TY Books: Ness, Hinton

Two more Extended Essay book recommendations.

Sebastian Fitzgibbon recommends Patrick Ness's More Than This:

"This book blew me away. For me, the problem with a lot of books is that after the first few pages, the lack of intrigue stops. Not all books do this, but many have in my experience. Patrick Ness writes such an incredibly laid out story that literally every few pages something happens. It opens up with the main character committing suicide by drowning himself in violent seas. Then it goes to him waking up: he can't move, he can't see, he can't see and he can't see. Slowly but surely he regains all his abilities and begins to walk around, completely and utterly, alone. Not a single soul in sight. Where is he, was my first question, Hell? Heaven? Limbo? A new planet or another universe? Is he just dreaming and did he really die? You don't even know if those questions will be answered for you. By the end of the book I desperately hoped for a sequel while at the same time was worried the book would be ruined as a result. This was my experience when reading this book. In conclusion I would give it 10/10 and highly recommend to people to read it."


And Emily Torkington has read S.E. Hinton's classic, The Outsiders:

"The Outsiders is a book that is set in America in the 1960's. It is about two rival gangs called the socs and the greasers. It follows a fourteen year old boy called Ponyboy Curtis, his brothers and fellow gang members, and tells the story of some of their struggles and life events. 

I thought that this was a very good book, and it really kept me hooked until the end of the novel. I liked that this was based on real gangs in America, and that made the story even more interesting and realistic, along with the fact that the author wrote this book when she was 15, and had spent time with both these groups. I would highly recommend this book to people."

King Lear 3: I i - See better

The third revision ShowMe from King Lear also looks at a moment in Act I scene i, one which introduces a key trope in the play.

TY House Speech Competition

Here is an account of the recent TY House Speech Competition, organised by the Department, by Nyla Jamieson:

After just over a week of getting ready, the ten speakers who had been chosen had to give their speeches in front of the school. 

Nathalie Verwijs was the presenter of the evening. She started the event off by welcoming us all and introducing the judges, Mr McCarthy, Mr. Duffy and last year’s house speeches winner, Ella Ejase-Tobrise. She then went on to introduce the first speaker, Sasha Cole.

Sasha was speaking for Iona House about bad habits. This, I feel was a relevant topic. I thought she did very well taking into account how difficult it must have been to be the first speaker. She started her speech with examples of bad habits like biting your nails, gambling and saying the word “like” repeatedly in a sentence. I thought that this was a good opening as I personally can relate to the latter of the three. She then went on to talk about a story which gave the moral that the longer you have a bad habit the more difficult it is to get rid of it. Sasha then gave some helpful advice on how to get rid of bad habits by replacing them with better ones. She left us with the question “how are you going to break your bad habits?” This in my opinion was a strong ending as it left us with something to think about. 

Nathalie came back on to introduce the next speaker, Richard Dennis. He was speaking about stupid laws. He made it personal to his audience by giving a Columba's rule of not being allowed to swim outside of the school as an example. He proceeded to give us many humorous examples like how prostetution is legal in Sweden but hiring a prostetute is not. He added more humour still by telling us that the penalty for jumping off a building is death and followed it with the comment “Who'd have thought it?”

The tone was then changed as Felix Mertes who was speaking for Stackallan on the refugee crisis, came on. He told us the story of a  father and son who were refugees who were tripped up by a camerawoman and while they went on to become football stars she lost her job. He stressed how these happy stories are few and far between as only 2% of the refugees reach Europe and even then are rarely allowed to stay. He went on to the example of his home country, Germany making the speech more personal. He acknowledged that “cultures will clash and there will be difficulties” but he urged us to take in the refugees. He seemed to have a strong opinion, spoke clearly and knew the facts. This made his speech believable. 

Saffron Perceval then talked about short people problems. She gave a funny speech about the issues of being cute, friends holding things over your head, shelves and getting lost. 

Felix Alyn Morgan then gave a very dynamic speech about Wales. His topics varied from stereotypes to rugby. His pride was evident when he told us of the 26 times that Wales have won the Six Nations. He then involved the audience by giving a lesson in Welsh and following that he talked about the famous Welsh singer, Tom Jones, before bursting into song. He sung a part of Jones’s song “It's not unusual to be loved by anyone.”

Iman Samimi then spoke about toilets. He managed to make his speech very amusing while making it factual. An example of a fact I learnt from his speech is that modern plumbing dates back to 6000 B.C.

Nathalie then introduced Kitty Morris who gave  one of my favourite speeches of the night. She spoke about being the unloved child. In my opinion she started the speech off very well with the line of importance in her family which ended up with her not only being ranked lower than all of her family members but also behind her dogs and the hockey sticks. She proceeded to give many examples of how unloved she is which were put in such a way that they were really funny. 

