of thrilling experiments, blending curiosity and creativity to captivate our 1st Year students. From dazzling reactions to mind-bending physics tricks, the audience was eager to uncover the science behind the magic. A huge congratulations to all involved for their hard work and enthusiasm, making this a truly memorable celebration of science. Well done!

We are thrilled to share the outstanding achievements of our 6th-year science students at tonight’s Senior Science Quiz regional round held at University College Cork! PBC entered two teams among 40 from across Cork, competing for the top spot. We are delighted to announce that Raghav Rashgotra, Alex Cronin, and Kieran Barry clinched 1st place, with Devin Giltinan, Fiachra Wall, and Joe Hennessy securing 2nd place. The quiz challenged participants through eight rounds of rigorous questions in physics, biology, and chemistry. Both teams have now qualified for the national final at Trinity College Dublin. Congratulations to all involved and especially to our exceptional students!

Huge congratulations to all our film studies students on being selected to be involved in the Cork film Festival Panel. PBC Film studies has been highly commended for their film entries over the past number of years in both The First Cut and Fresh Cut Film Festivals. With more exciting short movies on the horizon. Our students are continuing the College’s strong traditional in Film and creativity. 

 Next Generation Road Show (Irish Film Institue) 

  The audience was made up of secondary school students and the panel is intended to encourage them to think about filmmaking as a hobby and later a career, it has been designed to reflect the journey to film from taking part in a camp or at school to training to independent production." The panel will include me, Alana Daly Mulligan (Young Filmmaker and writer Homofónia) and Aislinn Clarke (Film writer/director Fréwaka). 

As part of Science Week 2024, Transition Year students took part in an engaging forensic science workshop centered around the historical investigation of the JFK assassination. Students dived into the world of forensics, conducting hands-on activities including fingerprint analysis, ballistic weapon testing, and examining gunshot wound patterns. This interactive workshop allowed students to step into the role of forensic scientists, applying scientific techniques to solve complex problems, just as real-life investigators would. It was a fantastic day of learning, curiosity, and teamwork, and an exciting way to celebrate the spirit of science!

Science Week 2024 is upon us!

Our TY Biology students attended a DNA Workshop in UCC today which was led by Dr. Sinead Kerins in the School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. 

The morning session consisted of a lecture surrounding the theoretical elements of DNA, DNA profiling and an outline of the experiments which would be conducted in the afternoon. 

The afternoon session had our students taking part in practical investigations that centre around isolating and extracting DNA from plant and human cells. These investigations make up part of the current leaving cert curriculum and provide valuable insights to our students on their real world application. In addition to these investigations our students were conducting experiments with the use of agarose gel to separate bands of DNA with the hope of identifying a family sample that contains the genes for Sickle Cell Anaemia. This DNA profiling technique is on the new leaving cert biology syllabus which begins in September 2025 for 5th years. 

Congratulations to Ju Young Lee, 5th Year Chemistry student, for winning bronze in Round 2 of the Irish Olympiad of Experimental Science (IrEOES) 2024-2025, held yesterday at Dublin City University! Ju Young excelled among the 30 top students in chemistry invited to the in-person event following a highly competitive online Round 1. Well done on this incredible achievement!

The PBC Lunchtime Concert Series is really gaining traction and continued to a full house once again on Friday.

An audience spanning all year groups and indeed some teachers and management were treated to a beautiful mid-day interlude with performances by our musically talented students. 

Michael Scott really impressed as he sang and strummed along to his own composition, ‘All of Me’ as well as a plaintiff cover of Zach Bryan’s ‘ A Boy Like Me.’ Darragh Collins of 1st year performed ‘ The Two Grenadiers’ on violin while Marcel Mosiej sang and played another Zach Bryan cover, ‘Something in the Orange.’ 

The TY podcast crew were also on hand to record the musicians and will make the recordings available on upcoming episodes of PBC podcast which is currently in production. 

Well done to the performers and to everybody involved in the PBC Music Society for the organisation and staging, to Librarian Michael McCormack for creating the ambient setting in the Reading Room and to management for their continued support. More concerts to follow very soon!