Transition Year English Evening 2025

 

This week we had the 30th Transition Year English Evening, the longest-established TY event in the College. It was planned primarily as a celebration of pupil work across the year, with an external guest speaker. There is no competitive element.

This year we were delighted to welcome back a former teacher, Mr Paul Reidy, who has been working at St Andrew’s College in Booterstown for 26 years, where he is head of Senior Cycle English. The event was compèred by Mr Kirwan.

There were eight readers of their work from the four sets; Mr Reidy’s comments on them follow each in brackets. Anna Hart kicked off with a narrative piece called ‘The Watcher’ (full of atmosphere and detail, tense and capturing fear very well, with a twist at the end). She was followed by Kayra Mbanefo with ‘The City That Dreams’ (a vivid phrase in the description was ‘like brushstrokes on a canvas’). Third was Issac Fang with ‘The Hidden Book’, a dense and interesting piece on body/mind (intriguing, getting across the thoughts of a teeming brain). As a total contrast, Isobel McKinley wrote ‘Testimonies’, an honest and personal piece about her relationship with religion (writing about character growth in a way which was gently wise).

Lexi Hunter’s ‘Underwater’ was a highly descriptive essay (very well written, with a strong sense of colour and cinematic). Alice Castagna’s ‘The Pulse of the Unknown’ on her time in London was next (a strong sense of nostalgia, and very good on the sounds and smells of the city), followed by Alice McCarthy with ‘Animal Farm at School’ (a version of the novel which was very humorous, with a touch of Lord of the Flies). Finally, Ferdia Murray provoked lots of laughter with ‘My First Love’, which started with lots of suggestive images which revealed themselves as references to his air fryer (very funny).

Mr Reidy then spoke a little about his time in the College from 1994 to 1996, his moving on to work for Concern in Rwanda, and then his return to teaching, which has become his career. It is indeed, he stated, a privilege to be a teacher, helping children learn. He concluded by reading out the names of the pupils who were awarded Premier grades this year,

Transition Year English Evening 2024

The 29th Transition Year English Evening was held on Tuesday 30th May in the Big Schoolroom. Again, it was a showcase of some of the best writing done during the year in English classes (there is no competitive element). Mr Jameson hosted the event, and the guest was former English teacher here, Mrs Annie Donnelly, who now works at Loreto Beaufort School.

Speakers (with Mrs Donnelly’s comments in square brackets) were:

• Rebekah Fitzgerald Hollywood on the nature of true friendship [this was thoughtful, with a clear sense of the person, and an excellent use of the extended metaphor].
• Delia Brady on her great-grandmother, ‘a person I would bring back from the dead’ [an engaging, fascinating historical essay, powerful as well as moving and tragic].
• Finn Woolsey on imagining his alternative self, ‘a person I would bring back from the dead’ [this was brilliantly philosophical, very controlled and original].
• Safia Walker on the proposition that young people have more problems than adults [an essay that was convincing and persuasive].
• Sophie Gibb with a story, ‘Window to the Soul’ [extremely memorable, with lots of tension and drama, and particularly effective use of sounds]
• Stella Borrowdale on her first home [a fine focus on family and belonging, with good attention to small things].
• Grant Fabian with a description of nature [poetic techniques used very well, with strong landscape description].
• Olive Mui on ‘The Oldest Person I Know’, her grandmother who went through the Chinese Famine [very engaging and original, with a lovely sardonic touch].
• Cerys Mordaunt imagining meeting up again in 8 years’ time with her friend Polly [excellent attention to detail in this imagining what the transition from adolescence to adulthood might look like].
• Grace Koch: a story called ‘Alone in the Forest’ [this captured big ideas, and used dialogue very well].

Mrs Donnelly also talked eloquently about the power of English, and how it deals with the most important things in life. She much enjoyed returning to the College, where she worked for two happy years. She also announced the winners of this year’s Premier Awards:

Stella Borrowdale, Delia Brady, Rebekah Fitzgerald Hollywood, Grace Koch, Grace McCarthy, Cerys Mordaunt, Olive Mui, Felix Strigel, Giulia Trolese and Safia Walker.

