On Monday, May 20th, we all gathered, united in the warm glow of the summer sun, to be entertained and delighted by the inspirational, serious, and, at times, funny ruminations and observations of our brave students. The speeches were diverse and gave us insight into the students’ issues and concerns.  

Our Junior Competitors (First to Third Year) raised issues such as: The Advantages and Disadvantages of Fitness’ by Harry Dunne (Second year), Life Beyond our Planet by Amelie Brocklebank (Third year) and ‘The Benefits of Gaming’ by Dylan Scorgie Chersich (First Year) which achieved Third place. Second place was awarded to Aisling Gillen from Third Year for her speech on Femininity in Fiction and Nathan O’Connor from Second Year entertained us greatly with his speech on Nintendo claiming First prize. 

Our Senior competition comprised of topics such as: ‘The Profound Absurdity of Existence’ by Emma Fougerat (Sixth Year), Why Comics and Graphic Novels are just as valid as Other Forms of Literature’ by Cora Porter (fifth year) and ‘What makes a person a Genius?’ by Rintaro Okuda from Sixth Year. Third prize was awarded to Adam Maguire (TY) for his speech on ‘How did we lose community?’ A fellow TY student, Brenna Gallagher Doyle achieved Second place for her speech on ‘What is Depression’, and the winner of the Senior Competiton was our incoming 5th year Head Girl Yusra Didani for her mature reflections on ‘The Damaging Effects of Western Beauty Standards on the Wider world’. 

The Judges, Ms. Aisling Spratt, an Alumni of both the Junior and Senior John Scottus Schools and a past participant and winner of the Speech Competition and Mr. Mark Mc Nally, a screen writer, praised the high standard and level of commitment each participant gave. We are so grateful to the external judges for taking time out of their very successful and busy careers to be part of our Speech Competition.  

The Music Department entertained us with their musical talents during the judging interval. A sincere thank you to Ms. William, Mr. Gorey and all the students who took part in the musical interlude. It was a musical triumph and is such a lovely opportunity to witness and experience the fantastic creativity in music amongst our student body.

A special thank you needs to be given to all staff, judges and students who helped to make this event truly remarkable. All participants were fantastic and deserve fervent applause. Their determination, triumph over fear and reflective abilities are all aspects of what a winner really is. All in all, it is, was and continues to be, without fail, an inspiring event in the school calendar.