On 16th May, the Sesquicentenary Sports and Family Day took place in the school. It was very well attended, primarily because of the good weather, wide range of events and potential free fees for the academic year 2010-2011. From the traditional athletic events like 100m and the long jump to soccer juggling and the sack race, the day was very competitive. In celebration of the College Sesquicentenary President MacAleese unveiled a specially designed window and gave a rather long speech. The family events that were held were also a success, and overall a great day was had be all.

The 2nd and 4th Year Drama Production, ‘Our Day Out’ by Willy Russell, is taking place all this week in the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire. This production is the culmination of a lot of hard work for the cast and crew, who are drawn from both 2nd and 4th Year. Thanks must be extended to Mr. Savage and Mr. O’Brien, for whom it’s the latest in a long list of successes.

The final of the Annual House Leagues will be taking place on the 20th May at 4PM. Leman and Ebenrecht are the two finalists, but the other four houses who have been knocked out ensured a very competitive atmosphere to the competition.

The heats for the annual Masterchef competition are being held on Tuesday 11th May and Wednesday the 12th. Almost a quarter of the year are partaking in the cook-off, with a series of finals to be held to find the Transition Year master of chefs. Many thanks to Ms. Marren for organising.

On the Saturday 8th May many 4th Years partook in bagpacking in aid of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society at Dunnes Stores in Cornelscourt. Many bags were packed, much money was raised for a very good cause, and a good time was had by all!

The week of Tuesday the 4th was designated in Transition Year as ‘Music Art and Drama Week’, better known by the abbreviation ‘MAD Week’. A series of courses were run, including Songwriting, Samba Drumming, Creative Writing, Journalism, Photography and Street Dancing, and several more. A number of lunchtime concerts also took place, with school bands such as Lemon Soul, Circle of Friends, Santa Cruz and Sweetness performing. The annual Summer Concert was held on the Wednesday, and overall the week was seen as a great success, primarily thanks to the hard work of the MAD Week Committee in co-operation with Ms. O'Kane.

From the 19th of April to the 23rd was Seachtain na Gaeilge. Hard work by the Irish department ensued in another fun and worthwhile Seachtain na Gaeilge. The highlight of the week was the co-operation between Blackrock and Loreto Foxrock, where girls from Transition Year came down to Blackrock for a céili for an afternoon.

The Transition Year Lecture Series will continue tomorrow when John Feehan, the CEO of the 6 Nations rugby tournament will give a lecture to the year.

From the 25th to the 30th of March 24 Transition Years went to Boston, MA for a school trip. They visited the John F Kennedy musuem, a Boston Bruins ice hockey match and did a historical walking tour. However, the primary activity was shopping until dropping. Also, several people were introduced to the wonders of Panda Express, a Chinese restaurant with exciting service.

Thanks must be extended to Mr. Hurl, Ms. Nulty, Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Herlihy.

On 16 March 2010 many Transition Years participated in a collection in Dublin City in aid of the two charities, GOAL and Aidlink. Much of the year was scattered around town selling the badges while the administration team was based in a unit in the St. Stephen's Green shopping centre, where they counted coins and organised the collecting locations for the collectors. Overall, €5446.90 was raised, and a great day was had by all.

Click here to see pictures from the collection.

The campaign to sell St. Patrick's Day shamrock badges in aid of GOAL and Aidlink has gotten underway. On 16th March many boys from the year will be selling the badges in Dublin City, but before that businesses and schools must be contacted to ask whether they'll sell the badges.

To read a more detailed explanation, click here.

On Friday 29th of January the 4th Year Parents Dinner took place in the school. The evening was a great success, and was organised by the social sub-committee of the parents association; Mairead Kevin, Susan Deegan and Trish Cashell. Several 4th Years helped at the event; Edward Kevin, Conor Deegan, Jack Horan, Brian Shelley and James Winterlich, and Konrad Timon, Peter Ryan, Billy Griffin and Fifth Year Luke Mulcahy played music.

On Friday the 15th January, 4th years attended the BT Young Scientist Exhibition in the RDS. 8 Blackrock College Projects were entered and a total of 3 from Transition Year.

There were four highly recommended prizes won by the school, none of them by 4th year.

The New Term has begun, admittedly belatedly due to the weather, but the snow has not greatly affected the Transition Year Programme. We can look ahead in this term to the Goal/Aidlink project, the Leman Concert in the National Concert Hall, 3 different BT Young Scientist project entrants from the year, not to mention various collections and other projects.

Onwards with 2010!

The 24 Hour Soccer Marathon in aid of St. Vincent de Paul was played over Friday and Saturday the 4th and 5th of December by 75 Transition Years. Those taking part raised €11,000 for the charity. For 9 and a half hours they were playing on the Castle Lawn, after which they moved in to the Jubilee Hall. Despite some people falling asleep during the night, for the most part intensive PS3 playing and DVD watching kept most alert. 40 22 inch pizzas probably helped aswell. The Ajax team won the League, and the Cup winners were unknown.