TY House Speech Competition 2023

On Sunday 8th October we held the annual Transition Year House Speech Competition. There was a high standard overall, and the judges awarded equal second place to Rebekah Fitzgerald Hollywood and Safia Walker. A clear first place, however, went to Grace Koch, whose speech about her great-grandmother is now below.

“In one day it all came crashing down— like falling into an abyss, the sudden shock reverberating long afterwards into the years that followed.” 

I’m sure that most people here have learned about, or at least heard of, the Holocaust. It is widely regarded as one of the most important topics in history. However, when we learn about it, I think that we tend to focus on broad details and statistics. Not to say that there is anything wrong with that, but I think it is equally important to listen to personal experiences. Today, I want to share with you my family’s personal experience with the Holocaust.

The quote that I just read is taken from Vienna Revisited, a book written by Freda Ulman Teitalbaum, also called Grandma Freda, my great-grandmother. In it, she talks about her journey of self discovery and reflection in visiting her childhood home with her daughter Marcia. She was born in Vienna in 1924 and grew up in the Judengasse, the Jewish district in Vienna. Freda describes her childhood to be joyous and carefree, albeit sheltered. She enjoyed school, despite her general aversion to math, and was particularly fond of languages and literature. In 1938, the Anschluss, the union between Austria and Nazi Germany, happened and my great-grandmother’s world was shattered. In her book, she writes of the day that she learned about Anschluss. She was walking in the park with her parents and her younger sister Susi when suddenly the sky was filled with planes adorned with Nazi flags that dropped pamphlets. Freda, only thirteen, picked one up only to read the words “Death to the Jews”. She was devastated and taken by surprise, her idyllic bubble popped.

She also tells of a common occurrence for Jewish women in Vienna at this time. Anyone over the age of 15 could be summoned to the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police, and forced to strip naked in front of them. They would then cut off a lock of the woman’s hair. This would be a humiliating and devastating experience for anyone, but especially for a teenager. When Freda was 14, she and her mother got the summons. As a young adult, she felt extremely self-conscious about her body, saying that she was too afraid to even undress in front of her mother, let alone the Gestapo. While they ended up being dismissed because Freda was only fourteen, it was a traumatizing experience nonetheless. The Nazis completely changed her self worth as they constantly degraded her place in society as a Jewish woman.

Fortunately, after months and months of waiting, Freda, her mother and her sister were able to get visas for the United States, but their father, who was Polish by birth, had to wait. He told them to go anyway, and he was able to join them after a few months. Many of Freda’s family members would join them, but her beloved uncle Josef would die in the Buchenwald concentration camp and her paternal grandparents would disappear during the war. They refused to leave their home, saying that God would protect them. Even today, we don’t know what happened to them. Freda went on to graduate from high school in Chicago and begin working almost straight away. In 1982, she fulfilled her lifelong dream of university and graduated from UCLA with a degree in English.

As I was thinking about what I would do for my speech, I felt a pull towards my great-grandmother. I’m still not quite sure why, but I think I have an idea. Grandma Freda passed away last year at the age of 99. It was sad, of course, but not so much personally. To be honest, I barely knew her and rarely saw her. Last spring, I visited my grandparents, my grandmother Ruth being Freda’s daughter. Together, we looked through some of Freda’s old jewellery. Most of it was cheap costume material apart than two sets of pearl necklaces and two small watches, one silver and one gold. My grandmother gifted the two necklaces to me and my sister, as well as Freda’s college diploma from UCLA, which is now in my bedroom.

As we were looking through the collection, my grandmother very gingerly grabbed the watches. They were both broken, but had clearly been taken care of. My grandmother told me how the watches had belonged to her grandmother, Regina Ulman. She had brought them with her when she travelled from Vienna to America. These watches are some of if not the only surviving heirlooms from my family’s time in Vienna. Shortly after the Anschluss, Austrian Jews were forced to give up all valuables to the Gestapo. Before this happened, however, Regina and her husband Bernard were able to smuggle some items out of the country via a Christian friend living in Italy. Most of these items ended up being sold once the Ulmans reached New York.

