April Edition 2013Nessan’s Newsletter

8th AprilSchool Reopens

after Easter Holidays8th April

TY’s Healthy Relationships11th April FAS Visit

Trip to Cork for Make A

Book Exhibition 12th April

Nessan’s compete in u17’s North Munster Final

Meditation Workshop u17’s Basketball Match

15th April Friendship Week

1st Year Basketball Tournament

16th April Junior Achievement

Programme in the LIT17th April

LCA 1 Results PresentationRainbows Delta Trip

19th April3DE Orienteering trip to UL

23rd AprilSt Camillus Visit

30th April F1 in Schools National Final

Staff ZoneGraduation will

take place on Friday May 24th

Summer Staff Lunch 2013

Contact Claire Kierce Ayers

The First of April, some do say, Is set apart

for All Fools Day;But why the people call it

so, Not I, nor they themselves do know.

Despite the early hour, there was a real sense of excitement in the air as the coach left St Nessan’s on Saturday morning at 2.30am ,packed to the hilt with 5TH Years and their class tutors, all ready to partake in the Pieta House “Darkness into Light” run/walk.The aim of Pieta House is to help people get through that critical phase when suicide becomes a plan rather than an idea. Massive thanks to Mr. J for organising everything-bus, T-shirts, sponsorship..…all the rest of us had to do was turn up and look pretty…no mean feat at 2am!!Still the atmosphere was lively, the students were in flying form but high jinks were kept to a minimum by Mrs. J (behind every man, there is a great woman) and Shane Dundon kept the show on the road with a few songs and with Aidan providing a security escort all the way, we were in Ennis before 3am.It needs to be acknowledged that Michael took a huge chance with this, and his tenacity and persis-tence to get this done was duly rewarded, the 5th Years were a real credit to the school and mingled happily with the crowd, all completing the walk and returning to the bus on time. To date, they have raised over €1500 and still counting. Just being with them was a genuine delight, and it’s not often we can say that. Thanks to all.The journey home was a quieter affair with many lost in thought…from darkness into light.Marie Toomey

Just wanted to send out a huge congratulations to Blazing Bullets TY Team who succeeded in win-ning the title of ‘Best Website’ at the National Finals of the F1 in Schools Competition yesterday in Griffith College Dublin. The team who consisted Aoife O’Carroll, Leah O’Brien, Anna Sommerer, Bobbi O’Callaghan and Lisa Daly, did their school and their families so proud at the All Irelands where the competition amongst the teams was incredibly high. Their final car ended up being only 0.07 of a sec-ond behind the overall winners so that’s some achievement.We really couldn’t praise the girls enough for their behaviour & enthusiasm over the 2 days! Big thanks to all the teachers who helped out and allowed us take them out of class to work on the project! It was well worth it! JThanks again, Bernie, Donal & Gavin

Just what happened

Blazing Bullets

Last month, Andreas Varady attended his manager Quincy Jones’ 80th birthday party in Las Vegas, met Will Smith and Chris Tucker, and shared a limousine with jazz singer Nikki Yanofsky.Recently described by Jones as being “possibly the best young guitarist in the world”, Varady will tour Asia this year with Jones’s Global Gumbo All-Stars, and hopes to sign a contract with Verve Music Group. “You have dreams and then there’s [bigger] dreams. This is one of them. It’s really big,” says Varady, who will sit his Junior Certificate exam in June at St Nessan’s Community College in Limerick. “I feel like it’s going to be a really good jour-ney because of working with these guys now. I can’t wait. I don’t have any worries really. They signed me because of who I am so I can just be myself.” At Jones’s party, Varady and his parents Bandi and Beata rubbed shoulders with Whoopi Goldberg, Patti Austin and Michael Caine, and Varady performed Quincyology, a song he composed for Jones’s birthday. “It was amazing. It was like a dream when we went to Vegas, I felt like we were in a film. When we were sitting with all the big stars and celebrities, I had to ask my husband ‘How did we get here?’” says Varady’s mother, Beata. “The times have changed for Andreas now. Every month he’s developing. When we signed an agreement with Quincy, everything changed very quickly. He’s immediately with all the big celebrities. His career went from [down] here to [up] there,” she gestures. In his music room at his home in Limerick, Varady shows me a cabinet of souvenirs and awards that he has collected over the past few years. There are awards, bundles of programmes from festivals he has played at, neat folders of newspaper clippings, and even a Bobble-Head Ray from a recent appearance on the Ray D’arcy radio show. “My mum’s crazy

