Scoil Uí Mhuirí

Since Ms. Matthews started teaching at Scoil Uí Mhuirí in 1993, she has promoted athletics and encouraged students of all abilities to participate. The first big success came with the Lynch families from Stabannon. Tara, Kim and Grace Lynch were all tremendous athletes who qualified for Leinsters, won individual medals and also provided the school with their first ever qualification for the All Ireland Schools' Cross country Championships, in Galway that year with Deirdre and Laura Lynch. Accompanied by Ms. Conneely and Ms. Matthews the team followed up their medal winning performance in the Curragh at Leinster level with a 6th place finish in the team event, when they competed against the best athletes from Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht. Ann Marie Lynch was best known for her medal winning ways at the Drogheda & District schools' event, never failing to feature!

Others to feature over the years were Andrew Hynes, Rory Kirwan and Paul Mc Donald, all gifted javelin throwers. They could do the shot putt also and even run when they wanted to. This trio qualified for Leinsters and All Irelands at both Club and Schools competitions regularly, with Paul selected for the Tailteann Games and also a regular contender in Tullamore at National level. Rory's greatest success came in 2008 when he became National under 18 title holder and was duly selected to represent Ireland in the Celtic Games in Scotland. Andrew will always be remembered for his inspirational comments and confidence building techniques, with sayings such as: "Just peg it!"

Anton Mc Grogan gave his class mates plenty to cheer about when he was the sole qualifier for the Leinster cross country Championships a few years ago. Such was the delight of his classmates that they all decided to accompany him to the event!

Brian Howell and Christoper Clarke spent many a lunchtime doing the high jump with their record of 1.60metres still standing. Pádraig Lynch and Cora Kirwan also produced consistent performances, Padraig at Cross country and Cora at shot putt.

On Friday October 22nd 2010, former International and twice Olympian Catherina Mc Kiernan delivered an Athletics Workshop as part of the Rás na hÉireann & Armagh AC Sports and Culture Week, bringing St. Patrick's High School Armagh and Scoil Uí Mhuirí Dunleer together for a Chi Running Day.

Athletics 2008/9

The North Leinster Track and Field Championships May 2009.

A great result for Scoil Uí Mhuirí with 12 athletes making it through to the next round of the competition - the Leinster Schools' Championships in Santry.

The medal winners at North Leinster were:

Emmanuel Olaniran 3rd 100 metres and relay silver
Paul Adeniyi 1st 200 metres, 2nd 100 metres, relay silver
Sam Ojo 3rd 200 metres, relay silver
Daniel Grey relay silver
Lydia Jein 2nd discus, 3rd hammer
Patrick Duff 1st long jump
Craig Devlin 2nd long jump
Niamh Fussey 2nd hurdles
Eimear Murray 2nd long jump
Lisa Mc Donald 3rd long jump
Ciara Kelly 2nd discus, 3rd shot
Rebecca Doyle 3rd discus

Minor placings
Ciaran Mundow shot putt
Jamie Mulholland discus
Gavin Ryder shot putt

Good efforts also from Kevin Hall, Andreas Sambanidas, Lisa Hamill, Jade Mc Grane and Peter Adeniyi.

The Leinster track and Field Championships May 16th 2009
Day 1 of the Leinster Championships proved most successful with two junior students Lydia Jein and Niamh Fussey placing in the top 4 of their respective disciplines. Lydia finished 2nd in the discus in the junior girls championships, while Niamh Fussey finished 4th in the 80 metre hurdles. Lydia will go on to represent Scoil Uí Mhuirí in the All Ireland Schools' Championships in Tullamore in June.

Day 2 was very competitive, with the boys' senior team finishing in a very unfortunate 4th in the 4 x 100m relay final, just out of the medals. Paul Adeniyi competed in both the senior 100m and 200 finals and his 5th and 6th placings respectively put him in the top 6 in the Province of Leinster under 19. At age 17, Paul has a great future in athletics.

In 2006, a bus load of Scoil Uí Mhuirí, Dunleer students travelled to Galway to support local athlete David Carrie, who was running 7 marathons in 7 days across Ireland to raise awareness of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome and funds for Heart House, the first family screening clinic in Ireland. The students enjoyed the experience, accompanying our marathon runner David Carrie for short runs, and decided that they would like to do more travelling and running.