As I held these artefacts of my family’s history, symbols of their pain, suffering, and grief but also of triumph and promises of hope, I noticed a sense of deep connection to my ancestors that I never truly had before. I felt a responsibility to keep their memories alive not only to commemorate them, but to learn from them and maybe help others to do the same. I know we can all agree that what happened in the Holocaust was disgraceful and despicable, but that is not enough. We have to actively fight against anti-semitism and other forms of bigotry. I think that this sentiment was certainly shared by Freda, and it is made clear in her book that there were still many things she thought needed to change. She ends Vienna Revisited with words that power my own desire to share her story: 

“From time to time the same question arose to haunt us: why were we saved, why were we the lucky ones to survive? The only answer to this enigmatic question could be that we were meant to live so that a new generation could arise from the ashes of the old, with the hope that they would inherit a better world, and that they would never forget.”
 

Transition Year English evening, 2023

 

On the evening of Tuesday 30th May we had the 28th annual Transition Year English evening in the BSR (and so, with two years out for pandemic reasons, this event started 30 years ago). The formula has remained little changed: pupils read out interesting work they have written during the year, and a guest speaker associated with English comments on this, and speaks on wider issues. There is no competitive element: this is a pure celebration of writing. At the end of the evening the pupils receive their year’s grades.

This year our guest (who had also come several years ago) was Mr Toirleac O’Brien, former English teacher at Blackrock College (his comments are in brackets after each speaker). The evening was compèred by Mr Jameson.

The first reader was Ava Fagan, with a special memory this year about a scuba-diving trip (so richly descriptive - wonderful). She was followed by Melina Paulsen, who wrote about her first Irish train journey (a delightful piece, with entrancing dialogue). Clodagh Walsh was third, with a short story including the sentence ‘Suddenly there was no noise’ (it opened effectively in the middle). Amaya Street wrote about her memories of her early homes (this looked at how your life might have turned out differently). Jamie Casey then read Alba Perich’s story of first love (very bravely!), followed by a very different piece, Manuela Nassief’s ‘Waterfall’ (with incredible observation, a remarkable piece of writing). Aeladh Bradley-Brady next read her highly ‘imaginative’ piece about losing one sense - hearing. Finally, Iona McCausland wrote on a long-time favourite personal topic, ‘The Oldest Person I Know’, in her case her complicated grandmother (it was deliciously eccentric, with a lovely way of seeing things).

Mr O’Brien then gave us some heart-felt sentiments on the future of writing and reading, particularly given the new AI world we have moved into so recently. His passionate advocacy for books was striking. He finished by commending all the readers on their bravery in reading so personally and intimately in front of their peers.

Finally, congratulations to the Premier Award winners: Aeladh Bradley-Brady, Cajetan Cardona, Carlotta Castagna, Amber Cotton, Ava Fagan, Emilia Hager, Manuela Nassief, Melina Paulsen, Shannon Walker Kinsella, Clodagh Walsh, Alison Wang and Johanna zu Solms.

Transition Year English Evening 2022

 

The 28th Transition Year English Evening took place last night in the Big Schoolroom, compèred by Mr Jameson, after its two-year hiatus. The guest of honour was the author Richie Conroy, whose comments on the individual pieces are in italics below

Nine members of the Fourth Form read out pieces of writing: Phoebe Landseer opened up with a piece on her first home, in which we were transported by the power of words, followed by Zara Chohan (‘The Watcher’, a piece of fiction, which was gripping with lots of tension), Isabella Treacy on the joys of books (read by Raicheal Murray, a superb piece that made us feel we were in a second-hand bookshop), Daniel Murray (on censorship, an effective piece), Lara Hunter with a fictional piece which was superb, Georgia Goodbody (on her grandmother and her home, now sold, an amazing picture), Belen Olea (on the oldest person she knows, a fine piece which showed how important it is to pay attention to the older generation), Lily Boyle on learning poetry in primary school (a lovely window into the past) and finally Alannah McKee on her last day at primary school (a real journey in her piece, and a really powerful ending).

