Castlebar student champs

ALL-IRELAND CHAMPS David Gallagher, Rián Derrig and Aidan Rowe are pictured with, from left, Veronica Rowe, tutor, Brian Howard, CEO Mental Health Ireland, Tom Giblan, Chairman Mental Health Ireland, and Liam Printer, tutor.

Castlebar students are public speaking champions nationally

Emer Gallagher

THREE Castlebar students have been crowned public speaking champions of Ireland for their discussion on serious issues concerning mental health.
The winning trio from St Gerald’s College were Rián Derrig, Aidan Rowe and David Gallagher. The National Public Speaking event was organised by Mental Health Ireland (MHI) and took place in Trinity College last Saturday night.
The judging panel praised all the students for their clear understanding of the subject matter, demonstrated by the concise content which they put into their contributions and on the maturity of the understanding and perception they demonstrated when debating this year’s topic – ‘A rising tide lifts all boats. What happens when the tide goes out?’
“The boys from St Gerald’s were the last team to take the floor and as soon as they began they brought a great calm and sincerity to proceedings.
Rián Derrig opened up for St Gerald’s and he immediately set the team apart from the competitors in saying that ‘we are all boats, ladies and gentlemen’, and that each of the team members would discuss a different type of boat which would represent different types of people in our society,” a statement from St Gerald’s College read. “A huge amount of praise should go to their tutors from the school, Veronica Rowe and Liam Printer, as it was clear that the boys were very well-prepared on the night but each of the boy’s speeches were their own work and everyone agreed that they were brilliantly written, exquisitely presented and were full of original thinking and emotive arguments.
Their confidence and composure on stage were a credit to their school and county and it is no wonder they were deemed overall winners of the competition after such a wonderful performance.” A further honour went to St Gerald’s College, Castlebar at Saturday evening’s event when another student from the college, Kevin Redmond, and his Art Teacher, Ms Jean Bourke, received runner-up awards in the finals of the Mental Health Ireland Design-a-Cover national art project.