Following on from this year’s stunning success in the JJ O’Reilly U-16 Ulster Colleges competition, Dominican College have recently been awarded the Irish News Post Primary School of the Year Award.

This award is in recognition of the work the school has invested in Gaelic sports over the past few Years and the rich dividends this work is now witnessing. The success in The Irish News competition was also ion recognition of the unique way in which the school, in line with its strongly inclusive ethos, engaged with pupils from a non-traditional GAA background and created a winning team from a range of players from diverse backgrounds.

Pupils from the school are now learning how to coach and the school has the vision that these pupils will help mentor and coach our local primary schools and the Post-Primary award recognises and rewards this superb work being carried out both on and off the field.

Mr Carey, our Gaelic coach and past Dominican pupil, was himself captain of the 2010 Derry-Championship winning Eoghan Rua team and he has used his experience to build a winning team in his own school over the past few seasons.

“Some of the lads come to us and have only a bit of background in GAA through their primary school or perhaps through Eoghan Rua or Glenullin, but many are coming from feeder primary schools that have either a soccer or rugby background. So, beginning in first year, we just try to introduce the game. They have certain physical attributes and basic technical skills that they can apply to Gaelic games, but it’s only really now after two or three years of playing and developing in seven-a-side and nine-a-side blitzes that we are able to get together a full- sized squad to compete at Ulster Colleges level.

This year we won our first Ulster Colleges title which was obviously a huge success for a school such as ours. The real reward in all this is the work done behind the scenes in the school to develop Gaelic games and make them inclusive for all. It is lovely for it to be recognised that there is good work going on in Dominican College, Portstewart. To have won this award on the fiftieth anniversary of boys first entering the school in 1968 makes this success all the sweeter”

In playing terms the challenge for the school is now to build on this season’s JJ O’Reilly Cup victory and next year we will draw on some of the U-16 talent to enter a sixth form team for the first time in our history. Our Year 11 squad, many of whom also played at U-16 level are also just about to compete in an Ulster Colleges Semi-final.

Richard Carey is pictured receiving the Post-Primary award with Dominican College Vice-Principal, Mr Gerry Lynch.

Also pictured are five members of the successful U-16 team are:
Alan Thompson Ryan Taggart, Lewis Hawthorne, Lorcan McMullen, and Jake Wallace

Dominican College are delighted to share the recent success of two of our  first year pupils, Joshua Bryant and Dylan Norton as their team won the Under 12s rugby tournament in SE of England.

Coleraine Under 12s Rugby squad travelled to England the weekend of the 4th- 6th May to participate in the prestigious Camber Sands Rugby tournament. Teams from all over England, Wales and Ireland gave it their all over the two days and got to experience playing on international quality rugby pitches but in the very hot weather conditions the bank holiday weekend enjoyed.

At the end of the tournament Coleraine were top of the leader board and the boys were presented with medals and a large trophy by England and British and Irish Lions Player Lewis Moody. They were given extra special treatment by the crew of the Easyjet flight on the way home allowing the trophy to be presented in the cockpit, cheers from the whole plane and team photos out on the runway!  

Joshua has been playing club rugby at Coleraine since P.2 and balances is management of Type 1 diabetes with being a strong member of the 30+ under12 squad.
Dylan has only recently taken up rugby and is learning the game, meeting new friends and enjoying playing. 

On Tuesday night, at the Annual Rugby Club Awards Dinner, Joshua was awarded with Player of the Year 2018 and Dylan was awarded Runner up in the Best Newcomer category.

Well done to both our Year 8 boys.

On the evening of Wednesday 9th May our school chaplain, Fr. Raymond McCullagh, led our Year 14 pupils and their parents in a special Leavers’ Mass.

Fr. Raymond welcomed pupils and parents together for the first time since those tentative first days in September 2011 to celebrate the culmination of the journey that had begun and to appreciate the fine young Dominican men and women they had become. He encouraged pupils to remain an integral part of the Dominican family.

To commemorate the class of 2017 as our centenary leavers each pupil was given a special bookmark.
The theme of the mass was inspired by T.S Eliot’s lines from Little Gidding:

In a special ceremony of light pupils and parents passed on the gifts of faith, justice, wisdom and truth and learned that every ending is a new beginning; pupils also reflected on how everything they learned was learned in the company of others.

Fr. Raymond took as the theme of his homily the little-known story of Margaret Devaney who left Sligo aged 19 on board Titanic for a new life in America. Margaret was given the parting gift of a penknife from her brother John, a gift that would prove vital in cutting the twisted ropes of the C lifeboat and saving the lives of Margaret and the other 31 people on board her lifeboat. He explained how this seemingly disastrous end was in reality a beginning as Margaret had a long and happy life.

Fr Raymond compared the penknife to all the values that both the pupils’ parents and Dominican College had passed on and how their Dominican ethos will continue to be a lifeline to them as they begin their journey away from Portstewart.  He challenged our class of 2018 in the words of the First reading from Joshua to “Be Strong and courageous, prosper and succeed and know that the God of Justice will be with you wherever you go” and concluded with the word of St Paul that our pupils must above all “Be happy”.

Reflecting his own leave taking of St Malachy’s over 30 years ago, Fr. Raymond concluded by asking our U6 pupils to be all that God calls them to be and to “always come back to DCP as we always love to hear your stories and see where the road ahead leads you”.

Ms Ronan thanked all those who had made the evening such a success, especially the Music and RE departments who had helped lead the pupils in word and song and our Dominican parents for “entrusting us with their most precious gift; the gift of your young people”.

The principal encouraged our class of 2018 to always see themselves as members of the Dominican family and encouraged then to remain in close contact with the school as they begin to contemplate life beyond the walls of DCP.

The school library is open each day throughout the exam period for our leavers to study. Pupils are reminded that they must be in school uniform for all study sessions and for all exams.

Good luck to all our Year 14 pupils over the coming weeks and every success in their work and life beyond DCP.
Below are some images from Wednesday’s Mass.