Mr Jameson presented the annual trophy to the editors of The Submarine magazine, this year Elizabeth Hart and Isabella Treacy. He then handed over to Richie Conroy, who used his experience of running the Dublin City Marathon for the first time to give the pupils important advice about writing. We all have a voice in our heads (for Richie, ‘Kermit’), which discourages us, but we need to say yes to new experiences. No experience is wasted. Reading is so important. Richie handed out writers’ notebooks to the presenters and advised them to jot down ideas, characters, good lines, dialogues. He spoke funnily, accessibly and with great encouragement to all the young writers in the audience.

Finally, the following were congratulated as winners of Premier Awards this year: Hannah Bergmann, Lily Boyle, Alison Coogan, Elizabeth Hart, Alannah McKee, Cameron McKinley, Belen Olea, Rachel Shaw, Calvin She, Isabella Treacy, Cayden Wong.

TY House Speech Competition

Maxim Meddah gives an account of the annual TY House Speech Competition:

On Sunday 29th September, the annual Transition Year House Speeches took place once again in St Columba’s College. Each house was represented by two pupils. The topic the pupils could choose was up to them. Some were serious and some were humorous. The contestants were marked out of ten points for delivery and content and five points on lack of reliance on notes. They each spoke for three to five minutes.  

Glen was represented by Antoine Dulauroy who spoke about how Astrophysics can change your view on the world and Akin Babajide who spoke about why the idea of world peace is naive. Gwynn was represented by Tom Casey who spoke about why the earth is flat and Peter Taylor who spoke about anxiety. Stackallan was represented by Marcus O’Connor speaking about the profound message of Kung Fu Panda and Andrew Maguire on the importance of team sports. Edna Johnston spoke about being a twin and Amalia Falkenhayn speaking about being tall represented Iona. Representing Hollypark were Emma Hinde talking about ‘the power of words’ and Caroline Hager speaking about Flying.  

The event started with the announcement of the first speaker Edna Johnston by the evening’s MC, Guy Fitzgibbon. Edna then commenced with her speech which was about being a twin. She talked about her least favourite response to people finding out she has a twin which was “Oh I know a set of twins” and her favourite response being when people look in shock with their mouths wide open. In retrospect, her speech was really about being her own person and that she and her sister are not one and the same person but two individuals that merely look alike. The next speech was by Antoine Dulauroy. He talked about the two different ways someone's view of the world could be affected by astrophysics, showing us how big the universe really is. The first point was that you feel tiny in such a huge world and that nothing matters. The second being seizing that feeling of feeling small and meaningless and use it as a pretext to trying scary and challenging new things. In the end, he mentioned his dream, or rather his objective of becoming an astrophysicist.

The third speech, a humorous one, was given by Tom Casey and he talked about the earth being flat with the example of a grapefruit. His first reason was that if the earth was round an aeroplane which flies from the northern hemisphere to the southern one should arrive upside down, which quite evidently does not. He also reasoned that all the water would pour down the face of the earth if it were round. His speech entertained the audience well and by the end of his speech the whole room was filled with laughter. 

Transition Year English Evening 2019

Tuesday evening saw the 26th annual TY English Evening, the longest-established Transition Year event in the school's calendar. It was presented by the Head of Department, the Sub-Warden, who welcomed his predecessor, Mr John Fanagan, as the guest speaker. He also remembered with fondness Professor Terry Dolan, who died recently, and who for so long was an established visitor at the Evening.