Students from Scoil Uí Mhuirí competed successfully at a range of events in 2007/8, with Karl Martin having great runs at the Rás na hÉireann International cross country schools race and at the Mountain running Championships in Wicklow. The first year girls were also strong contenders at track and field with Lydia Jein winning medals in the throwing events, Eimear Murray in the long jump and Niamh Fussey in the hurdles. Niamh Devlin had a great run in her first mountain running event. The first and second year boys also showed good form with Patrick Duff and Karl Martin qualifying for Leinster Championships in the long jump. Ciara Kelly continued her wining ways at field events, winning another discus medal at North Leinster.

They have been doing plenty of running since, but also throwing and jumping and proving themselves at local and Provincial level. Gone are the days of toilets doubling as changing rooms and mucky puddles and patches of grass serving as the only training facility. The new Sports facilites at Scoil Uí Mhuirí have ensured that the school's athletes can train whatever the weather and the inclusion of PE on the timetable for all students has helped to increase motivation and participation. The wonderful new gym is a fantastic facility providing an empty, open and safe area for indoor running and exercising, with the possibility of using the high jump, shots, javelins, medicine balls and hurdles, under the supervision of the PE teacher Ms. Lorna Finegan and athletics coach Ms. Jacqueline Matthews. Upstairs, older students can avail of the treadmills, rowing machines, stationery bikes, cross trainers and weights machines.

With all of these facilities and amenities at the school, the Scoil Uí Mhuirí students trained hard and worked on their techniques last year making for a particularly successful track and field season, winning the Intermediate Boys' trophy for best team performance at North Leinster schools level. The boys were particularly pleased to win the 4 x 100m relay beating the favourites Gormanston College and teams from all over Louth, Meath and North Dublin. Contributing to the points for the trophy were Rory Kirwan in the javelin, Emmanuel Olaniran in the 100m, Sam Ojo in the 200m and Paul Adeniyi in the 400m, with Sheriff Adegoke and Daniel Grey boosting the points total.

Louth VEC Track and Field Championships 2011
Full Results

With all of this success and the huge interest in athletics in the school, it was only fitting that the athletes be rewarded with an International trip to compete in an athletic event. Another local school St. Josephs CBS made the trip to the USA 3 years ago and competed in the Downtown 5k. The athletes had a great time and inspired Scoil Uí Mhuirí to organise a similar trip. Girls captain Áine Kirwan and Boys' captain Emmanuel Olaniran worked with Ms. Matthews and Ms. Farrell to organise the "Boston trip".

Charlie Breagy, former athlete with Dunleer Athletic Club is one of the organisers of the Ocean State Cross Country event in Warwick Rhode Island. Charlie is the élite athlete co-ordinator and organises the athletes to come to Ireland for Rás na hÉireann. It was Charlie who invited Scoil Uí Mhuirí to send teams to the USA and he looked after the team while they were there. The students flew to Boston on September 24th and returned on the 30th. The students went to Rhode Island primarily for the race but they found time do some sight seeing and shopping! They visited Boston city, taking in the Red Sox stadium, Faneuil Hall and Harvard. They also visited Mystic Seaport and Aquarium as well as Providence College and Wrentham.

While the school had never done a trip like this before, the students at Scoil Uí Mhuirí have been involved in lots of European projects over the years, Comenius projects, exchanges with Germany, summer camps in Austria and E-twinning with France.

In total 26 athletes from the school travelled with Ms. Farrell and Ms. Matthews as well as two coaches from Dunleer Athletic Club. There was a mixed team of sprinters, throwers, jumpers and runners, but they all committed to training to do a cross country race, because they see how important cardiovascular fitness is as well as mastering technical events. The younger athletes did 2 kilometres while the older ones did 4 and 5k. 130 schools entered the event which took place at Goddard Park, Warwick, Rhode Island. The website is www.oceanstatexc.com.

Many thanks to all who helped to sponsor these athletes who were busy doing sponsored runs and bag packing to help allay some of the costs. Special thanks to Dunleer Credit Union, Gibtex, AIB Drogheda.