Click here to see photos taken by Eugene Cashell during the marathon.

Blackrock College Radio broadcast on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday during this week. It was overall a great success (without too many hitches), and featured interviews with Ryan Tubridy, Bertie Ahern, Enda Kenny, Dermot Whelan and many more. Click here for an account of the week.

Click here to see photos taken during BCR.

Conor Deegan and Tim Nugent have been announced as the BCR Studio Managers, with Adam Keogh as Technical Manager and Sean Roper-Nolan, Patrick Hinkson and Matthew Finlay as Co-Producers.

59 4th Years attended the Months Mind of Karl Ashe, and went back to the Ashe family home afterwards. Mrs. Ashe was very grateful for this, and thanked all in attendance, as well as those who signed the Book of Condolence, in a letter to Ms. Nulty.

During the week of 19th October, 4th Years were working at several Sesquicentenary events - the Press Launch of the SCT Festival on the Wednesday, the SCT Festival itself at the weekend, the launch of the 'Fearless and Bold' book on Thursday, and the Past SCT dinner on Friday in the Killiney Castle hotel.

Miss Nulty is looking for applications for the position of BCR Studio Manager. Applicants should be willing to put in long hours and be good organisers.
Letters of application should be given to Miss Nulty by Monday.

150 Year themed Blackrock pens and keyrings have been produced and are on sale from reception. The pens are €3 and the keyrings are €5.Both are very limited edition.

The team lists for BCR have been released. Click here to see these lists. This year the station will run from Monday 23rd to Friday 27th November  and will broadcast each day from 8am to 5pm. It will be broadcast over a 5 mile radius and the station will be available all week live on the internet from www.blackrockcollege.com.

On 19 September 2009, the sad death occurred of Transition Year student and boarder Karl Ashe. Karl had only arrived at the school in Third Year but had still made a big impact on the year. Click here to read some memories of Karl, written by other Transiton Year pupils.

On Friday the 25th of September, each house voted for their Transition Year House Representatives. They were announced on the following Monday and on Tuesday the 29th of September, the Investiture of the newly appointed Representatives took place. The House Representatives are as following:

• Fergal Bolger
• Daniel Carr
• Andrew Cashell
• Brian Colclough
• Alan D’Arcy
• Patrick Hinkson
• James Kavanagh
• Conor Lamplugh
• Jordan McCormack
• Jamie Murphy
• Michael Murphy
• Gavin Murray
• Ian O’Beirne
• Jack O’Carroll
• Malachy O’Doherty
• Ivan O’Shea
• Chris Stack
• Rob Walsh

On Friday 2 October, the newly redesigned Rock TY website was put live on the internet. The new design is seen as a great success, thanks to all who participated in designing it, writing up the content, collecting photos and assembling it all in to a coherent website (Click here to see team list). Thanks in particular to Andrew Patton, who originally designed the site in 2007 when he was in Transition Year and who greatly assisted the current year in their creation.

On Sunday the 27th of September 2009, 22 Blackrock transition year students assembled in Dunnes Stores, Cornelscourt, to do bag packing for St. Vincent De Paul. After two hours of enthusiastic bag packing, the boys raised €1,006 thanks to generous contributions from the shoppers.

Click here to see photos

On Friday 18th September, twenty of the Transition Year students spent the day in Blackrock, Stillorgan and Donnybrook collecting money for ENABLE Ireland. ENABLE Ireland provides services to over 3,700 children and adults with disabilities and their families all over Ireland. The collection was a great success. Thanks to all who participated: Karl Ashe, Patrick Biggar, Andrew Cashell, Darragh Coughlan, Robert Cronin, Patrick Elnazir, Ciaran Fenner, Jack Gleeson, Thomas Houlihan, Simon Keartland, Robert Keenan, Darragh Keogh, Conor Lamplugh, Dylan Leonard, Gavin Murray, Harry O’Connor, Cian O’Rafferty, Niall O’Reilly, Peter Walsh and James Winterlich.

On Thursday 17th September, 30 Transition Year Students gathered in Blackrock Hospice at 7.45am. They had a light breakfast and tutorial at the hospice and were then sent onto the streets of Blackrock to collect money from commuters. They collected tirelessly for 6 hours and by 2.30 they had collected €7,683.10 . Thanks to Grainne from the Hospice and the boys who participated: Gavin Bolger , Stefan Boyce,  Robert Burke, Bill Chawke, Niall Devlin, Jack Fenton, Matthew Finlay,  Ross Gallagher, Mark Gannon, Cillian Goldrick, Jack Horan, Jeff Hughes, Stephen Kelly, Adam Keogh, Conor Kilcoyne, Thomas Kinsley, Paul Moloney, Karl Murphy, Luke Murray, Tim Nugent, Ian O’Beirne, Simon O’Carroll, Malachy O’Doherty, Jamie O’Donoghue, Fionn O’Leary, James Tate, Gavin Thornbury, Charlie Walsh, David Walsh and Paul Wheatley.

Click here to view the fullsize photo