Br. Noel Raymond Sweeney

On Thursday afternoon of the 20th October, Br. Sweeney died suddenly while visiting a friend in Beaumont Hospital. The suddenness of his dead sent shock waves through all who had known and revered him. May he rest in peace.

Br. Edward Raymond Sweeney was born in Glaslough, Co. Monaghan in 1938. He opted to join the Christian Brothers and underwent the usual training and preparation until 1959.

His ministry took him to Scoil Chiarain Donneycarney, St. Joseph's Galway, St. David's Artane, St. Fintan's Trim, Westport, Colaiste Mhuire Parnell Square, St. Kevin's Ballygall Rd., St. Aidan's Whitehall and finally, "Clareville" Glasnevin, where he was a community leader until his untimely death.

He was principal of the secondary school in Westport from 1981-1983. He was also principal in Ballygall Rd. from 1984-1988. He finished in mainstream education in St. Aidan's Whitehall in 1999, and transferred to the communtiy at "Clarevill" Glasnevin. From there he became involved in Adult Education in the Francis St. area of Dublin, teaching English to new arrivals to our country. He really felt at home in that work, and his pupils loved him as learning came into full play.

He is deeply missed by them, by his brother, four sisters and close family relatives and by the larger Christian Brother community, and also by his many friends. His contribution to St. Aidan's will be remembered by the many who had the opportunity to work with him.

Hollywood Beckons!

Well done to past pupil Glen Barry (LC. 1999) who was recently offered a part in the Hollywood blockbuster "Van Wilder". Glen follows in the footsteps of his two older brothers, and both past pupils, Jason and Keith. Jason has been acting for many years and his biggest role to date has been in "Titanic". Keith is involved in assistant directing and he currently working on the blockbuster "Sellafield". We wish them all the best in their future careers.

Tesco Tokens

Once again we have had a tremendous response to our Tesco Token collection. We thank our students and parents for their efforts and this year the tokens will be used to get equipment for our P.E. department.

Mr. McCafferty co-ordinated the collection and looks forward to redeeming the 18000 tokens collected.

GREEN SCHOOLS

In the past few months the Green Flag Committee has achieved much. Now, you can see a box in every room and there are plenty of posters around the school to let you know what everyone here has to do: recycle.The transition years collect the refuse from the boxes twice a week, there's a box in the GPA for collecting old mobiles (which is being run by Ms. Brennan) and we recently sent in our application for the Green Flag. Fingers crossed! Thanks to Ms. Ruane, Mr. Corbett and the rest of the Committee for all their hard work and effort.

F.A.I. CUP SUCCESS

Congratulations to past students Damien Lynch and Gavin Whelan on their recent F.A.I. Cup win with Drogheda United. Gavin scored the first goal in their 2-0 win over Cork City and went on to give a man of the match performance. Damien is a brother of our own Mr. Aidan Lynch. Aidan had a great season with Dublin City Football Club who gained promotion to the Premier Division of the eircom league in the play-offs.

EXAM STUDENTS

Third and Sixth Years will sit their Mock exams in February so we ask our students to make some time available during the Christmas break to do the necessary study. Don't let the entire break go by without fitting in some study-time. Leaving Cert students are reminded of the free revision courses being offered by the National College of Ireland (Maths, English, Accountancy and Business) on Thursday the 5th and Friday the 6th of January. Details of these courses are posted outside the Career Guidance room.