A variety of writing was heard, and afterwards Mr Fanagan commented on the pieces: Aiyuni O'Grady's personal piece looked back at holiday experiences on Lough Corrib ('a vivid sense of place'), Maybelle Rainey read 'The Silver Night' (with 'excellent pace and strong voice'), Éile Ní Chianáin's 'Learning to Dance' about a young puffin was 'a beautiful observation of nature', Gioia Doenhoff's 'Being Underwater' 'got across a sense of tension in a very creative way', Oscar Yan's 'The Wells of Silence' from the eco-fiction module was 'very thoughtful and philosophical', Ellen Homan's entertaining 'Day in the Life of the Person Beside You' achieved humorous effects with 'a light touch', Raphaela Ihuoma's 'A Casket with John and Me' was 'very different and very controlled', Eva Dillenberger's 'Perfect' on images of the female body was a strong piece, and finally Sinéad Cleary's piece on Ted Bundy and 'murder-chic' was 'really effective, and very hard-hitting.'

Finally, Mr Fanagan announced winners of the Premier awards: Imogen Casey, Éile Ní Chianáin, Sinéad Cleary, Gioia Doenhoff, Raphaela Ihumoma, Charlotte Moffitt, Oscar Yan.
 

Transition Year English Evening 2018

The 25th annual TY English Evening was held in the BSR last night to round off the pupils' course. As usual the formula consisted of pupils reading out interesting pieces from their Work Portfolios, and a guest commenting on these and then on 'matters English'.

The guest speaker last night was the first 'graduate' of the TY programme itself, Sophie Grenham, journalist and Old Columban. She has an excellent series in The Gloss magazine called "Writers' Block", having interviewed writers such as Louise O'Neill, Dave Rudden, Sebastian Barry and Sarah Webb. The presenter, Mr Girdham, mentioned the many other guests who have spoken at the evening over the years, including: academics Professor Colin Graham of Maynooth (last year), Professor Terry Dolan, Professor Kevin Barry; English teachers John Fanagan, Colin Polden and Mary Milne; and journalists Trevor White and Tom Doorley.

Shannon Dent started, with a reading of her evocative piece 'My Secret Place of Wonder', about the lush nature of Ecuador. Sam Lawrence gave us 'Being Underwater', another but rather different world. Charlotte Klingmann, who the previous night had performed several pieces at the TY Music Concert, read out 'The Greatest Pleasure of My Life' (music, of course). Andrew Kim's piece was vivid about the early morning urban sprawl of Seoul in South Korea. Kathryn Kelly struck a recent note, since 'The Big Snow' was her most memorable event of the last 12 months, as she took the chance to reconnect with old friends. Frances Wilkinson was the only person to read a poem, "You", delicately examining the difficulty of saying those three words "I love you". Tania Stokes's garden piece about a day in the sunshine was fine with detail. Finally, Andrew Pollock ended things entertainingly with his quirkly essay 'Is Donald Trump Bald?'

Sophie Grenham then gave an account of her writing life, and of how well the College had prepared her for this. She said it was particularly important for young writers to 'find their own voice', and she made attentive comments about each piece she had heard.

She then made the annual announcement of Premier Awards winners. Congratulations go to Shannon Dent, Charlotte Klingmann, Sam Lawrence, Songyon Oh, Eliza Somerville and Tania Stokes.

Transition Year English Evening, 2017

On Tuesday last we held the 24th annual TY English Evening in the Big Schoolroom. The guest speaker this time was Professor Colin Graham, Head of the English Department at Maynooth University.

Eight pieces from the recent Work Portfolio were read out by their writers: Ross Magill (his first Primary school); David White (the nature of 'failure'); Lucy Maher ('A Picky Eater'); Toby Green (Blanche Dubois's diary); Anna Bofferding (Donald Trump and World War III); Andre Stokes (a poem called 'Young Musician'); Casper v d Schuelenberg ('The Oldest Person I Know' - the Holocaust survivor Marko Feingold); William Zitzmann ('Thought Bubbles', assisted by Grace Goulding).

Professor Graham commented with great attentiveness and sympathy on these pieces, saying how much he was impressed by the writing on display. Each piece had made him think of another writer. He stressed the vital importance of a multiplicity of voices in today's world, and how important it was that young people lead this way (in many ways his own generation has failed them).  He quoted from Sam Riviere's controversial book of poems Kim Kardashian's Wedding.

