Category Archives: Latest News

Hurling Champions Visit

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On Monday the 30th of September, Clare hurlers Cian Galvin and Davy Conroy came to the school to celebrate their victory in winning the All Ireland Hurling Championship this summer. They arrived at around 10 o’clock in the morning. We all gathered outside at the back of the school with our chairs. After a few minutes, we saw them coming and we gave them a big cheer when they arrived! Mr. Curran introduced them and they started talking about their victory. People then started asking them questions about their lives as hurlers. Some of the questions were ‘When did you start playing hurling?’ or ‘When did you play your first match?’ One person also asked what hurley they used when they won the final! Cian used a Clancy hurley and Davy used a Torpey hurley.

We spent a few more minutes asking them questions and then Mr. Curran told us about a challenge that Cian used to try to achieve when he was a pupil in Knockanean N.S. The challenge was to try to hit the ball from left to right, against the wall of the school, and to catch it again, and to see how many times he could do this in 30 seconds. When he was younger, his record was 17 times. Cian then tried to beat this challenge on the day and he got 25 so he beat his record! There was also another challenge where they had to hit the middle pole in the school shed. Both Davy and Cian tried this challenge as well on the day and were able to hit it once! After these challenges, we lined up in our class groups and took photos with the Liam McCarthy cup. We also got the chance to hold the very heavy cup! After that, we got signatures from Davy and Cian. Some people got their jerseys signed and some even got their shoes signed! It was great to get to see the hurlers in person and to hear about their busy lives and all the training that they have to do. We enjoyed the day and our favourite part was getting to lift the Liam McCarthy!

By Alex O’Donnell, Finn O’Dwyer and Dara O’Connor.

Waltons Champions

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On Monday the 8th of April, the Waltons group from Knockanean N.S. travelled up to the National Concert Hall in Dublin for the final of the Waltons Music for Schools competition. We gathered at the school at quarter to seven in the morning. We then travelled the long journey up to Dublin on the bus. Several teachers accompanied us on the day- Amy, Tina, Louise, Conor, Aileen, Fiona, and Mr. Curran. We arrived at the National Concert Hall at around half past eleven, and we gathered in a room and did a sound check to trial run our performance. After the sound check we had a bit of lunch and then the whole competition began at one o’clock. We found out that we would be the second last group performing on the day. There were six primary schools, six secondary schools and a special school also performing in the competition. Luckily, we had great seats in the front row of the hall. We watched the beginning performances and we soon realised that there was a very tough competition! The other performances were very energetic and it was nice to see the different genres of music and how they responded to the theme of ‘Music Moves us’.

Finally, our moment to perform came. Amy went on stage and introduced our performance which we had named ‘Stepping through the river of sound’. She also told the presenter about how much work we had to do to prepare the performance. We then began performing and we were feeling mixed emotions at the start. Then the crowd began to clap and we even got a standing ovation at the end! When we had finished, we received a huge round of applause and we knew then that we had performed really well. After the performances, we had a nervous wait until they announced the winners, and it took over fifty minutes for them to decide! A group called the Gospel Project entertained us while we waited for the results.

Then the presenter came out to announce the results. After they called out third place, and then second place, we felt so nervous and excited. When the presenter called out first place, she only got to start announcing ‘Knockanean’ when she was drowned out by the cheers and celebrations from our school! We couldn’t believe that we had come in first place, and it was amazing to hear our name being called out. Amy and Naoise then went on stage to collect the prize and certificate. It took us ages to recover from the shock of winning, but eventually we gathered up and got back on the bus. On the way home we stopped at Junction 14 for a meal of delicious Supermacs, Papa Johns and Subway. We arrived back to school very late at half nine in the evening, and there were so many people gathered at the school to welcome us home. It was a brilliant experience and we had an amazing day, which we will remember for the rest of our lives!!

By Orla Brooks, Alison Casey, Hugh Garvey and Archie Hill.