Preparations for Seachtain na Gaeilge begin #SNaGaeilge

Irish has always been one of my strongest subjects in secondary school, and Transition Year Irish Studies, has immersed me in the Irish Language, Culture, Traditions & History.

One of the most prominent celebrations of the Irish Language is Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish Week), which is celebrated every year on March 1-17, celebrating Irish language, and all of its benefits! This year, Transition Year Students in Crana College have been entrusted to arrange all of the celebrations in the school.

Along with our Irish teacher, and Transition Year Coordinator – Ms Bradley, my class – TY1 have began to arrange the celebrations! Our class was split up into smaller groups to organise varying events to occur over the seventeen days. I have been arranged into a group along with four other students in my class – Ciara, Sonia, Niamh & Máiréad, to arrange a ‘Tráth na gCeist’ or a quiz.

In this we have decided to go paperless, and arrange the quiz, and host it on the online quiz site – http://www.kahoot.it, which was introduced to us by our Media Studies teacher – Mrs Morrison, earlier this year. It is unsure as of now, if we will go in to quiz all 5th, 2nd and 1st Year classes in the school, or if my will zone in  one one specific year group, however it is almost certain that it will be a digital and paperless quiz, and we are certain that it will promote Seachtain na Gaeilge, the Irish Language, and Irish Culture!

Careers Fair in St. Columb’s College, Derry!

Some of the brochures received at the Careers Fair

Today Transition Year students got the chance to attend a careers fair in St. Columb’s College in Derry, accompanied by two teachers – Mrs Galbraith and Mrs Keogh. We got on the bus at a quarter to ten and headed for Derry. We arrived at the school at about twenty past ten, where we were lead to the door by a student, before being taken to a hall where many different companies, universities, colleges and IT’s had set up stands about their respective courses and careers on offer.

The stands in the hall ranged from Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University to an airplane design company! Many of the large educational institutions in Ireland and the UK had sent representatives. These included Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University (DCU), NUI Galway, Sligo IT, Leterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT), University of Ulster (Magee, Jordanstown & Coleraine Campuses), Queen’s University Belfast and Liverpool – John Moore University, among many many others!

We had also been given a timetable of different talks that were during three different periods throughout the day. The first talk that I attended, was a talk from Trinity College Dublin, which touched on the subjects which they offer, their entry requirementnts, examination and fees, as well as student life. 

I also went to a talk on medicine, and how you can peruse it as a career. A local Derry Doctor – Dr. O’Hagan, gave a very inspiring and insightful talk, where he talked about the challenges that he had faced when trying to peruse a career in medicine. I felt that this talk was very inspirational and his determination was admirable.

The third, and final talk that I attended was a talk on Modern Languages in Queen’s University Belfast. This talk and subject was right up my street and really appealed to me, as I would say  that two of my favourite subjects would have to be Irish and Spanish. I felt that this was a possible course that I may enroll in someday, as the course itself is to versatile and student friendly! I really liked that you could get the chance to either sit a joint honours course, in which you could study two languages – where I could study both Irish and Spanish, or sit a singe honours course where  you would study only one language –  where I could study Spahish or Irish. There is also an option to study for one year of your course  abroad. This talk has really appealed to me and I am seriously considering it as a possible course that I will study after my Leaving Certificate in 2018. 

I was extremely happy that I attended the careers fair today, as it had given me a great insight into what I may study before I even chose my subjects for my Leaving Cert –  a chance that I have only received as I am lucky enough to be in Transition Year!