Wenzel Manegold was the only person who actually volunteered to do a speech. He represented Stackallan and for the second time in the evening we heard about refugees. He did, however, manage to make his speech different to his housemate Felix’s. He told us a personal story of two refugees that he knows, Sami and Ali. He told of how Ali was an orphan. He was tortured in  Libya and so he tried to move to Italy but the boat sank meaning he ended up in Austria. From there he managed to make his way to Germany. Wenzel highlighted the importance of integrating the refugees. He left us with a question to ponder on: “ What do you do for the refugees?”

From Hollypark we had Sasha Sharykina who spoke about fears. She listed her fears and then advised us on overcoming our fears. She spoke about the first man in space and told us of how he faced his fears. She encouraged us to do the same and left us with the inspirational quote “ it's okay to have fears but something that's not okay is to let those fears control you.”

Nathalie then introduced the final speaker Henry Carroll. He gave his speech on human trafficking. From him we received the shocking fact that a slave is only worth €72 on average which is just more than a game of Fifa 16. He involved the audience twice in his speech requesting a show of hands. I thought that Henry was another very good speaker. 

The judges then decided on the winners with first place going to Wenzel from Stackallan, second place going to Felix Mertes and third place going to Henry. 

Overall I think it was an enjoyable and interesting evening and all the speakers did a very commendable job. Congratulations to the winner Wenzel Manegold.

TY Recommendations 2: 'The Curious Incident'

Alex Lawrence is reading Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for his Extended Essay, and writes:

"The book is very intricate and shows a lot about a mental condition from the perspective of the one who is affected, which in itself I think is a unique theme and extremely interesting. The book follows the adventure of a fifteen year old boy, called Christopher Boone, as he tries to find out who killed a neighbour's dog and in turn discovers a lot about his family, the situation of his parents and himself. We are not told specifically Christopher's condition but the book refers to Asperger's syndrome, high-functioning autism and savant syndrome. The book shows what it is like to be a outsider, and in particular of one with these conditions and shows how they might see the world. For these reasons I would highly recommend the book to others looking for a interesting and eye opening read."

TY Book Recommendation: 'After'

Over the next couple of weeks we will, as usual at this time of the year, be posting brief recommendations of books that TY pupils have read/are reading for their Extended Essays (which will be written after half-term). The first is Morris Gleitzman's After, recommended by Felix Mertes:

After is about a young Jewish boy named Felix who is trying to survive in Nazi-occupied Poland. On his way he meets generous and friendly people, but also cruel and dangerous ones.

I liked the book because I am very interested in World War II. It is written in the slightly naive perspective of a 10 year old. He therefore interprets events in a childish manner, which is very interesting to see.

The story is also very good, full of tension, drama and unexpected events. The story is also very realistic, and likely to have happened. I like that as the book doesn't exaggerate and gives a good view if what things were like back then.

I would recommend this book for people over 13, as some tragic and sad incidents occur. You also need to have a background knowledge to fully understand the book.

But in the end I would highly recommend this book and give it a 9/10.

King Lear 2: I i - Love, and be silent

The second key moment in a series from King Lear's opening scene.

King Lear 1: I i - confusion and uncertainty

Here is the first of a series of video/audio analyses of key moments in King Lear for sharpening up revision. First, the very first lines of the play. This is the fine new James Shapiro book referred to, 1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear.

The Refugee Crisis

At last Sunday's Transition Year House Speech Competition, Felix Mertes came second with an excellent speech on the current refugee crisis. Here is the text of his speech:

You might have heard of the father and his son,  who were running for their lives through Hungarian border control. The father, carrying his 6 year old son on the back, was tripped up cruelly by an camerawoman and fell on the ground. A few weeks later, the two Syrian refugees arrived in Spain, and the father was offered a job at a football academy. As it turns out he was one of the best Syrian football coaches. Last weekend, his son accompanied Real Madrid superstar Ronaldo into the stadium. Things had changed. The refugees had found a safe, new home and a job while the camerawoman had lost hers.

Not many stories about refugees end well. About a week ago, a three year old refugee was washed ashore. The toddler had drowned after the boat he was on with his family had sunk.
The people in those two stories were Syrians, fleeing from their war torn country. And so do 12 million other Syrians, nearly twice the Irish population. They flee from the dictator Assad's reign of terror and Isis's horrible regime. There is no peaceful spot left in Syria.

Of the twelve million Syrian refugees, only 2% have reached Europe. On their way they faced obstacles such as dangerous boat trips, difficult walks, harsh border controls and barbed wire. Not many could overcome those difficulties. Families were split, people died and some got stuck on the way.