about collecting things like fliers from the festivals and newspapers from the beginning,” says Andreas, showing me a mini statue of Liberty that he collected after winning a scholarship to attend summer school in Skidmore College, New York. Having moved to Ireland with his family from Slovakia in 2007, Varady has enjoyed huge success. Largely self-taught, he started busking with his father, Bandi on the streets of Limerick and Cork, before Irish drummer Dave Lyttle noticed him on YouTube and began to men-tor him. The duo collaborated on Varady’s debut album Questions, which reached number three on the iTunes charts. Since then, he has played at gigs all over the world including the Montreux jazz festival, appeared on the cover of Guitar Player magazine, and was the youngest person ever to headline at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. In 2012, he moved to Ger-many with his family for 10 months to work with a German booking agent, and they have tentative plans to relocate to Los Angeles later this year. “I love Ireland very much but the record label and management are in LA. It’s hard to do a 10-hour flight every time there’s a business meeting,” he says. Still performing in the Andreas Varady trio (with his 11-year-old drummer brother, Adrian, and his father), Varady’s earliest influences were Django Reinhardt, George Benson and John Coltrane. His tastes have changed to include Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson, Common and Justin Timberlake, and he describes his own compositions as being a mixture of “modern jazz and hip hop”. “My influences are not just jazz musicians. I like every musician, from rock guitar to jazz players,” he says. “I only prac-tice when I want to practice, which is actually all the time,” says Varady, who composes songs and records them on his phone before showing them to his father and brother.

Like any teenager, Varady is obsessed with his phone, tweeting and using Instagram daily. He loves fashion and styling his spiky hair, playing video games and basketball, and watching non-stop episodes of Everybody Hates Chris . He shows me his Spalding Limited Edition Chicago Bulls basketball, and gets excited when RTÉ follows him on Twitter. Currently studying for his Junior Cert, he is kept firmly grounded by his brother and sister. “They say ‘don’t flatter yourself’ when I come back from playing a concert,” he laughs. “Andreas is ok, he’s fine. He’s the same as when he started. He’s just a lucky boy, he was in a good place at a good time,” says his mother, Beata, who is looking forward to the imminent move to LA. “I’m really excited and would love to live there. I think it will be easier for Andreas.” There are sounds of giggling from the kitchen, where Adrian, Bandi and Andreas sit watch-ing the ice hockey world cup. “I knew that Andreas was going to be something special. He must be a big star because he was born for that and he has worked so hard. “He’s not doing it because I want him to play music. He can’t live without his guitar. It’s part of his life.” By Claire Droney

