Pobalscoil Neasáin, Baldoyle win out in Dublin final of Public Speaking Competition

A Baldoyle school is to represent the Dublin Euro Constituency in the national final of a prestigious public speaking competition.  Pobalscoil Neasáin fielded the winning team in the regional finals of the National Forum On Europe’s 2008 Transition Year competition. The members of the winning team were Derek O’Brien, Sayeda Leahy and Sam O’Byrne (pictured left with teachers and Dublin MEPs Prionsias De Rossa, Eoin Ryan and Gay Mitchell) .

They will now go head to head with the schools who emerge from the regional finals in the other Euro Constituencies.  The National Final is to be held in Dublin Castle on March 3^rd, where the overall prize on offer is a trip for their classmates to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. 

They beat off a very strong challenge from the other finalists from Belvedere College, Dublin 1; St Joseph of Cluny, Killiney and Our Lady’s Grove, Goatstown.

This year, a record hundred and fifty schools around the country entered the high-profile annual competition which is being held in each Euro Constituency in conjunction with the Irish Members of the European Parliament.As the National Forum On Europe provides a neutral space for debate, the students were free to take any line they liked on the issues. 

Gay Mitchell MEP of Fine Gael, Eoin Ryan MEP of Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party’s Proinsias De Rossa MEP and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald MEP attended the regional finals today in Dublin Castle and were highly impressed with the standard of the presentations. 

In a closely fought contest, Pobalscoil Neasáin managed to convince the judges with their arguments on the theme “The Four Freedoms of the European Union - Democracy at Work?”

Ms Linda Sherlock, editor of RTE’s The Week in Politics, who chaired the judging panel said that she was “bowled over” by all the performances and relayed how difficult it was to reach a final decision.  Also on the judging panel were Ms Mary Killoran of the European Parliament office in Ireland and Ms Eileen Kehoe, Deputy Director of the National Forum On Europe.

The students who skillfully represented Belvedere College were Michael Cronin, Kevin Millar and Cillian McGarry (pictuired below with Dublin MEPs and teacher Michael Murphy)  

St Joseph of Cluny, Killiney (pictured below) fielded a strong team in Rebecca Dwyer, Molly Brady-Martin and Cliodhna Gillan.

Our Lady’s Grove, Goatstown was very ably represented by students Niamh Hanrahan, Fiona Geraghty and Liane Egan.

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The National Forum On Europe was established by the Government and the political parties in October 2001 as an arena for free debate on the European Union and Ireland’s role in it. In the last six years, it has held eighty-five plenary meetings and over sixty regional meetings and conferences.