Five Douglas Community School students have excelled in winning a number of prestigious awards at UCC and CIT.

Padraig Quinlan

won a UCC Entrance Scholarship. These scholarships are awarded to students with outstanding academic results in their Leaving Certificate. Padraig is studying Mathematical Sciences in UCC.

Stephen Moylan

won a UCC sports scholarship. This scholarship recognizes Stephen’s outstanding talent in hurling and his academic ability. Stephen was a member of the Cork U14, U15, U16 and Minor Hurling Teams. He was a valued player on many school teams. Stephen is studying Arts in UCC.

Eoghan Long

won a CIT Sports Bursary. This award is in recognition of his outstanding achievements in Golf. Eoghan was a member of the DCS Golf team that won the All-Ireland Schools Stokeplay and Matchplay Championships. He is also a member of the Munster U18 Golf Team. Eoghan is studying Structural Engineering at CIT.

Ian Tivy

won a CIT Sports Bursary. Ian’s award recognizes his achievements in athletics. Ian was a leading member of Douglas Community School’s athletics team, which has won numerous county, provincial and national titles. Ian is the holder of numerous county and national titles and has represented Ireland at International competitions. Ian is studying Information Systems at CIT.

Chris Kelleher

won a CIT Sports Bursary. This award recognizes his achievements in swimming. Chris has won numerous county, provincial and national titles. He is currently Munster champion at 50 and 100 m freestyle and has been selected for elite squad training with the US Olympics coach in Florida. Chris is studying Accounting at CIT.

Douglas Community school is an all boys post primary school which caters for over 600 daytime pupils. The school also has a very extensive Adult and Community Education Programme with over 80 courses to choose from.

Douglas Community School is a firm believer in taking science beyond the classroom. Verified by its record participation in the Young scientist competition and the SEI Robotics competition.

Second year students, Stephen lane, Bryan O’Sullivan, Jack Newton, Cian Mangan and Team Substitute Scott O’Sullivan are participating in this years 06/07 Lego Mindstorms competition. The school received a new Lego Mindstorms NXT kit and their own practice arena. The challenge is to create a robot capable of picking up objects and dropping them off in the centre of an arena. Not as easy as it sounds when you consider that the boys must programme the robot in advance to make these complex movements.

However the boys are not alone and have been mentored in the initial stages by Dr. Liam Marnane of the Department of electrical and electronic engineering in UCC and their teachers Miss Catriona Barrett and Brian Mac Aodh. Initiatives such as this which foster enthusiasm and interest in the area of science are vital at a time where numbers pursuing science subjects to leaving cert are falling. It seems that the rewards of such projects will be a greater uptake in the field of Science and Technology as the guys agree that they would all consider a related career as a direct result of their learning’s in this project.

Douglas C.S athletes made the long journey to Dublin City University for the annual schools invitational cross-country event recently. This event
attracts many of Irelands top young athletes. The team continued their recent success with some outstanding performances.

In the Minor boys race over 1500m, Ian Tobin led the team home with a superb 19th place finish out of 230 competitors. Other great performances came from Conor Foley, David Kelly, Robert O’ Neill, Mark O’ Sullivan, Andrew O’ Keeffe and Cillian Fleming.

The Junior boys team produced a magnificent effort to get silver team medals. The outstanding Peter Hanrahan in 7th position led the team home. He was ably assisted by Shaun Healy, Cullen Lynch, Eoin Cremin, David Broughal, Rob Lyons and Kevin Board.

The Inter team also got amongst the medals with a superb 2nd place finish. The performance of the day came from Richard Quirke in 10th place. Others to impress were David O’ Keeffe, Michael Carroll, Adam Kelleher, Brian Murray, Alan O’ Brien, John Kidney and Conor O’ Brien.

In the Senior race Eric Murphy and Craig Harrington ran very well in a very competitive field. All in all a very successful day for the team.