Living the Dream

Andreas back in 2010 at St. Nessan’s

Last month, Andreas Varady attended his manager Quincy Jones’ 80th birthday party in Las Vegas, met Will Smith and Chris Tucker, and shared a limousine with jazz singer Nikki Yanofsky.Recently described by Jones as being “possibly the best young guitarist in the world”, Varady will tour Asia this year with Jones’s Global Gumbo All-Stars, and hopes to sign a contract with Verve Music Group. “You have dreams and then there’s [bigger] dreams. This is one of them. It’s really big,” says Varady, who will sit his Junior Certificate exam in June at St Nessan’s Community College in Limerick. “I feel like it’s going to be a really good jour-ney because of working with these guys now. I can’t wait. I don’t have any worries really. They signed me because of who I am so I can just be myself.” At Jones’s party, Varady and his parents Bandi and Beata rubbed shoulders with Whoopi Goldberg, Patti Austin and Michael Caine, and Varady performed Quincyology, a song he composed for Jones’s birthday. “It was amazing. It was like a dream when we went to Vegas, I felt like we were in a film. When we were sitting with all the big stars and celebrities, I had to ask my husband ‘How did we get here?’” says Varady’s mother, Beata. “The times have changed for Andreas now. Every month he’s developing. When we signed an agreement with Quincy, everything changed very quickly. He’s immediately with all the big celebrities. His career went from [down] here to [up] there,” she gestures. In his music room at his home in Limerick, Varady shows me a cabinet of souvenirs and awards that he has collected over the past few years. There are awards, bundles of programmes from festivals he has played at, neat folders of newspaper clippings, and even a Bobble-Head Ray from a recent appearance on the Ray D’arcy radio show. “My mum’s crazy

about collecting things like fliers from the festivals and newspapers from the beginning,” says Andreas, showing me a mini statue of Liberty that he collected after winning a scholarship to attend summer school in Skidmore College, New York. Having moved to Ireland with his family from Slovakia in 2007, Varady has enjoyed huge success. Largely self-taught, he started busking with his father, Bandi on the streets of Limerick and Cork, before Irish drummer Dave Lyttle noticed him on YouTube and began to men-tor him. The duo collaborated on Varady’s debut album Questions, which reached number three on the iTunes charts. Since then, he has played at gigs all over the world including the Montreux jazz festival, appeared on the cover of Guitar Player magazine, and was the youngest person ever to headline at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. In 2012, he moved to Ger-many with his family for 10 months to work with a German booking agent, and they have tentative plans to relocate to Los Angeles later this year. “I love Ireland very much but the record label and management are in LA. It’s hard to do a 10-hour flight every time there’s a business meeting,” he says. Still performing in the Andreas Varady trio (with his 11-year-old drummer brother, Adrian, and his father), Varady’s earliest influences were Django Reinhardt, George Benson and John Coltrane. His tastes have changed to include Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson, Common and Justin Timberlake, and he describes his own compositions as being a mixture of “modern jazz and hip hop”. “My influences are not just jazz musicians. I like every musician, from rock guitar to jazz players,” he says. “I only prac-tice when I want to practice, which is actually all the time,” says Varady, who composes songs and records them on his phone before showing them to his father and brother.

Like any teenager, Varady is obsessed with his phone, tweeting and using Instagram daily. He loves fashion and styling his spiky hair, playing video games and basketball, and watching non-stop episodes of Everybody Hates Chris . He shows me his Spalding Limited Edition Chicago Bulls basketball, and gets excited when RTÉ follows him on Twitter. Currently studying for his Junior Cert, he is kept firmly grounded by his brother and sister. “They say ‘don’t flatter yourself’ when I come back from playing a concert,” he laughs. “Andreas is ok, he’s fine. He’s the same as when he started. He’s just a lucky boy, he was in a good place at a good time,” says his mother, Beata, who is looking forward to the imminent move to LA. “I’m really excited and would love to live there. I think it will be easier for Andreas.” There are sounds of giggling from the kitchen, where Adrian, Bandi and Andreas sit watch-ing the ice hockey world cup. “I knew that Andreas was going to be something special. He must be a big star because he was born for that and he has worked so hard. “He’s not doing it because I want him to play music. He can’t live without his guitar. It’s part of his life.” By Claire Droney

