On Thursday 19th May, we had a slam poetry workshop with Stephen Murray. The course was really good and interesting. Stephen taught us a new way to write poetry by writing stuff that meant something to us. He got us to write a short poem about what we would do if we met someone we hated. The girls had to write what they would want said to them by someone they liked and the boys had to write their best chat up line. Of wasd hilarious listening to the chat up lines. We then were asked by Stephen to write a poem about something related to us after listening to two poignant poems. We placed them on http://www.inspireland.ie and I worked with Caroline on our poem. I really enjoyed the classes and thought that Stephen really made poetry interesting.
Slam Poetry Workshop
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On Monday 16th May, all the people that had taken part in the Gaisce awards went to the Bluestack centre at six o’clock to do our 25 kilometre walk for the activity part of our awards. When we arrived, we had a few minutes to get ready before we began the first half of the walk. The walk was on the road and was around 14 kilometres. The walk was long and a bit difficult as the road was quite bumpy so it went uphill quite a lot. We got a break around halfway to get a drink at Ms McGroary’s house. We also got to see her tiny cute kittens! After we started again the journey didn’t seem as long and we soon got back to the centre. We had a bit of food and played some games like darts and skittles using cups and a ball. We went too sleep at around midnight. We all woke up around half past eight and soon found out that the rest of the Tys would not be joining us on the walk on the Bluestack mountains. We were then told that it was too dangerous to walk on the mountains. We went back to the school and did the walk around the Knader forest that we had done four the first year walk. It was a long walk but not as long as the day before at around eleven kilometres. After the two walks I wasd really tired and glad for the rest!
Day 1: For the first day we were in the long room. James showed us a slide show about civil disputes and criminal disputes. He told us the difference between a barrister and a solicitor. A solicitor has a public office so that anyone can call in at any time. A barrister is asked to give advice and represent in the courts above the district court. We also learned the five different courts; the district court, the circuit court, the high court, the court of civil appeal and the supreme. The highest claim that you can get in the district court is €15,000. The highest claim you can get in the circuit court is €60,000 and the claims are unlimited price in the high court and in the court of appeal and supreme court you can claim nothing. I really enjoyed the first day as we had to do settle a dispute between a cosmetic company and a pharmaceutical company where they were both fighting over a rare crop. My team won the dispute.
On Friday, 22nd April, I helped out with fundraising for the Special Olympics in Ballyshannon. My friend Róisín was organising the fundraiser and she placed me with Caroline in Centra from 11 to 12:30 and from 2 to 3:30. We had to stand outside the Centra doors holding buckets and wearing bibs to show what we were fundraising for. We gave out stickers to people who had donated. Lots of people donated and some had donated at more than one place. Lots of people were really generous with some people giving notes! I was really glad that people were so kind and donated to the cause. It was a really good day and I really enjoyed the fundraising. All in all, all the TYs that fundraised raised €2669 and £85.
On Thursday, 21st April, I attended a bike maintenance course in the new hall. Felix was the person who did the course. Some of the people in the course brought their bikes. In the course, Felix taught us how to raise or lower the seat and handlebars and how to take the seat closer to the handlebars. Doing this to suit your height means that the seat is more comfortable for you as well as making you go faster. Felix also told us how to check that the gears are working properly and how to tighten the tension on them if they are not changing properly. He also told us that that might mean that the chain needs to be oiled. He also showed us how to make sure that the brakes are working properly and how to tighten them or loosen them if they are not. This was a really interesting course that showed me how to fix a bike and also how to make sure that my bike is properly m
aintained.
In celebration of the 1916 Rising, the school, and especially the TYs, did a play and prepared work to do with the Rising. During our Irish classes, we had to do a piece about the women of the Rising in Irish. Me, Caroline and Róisín did about Countess Markievicz. It was difficult at first to find information that could be translated easily into Irish, but once we had found the basic information, Ms McElwaine helped us to translate. We also did some pieces about her in English and printed off a few pictures of her. The day of the ceremony, me, Caroline and Róisín went up to the play final practice so that we could take photos for our yearbook. We then took the camera with us to the ceremony itself to take more pictures as well as photos of the mural. We were also in the morning ceremony where Mr Keogh raised the flag and Mr Maguire said a small speech. We also sang the Irish national anthem. It was a great experience and really interesting to see. The reenactment was really good and everyone got into character even though the actors had not had long to rehearse.
On Friday, 11th March, Caroline and me had to go to Spar in Kinlough to sell daffodil badges for the Irish Cancer Society. I was dropped of at around at around a quarter to ten and we started to set up the table with the collection box and the things for sale. All the items were under €10 and there were lots of choices. There were notecards, mugs, travel mugs, teatowels, pens, two kinds of badges and teddies on sale. After we had finished our shift in Kinlough at 11:15, we then had another shift in Spar in Ballyshannon from 12:30 till 2:00. It was a great experience and for a worthy cause and we raised around €2,200
On Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd March, a few students had a music writing course that we had signed up to. The person who did the course was called Conall. We were split into three groups of around seven and were asked to write our favourite signs. After that we had the chance to use the two types of microphones. We made different sounds into the microphone and they were made into a music sequence. We were then given the chance to try and write our own song. My group struggled to write a song, so we did our own cover of the song, “Heroes and Ghosts” in Irish by the Coroners. It was really fun to do as we practiced the song several times with Mary Flora playing the guitar. We also saw what everyone else was doing as one of the groups formed the band G-Zone and sang their own version of Backstreet Boys, “Everybody”. One of the other groups had also created their own song using electric guitars. On the second day, we recorded our songs. It took quite a while to do as we did a sample first to see what we sounded like and then did a couple of other versions. Conall showed us the different effects then that we could add to the song to change the tone or to make it sound more professional.
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