Finally, the Premier Awards were announced after this year's course:  
Ross Magill, Helen Crampton, Harry Oke-Osanintolu, Catherine Butt, Caspar von der Schülenburg, Julius Reblin, JiWoo Park, William Zitzmann, Toby Green, Isabelle Townshend, Sophia von Wedel, Nicole Birlain Zeigler.

TY recommendation: Blackman and

Two more recommendations from reading for the TY Extended Essay:

Harry Oke-Osanyintolu recommends Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses:

"This is a great book that changes our rigid thoughts of race discrimination and prejudice, showing that we have lost focus and not identified it as the big problem it is.  It flips our world upside down and transports you to a place you choose not to leave. You watch and view the years go by from the perspective of Callum McGregor and Persephone Hadley. We watch how they struggle to be together even though Callum is a nought and Sephy a cross. They fight an entity that they can't see but is controlling them like puppets, and which tries to tear their lives apart.

We witness how perception gradually becomes belief, and we watch how they struggle to change this. But of course there are costs to be paid. This book pays close attention to detail, how one conversation in the opening chapters becomes the story years later. It gives you a different perspective."

Sophia v Wedel recommends John Green's The Fault in our Stars:

"I would recommend this book because it really touched me. It brought the theme and the characters close to me so I followed them nearby. All the thoughts, feelings and actions of the main characters were natural and authentic to me although I don't know how I would react if I had cancer. What I personally liked the best were the quotes and the poetic phrases in the whole book. They made it perfect and Hazel's sarcasm was also always a good factor to ease the plot. Besides that, John Green's writing style is legendary and everyone who liked other books by him should really read this one. I saw the movie before and although I knew what would happen I could focus well on the book and wasn't bored."

TY Books: Stockett, Adams

Transition Year pupils are now writing their Extended Essays, for completion in two weeks. Here are two more commendations:

Emily Devereux has read The Help by Kathryn Stockett:-
"It is set in the early 1960s in a suburban neighbourhood in Jackson, Mississippi regarding the social/political scene of the time. This was when racism was dominant in the States and is shown through the eyes of black maids and white housewives. The perspective of the book is from three characters - Minny and Abileen who work as maids, and Miss Skeeter. She is working on a book interviewing black maids on their experiences working for a white household. 

Faults are exposed on both  sides. Especially it focusses on how the children who Abileen and Minny care for love them then, but will eventually change into their mothers. Mothers who only invested in wealth, status and separation. This novel captured my attention by showing a different view of the equality movement during the 60s rather than from a renowned person such as Martin Luther King. It features ordinary characters who represented the thousands who were being oppressed. The individual experiences create a certain fondness between reader and the characters making it humorous, tragic and exciting and lastly hard to put down."

Ted Johnson read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams:

"I found it very funny and intellectual at the same time. It was cleverly plotted, with lots of twists in the story line. There is a wide variety of characters in the book, each with very different personality. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in science fiction or space."

TY recommendation: 'The Beautiful and Damned'

Claire Schuijt is reading Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned for her TY Extended Essay, and writes:
 
"This book is set in the beginning of the twentieth century in New-York. It is about a man called  Anthony Patch who is the grandson of a wealthy business man. Anthony embraces the city as well as he can by having many dates with women until he meets Gloria, his future wife. There he falls madly in love with her, and Gloria with Anthony. They’re leading the perfect life.

I am enjoying this book because it is very carefully written and it gives some depth about how New York was at the beginning of the twentieth century. The book is a classy love story about a man who thought who could never love, to be proven wrong. I do recommend this book not just because of the story line but also because of the depiction of New York; it pulls you back in time as if you were experiencing this yourself.

I am glad that I chose this book since it is not something I usually read but it is a style of writing that I will gladly read again. Fitzgerald is a talented author. I chose this book since I had read another one of his books and I really enjoyed that one. The book has amazing description which brings out your vivid imagination. I would strongly recommend The Beautiful And Damned."