1st & 2nd year Boys Basketball

The purpose of the NLEC (Northside Local Education Committee) is to identify school related issues at community level that impinge on learning and to seek to address these issues by working collaboratively with other interest groups in endeavours to do so. The NLEC comprises of a group of dedicated and hardworking parents and student representatives from six Northside primary and Post-Primary schools. St. Lelia’s infant School, St. Munchin’s Girls & Infant Boys School, St. Munchin’s CBS, Corpus Christi National School, Salesians Secondary School & St. Nessan’s Community CollegeThe Committee is co-ordinated by Home School Community Liaison Co-ordinators working within these schools. Our 2013 initiative was ‘Friendship Week’ which ran from 15th – 19th April . All activities endeavoured to engage with pupils on an inter school basis in promoting friendship. The simple message is if we remember to be nice to each other, if we look out for each other & respect each other this will go a long way to eliminating bullying in the lives of young people. Some of the activities that took place during the week were Shared Reading, Friendship Bracelet Making (Learning Hub Limerick), Inter schools Soccer Competition, Slogan Competi-tion, Poster & Photograph Competition, Anti Bullying Workshops with Shirley Byrnes, Community Coordinator, Limerick City Council, Secret Friend Game, Hands of Friendship ( a collage of hand painted prints involving all schools), Fighting Words – Creative Writing Workshops (Learning Hub, Limerick) & a Coffee Morning & Information Session for Parents.

NLEC Friendship Week

1st years Boys Basketball had a great season with fantastic numbers turning out for training. The team started training early November and enjoyed a number of in-house training games against the 2nd years before taking on Crescent College in a home game on March 8th. Unfortunately a lot of the opposition play for club teams and won by a number of baskets. However a number of our guys were outstanding on the day for their first competitive game, with particular mention for Lee Kelly, Matiuz de Silva Grande and Dylan Ryan for their impressive shots and incredible defence efforts. The next game was against CBS and this was a much more competitive game. Losing by only 1 basket in the final seconds. Jack Downey and Jay Hickey stood out for the competitive defensive efforts and shots in this game. Our next competitive games took place on the 15th April against Gaelcolaiste and Crescent College again. The new skills learnt from the last games were evident as we went on to battle an excellent Gaelcolaiste team, keeping them within 1 or 2 baskets throughout the game but unfortunately were on the losing end at the full time whistle. Terrick Fahy and Cian Power did their best to keep us in the game. Crescent game went similarly but again they were too strong for us and went on to win well in the last quarter. Jack Downey and Jordan O’Donnell stood out in this game. In fairness, our team were incredible throughout the season and enjoyed each outing thoroughly with a number of the referees commenting on how much potential there is on this team. We’re all looking forward to a more successful season next year! MVP for the year was Lee Kelly for his commitment to training, dogged determination and excellent defensive and offensive play! Well done to all! 1st years Boys Basketball Team:Lee Kelly, Cian Power, Matiuz de Silva Grande, Terrick Fahy, Dejon Bozie, Dion Considine, Dylan Ryan, Jordan O’Donnell, Jamie Griffen, Jay Hickey, Shane Burnley and Jack Downey.

2nd year Boys Basketball Season started out with away games in Croom against Crescent Comp and Gaelcolaiste. Having started incredible well against Crescent, they eventually pulled away to win by 4 baskets against our hardworking ‘never give up’ Nessans team. We had a similar game against Gaelcolaiste who were surprised by our strength and great shooting ability in the first half but came back at us in the 2nd half to win well. Players to stand out on the day were Jamie Guest, Adam Slater and Christopher Burke with Jordan Halvey getting unfortunately injured on the day. Having little time to regroup we played these teams again at home 2 weeks later with unfortunately similar results but with great determination and effort been shown by all. Darren Joyce and Zach Elkurdi did their best to spur the team on with great defensive play but it was not to be on the day. A fantastic effort made by all the team this season and have plenty to build on next season. MVP for the 2nd years this year was Adam Slater. Big well done again to all. 2nd years Basketball Team:Jordan Halvey, Jamie Guest, Ronan Lau, Zach Elkurdi, Darren Joyce, Adam Slater, Christopher Burke, Warren Constable, Luke Butler, Jack O’Connor, Gabriel Leal and Eoin McNamara (injured for a lot of the season).

A big thanks too goes to Ms. O’Driscoll’s fantastic training assistants: 3rd years: Aaron Buckley and Stefan Savicic who were excellent throughout the season helping to coach the teams.

