Congratulations to Patrick Scanlon, Turraree and Estuary Macra who came 2nd in the country in his category of Beef Stock Judging at a recent competition in Waterford.. Estuary Macra has only been recently founded but have been busy since. Patrick is a member of the bar staff in Knockdown.

Congratulations too to Thomas White, Knockdown who graduates from LIT this week with a degree – Bachelor of Engineering in Automation and Control. Well done Thomas and best of luck in the future.

The Clounleharde committee is still enthusiastic and doing the background work of gathering all the names and addresses of past pupils. Keep reminding anybody, who might have connections to the school, that the reunion will take place next summer. A definite date will be decided on very soon.

I was listening to Abbot Mark Patrick Hederman talking to Marian Finucane on radio at the weekend on how we have got it all wrong on how we educate our children. Imagination and dreaming is killed very quickly and children are forced to learn and memorise and then regurgitate it all for the Leaving Cert. He did not go to school himself til he was nine and so knows how important imagination is in the formation of the child. This is one of my own ideas also and that is why I think stories and poetry are so important. It allows the mind to develop. I read somewhere once that “When a brain expands with an original idea it never goes back to its original size!” All ideas will be needed in Ireland now to help us out of this economic mess we are in. Mark Hederman says we have not been taught to think at all and are losing out because of it. Food for thought but will anything change?