Transition Year House Speeches 2016

Pol Casas Abella from Fourth Form reviews the annual TY House Speech competition:

On Sunday 2nd October, all the college had the privilege of hearing 10 magnificent speeches from the Transition Year  forth formers. The judges were Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Watts, and Henry Carroll, who was awarded third place in last year's event. Above all, I want to say that (before commenting on their respective performances) every single participant deserves respect. We all know that what they did was not an easy task. However, this pressure didn’t seem to the participants; almost every one of them had great enunciation, adopted an effective variety of tone of voice and looked very confident on stage.

Caspar Schulenberg opened up the night's entertainment with his speech based on satire. He gave his opinion on what he enjoyed about this topic, highlighted some examples to make us understand what he said, and emphasised the things that he would change to make satire even better. I thought that the speech was worthy of being placed  as one of the top three, due to both the confidence that he showed and the content that he offered. A lot of people would like to have his public speaking gifts.

Then it was Isabelle Townshend's moment to shine. Her speech was very interesting due to the fact that 9/11 is a subject that I’m passionate about. Moreover, she talked about it in a singular manner, defending a conspiracy theory that most people are sceptical about. I think that she was very bold in choosing to speak about her controversial topic, but at the same time she had a lot of facts supporting it.

After Isabelle came Ross Magill. I must mention the great tone of voice that Ross had. He looked very confident and comfortable while speaking. At the same time, he managed to be very funny (if not hilarious) and made the audience have a great time. I absolutely agreed with the second place that was awarded to this performance.

Catherine Butt was next. This student is in my English set and therefore I already knew my thoughts on her speech before she started talking. Anyway, I loved the way that she described and referred to her mother. It was the perfect mixture between tenderness and realism.

When Catherine finished, Harry Oke-Osanyintolu started speaking. From my point of view, he was the highlight of the night. Why? Because his speech had all the requirements needed for winning success: passion, well-memorised, an engaging subject and even acting while delivering the speech. This performance definitely had all these points. Honestly, I was surprised when I found out that he hadn’t won. (This is of course without taking merit from the actual winner).

Joel Taylor kept all the audience involved in the event thanks to his polemical speech based on anti-feminism. As he said, it’s better to defend what we think and the truth, rather than being politically correct. That is why I admired his performance, although he shouldn’t have used any notes, and nor did he need them.

Now it’s time to talk about the winner: Anna Laurenceau. Some people, like me or even herself, were surprised at the choice. However, later on I had the chance to think about it and I could understand it. Talking about soccer with the passion that she did being a female, is an unusual occurrence. Even though she forgot some tiny parts of what she had to say during the performance, she was able to recover from these mistakes and this culminated in a great speech.

Ted Johnson decided to pick “ Space and the human achievements made there” as his topic. I know (almost for sure) that if he had memorised his speech properly, now we would be talking about one of the most remarkable speeches of the event. Unluckily, this was not the case and, although  significant and interesting research had been done his problems on stage delivering it from memory faltered too often and this made the speech sound less prepared worse than it actually was.

Then the next participant started his speech off with one word. Cancer. This is how Greg Kryukov kicked off his performance, and how he got all our attention; by saying the name of what he was going to talk about. It sounded simple, but I thought that it was a really smart move from him. In addition, he talked about all the must-mention facts surrounding the disease.

To finish off the event, Josephine Krieger spoke about the other side of JoelTaylor’s topic. Feminism. She defended her reasons very well, and made us all understand some of the wider issues of sexism nowadays.

In conclusion Iona won the overall prize. Anna Laurenceau won as an individual with Ross Magill and Harry Oke-Osanyintolu in joint second place. I and everyone agreed that all the speakers made an incredible effort that resulted in, as Mr. McCarthy said, one of the best House Speeches in a long time.

TY House Speeches 2016

Last night the annual TY House Speeches took place in the BSR. We'll have a pupil report here in the coming days.

Congratulations to the winner, Anna Laurenceau, who spoke about corruption in football, followed by (equal second) contrasting speeches by Ross Magill (his travels in Japan) and Harry Oke-Osanyintolu (depression).

Pictured, the speakers after the event.