‘Be Cool - Stay in School’ SMILE School Completion Programme

Newsletter Design and Layout: Michael O Connor Newsletter Editor: Michael O Connor/Marie Toomey

Contact Details : St. Nessan’s Community College, Moylish Park, Limerick.Phone: 061 - 452422Email: info@stnessans.com www.stnessans.com Printed by: Limerick Printing

St Nessan’s 2 - 3 Crescent Comprehensive St Nessan’s u17’s recently competed the North Munster final match against Crescent Comprehen-sive at Pike Rover’s pitch. After beating Crescent 3 -2 in a closely contested match during the qualifying stages, the game was always going to be close and so it proved. Nessan’s took a well deserved lead after 20 minutes when Daniel McInerney stroked home from close range after a mix up in the Crescent Comp’s penalty area. As expected, Crescent rallied and grabbed an equaliser just before the break to leave the teams level at halftime. After the restart, a dubious decision by the referee allowed Crescent in for a second goal, much to the annoyance of the supporters who clearly believed it was offside. The absence of linesman at the game was sorely felt and as Nessan’s protested, Crescent benefited from the confusion and added a second goal within two minutes to go ahead 3 - 1. The goals shocked Nessan’s but they responded brilliantly as they have done all season and came roaring back into the game. Jonathon Woodland scored a cracking goal from 25 yards to put Nessan’s right back in it at 3-2 with 25 minutes left. Jason O Callaghan was outstanding at left back and proved a real threat going forward as he instigated attack after attack linking up well with James Cleary in the middle of the park. Ross Bowen had appeals for what appeared to be a penalty waved away as the foul was deemed to be on the line and not in the penalty area. Michael Guerin then blasted over from close range in the dyingmoments of the game as the Crescent defence held firm and clung on to win the U17’s North Munster Cup. Nessan’s had nothing to be ashamed of after a great display and on another day, as proved early in the season, could have won the cup but it was Crescent Comprehensive who triumphed this day and we’d like to pass on our congratulations.

St Nessan’s Team:(Back Row) Michael O Donoghue, Jack Walters, James Cleary (Capt), Cian Killeen, Michael Bennett, Daniel McInerney, Jonathon Woodland & Ross Bowen. (Front Row) Chris Kaya, Jonathon Roche, Nathan Molloy, Eric McNamara, Jason O Callaghan, Michael Guerin & Dylan Considine. Missing from photo - Anthony McInerney

St Nessan’s recently held an inter schools blitz between St Nessan’s CC, St Munchin’s CBS & Corpus Christi Primary School as part of friendship week. Two teams from St. Munchin’s, one team from St. Nessan’s and a team from Corpus Christi played in a league format 5 a side blitz with the top two teams from the league contest-ing the final. St Munchin’s CBS A and St Nessan’s were those two teams and a great final was witnessed by all present. in a game that was full of incident, both teams showed some great skills and goal scoring ability to leave the game 5 - 5 after extra time. Unfortunately, the game was to be decided by penalties but controversy arose as to whether the ball crossed the line after one of Nessan’s penalties. The students refereeing the game agreed that it did and Nessan’s went on to win the shoot out 4-3 on the day. However, given the nature of the victory, it was suggested that a replay take place after video evidence (Nessan’s is that advanced) that the whole ball hadn’t crossed the line so the celebrations were put on ice and no name has been engraved onto the shield just yet. We look forward to the rematch.

Back row: Jodie Llewllyn, Dion Considine, Dean Quinn & Jordan O Donnell Front Row: Luke Ward, Cian Power, Darnell Price & Lee Kelly

Controversy leads to replay

North Munster Update

Class 3DI presenting a €100 donation to Chris from Limerick Animal Welfare. 3DI raised the money by holding a Hot Chocolate morning. This was part of their Junior Certificate CSPE Action Project. 3DI choose to study Animal Rights and Animal Wel-fare. Chris from Limerick Animal Welfare came to the school and gave a talk on the work they do caring for and treating stray and abandoned animals.

Limerick Animal Welfare Donation