The Syrian refugees who have reached their destiny now face the struggle of being allowed to stay. That shouldn't even be the case, as under international law all refugees have a right for asylum, or simply a right to stay.

However, Europe in general is not very willing to accomodate those Syrian refugees. Some refugee opposers for example claim that "only" economic refugees, refugees who flee from poverty, are trying to stay in Europe. That is wrong as 62% of refugees come directly from war torn countries like Afghanistan and Syria.

There are also claims that there is not enough space for all the refugees in Europe. But how come then that Syria's neighbouring countries like Lebanon or Jordan can hold so many refugees? In underdeveloped Lebanon, 1 out of 5 people are Syrians. So how come strong Europe is struggling with only a little amount of refugees ?

Now in fairness, some countries do show some support. In Germany for example, refugees arriving at at a train station were welcomed by a cheering crowd. Citizen initiatives are  providing language classes, food and other basic needs. But the support is limited: for example right-wing extremists attack asylum seekers and burn their homes. You don't really see those pictures though as the image of the helping German has become more dominant, although asylum homes are attacked as much as ever before. 

Now I don't want this to become a speech about the German refugee crisis, but I just want to say that I think it is on Germany, which has a powerful status, to welcome and integrate refugees in order to set an example. If my country could do that, I would be very proud of it.

But in general, the refugee crisis affects us all. It will be on all of us to help and welcome these people. Cultures will clash and there certainly will be difficulties. But if we do help, it will benefit to us all. Many, not all, of the refugees are educated and young and countries with an ageing population will need those people. Welcomed refugees will be thankful and even the smallest things will make a difference.

Also, see it as a test for Europe. Europe has been very peaceful and dealt with the past issues successfuly. If we can represent the ideas of Europe like peace, friendship and unity, we will be able to deal with this issue as well. It is on us. Will we accept behaviour like from the camerawoman ? Or will we deal with those people and integrate the refugees ? If we do, they will be a great addition to us and will make us even more colourful. Thank You.

Temporary Full-Time Teacher of English

English Department

We require a temporary full-time teacher of English Literature and Language from Wednesday 6th January 2016 to Friday 24th June 2016.

Applicants must be fully-qualified teachers, ideally with some experience, must be native English speakers, and have appropriate Garda vetting.

Applications, including a CV and the names and addresses of two referees, should be forwarded as soon as possible, and by 9am on Monday 19th October at the latest, to:

The Warden, St Columba’s College, Whitechurch, Dublin 16, Ireland. e-mail: warden@stcolumbas.ie.

---

Further information:

• See the College website at www.stcolumbas.ie.
• See our Department site, www.sccenglish.ie, for much more on the Department.

The person appointed will be a member of a tightly-knit and hard-working team of four teachers, and will teach small sets in the following years (numbers are set sizes) : Primary (12, equivalent of Primary school 6th class), First (11), Third (14), Fourth (15, Transition Year), Fifth (15) and Sixth (16).

Poem of the Week 78

After a hiatus, today we are resuming our 'Poem of the Week' scheme, in which poems are posted around the College, and read out and discussed in English class. The idea was originally prompted by 'Poems on the Underground'.

On resumption, our 78th Poem of the Week is Wendy Cope's 'Names', about her grandmother.

TY Extended Essay 2015: choosing your books

Here are many suggestions for TY selecting their books for their major Extended Essays this term (there is plenty of overlap).

• Below via Issuu (download it directly from this link), the Librarian's list of books categorised into subjects. 
• A booklist of suggestions for the current Fifth Form, with more detail, which should also be helpful.
• The sheets given out to all pupils in class, with still more advice.

'Hamlet' pre-reading

Here is a simple pre-reading activity for Hamlet, which we are currently starting in Fifth Form: six sentences taken from the first scene, without any context or explanation. Either individually or, better still in class discussion, consider them. Each slide moves on after 5 seconds, so pause each for proper thought/discussion or just use the 'forward' arrow.

English 2017

Pupils return today for another school year. When we see our Fifth Form tomorrow, we will be handing out our second self-published Leaving Certificate textbook, English 2017 (front cover above - photography by Pippa Moritz. Click on it for a closer look). We've written before on the excellent self-publishing service Lulu.com, which has again done us proud, with 70 perfect copies arriving a few days after ordering. 

Last year's English 2016 incorporated a fine translation of Antigone by Ian Johnston, Research Associate at Vancouver Island University in Canada, and again Iain has generously given us permission to use his (again, excellent) translation of Oedipus the King. Both plays by Sophocles are used for the comparative module of our course (this time, with Donal Ryan's The Spinning Heart alongside The Great Gatsby).  Ian's site is here, dedicated to the memory of his son, Geoffrey.

Publishing our own book also gives us the ability to distribute it electronically to teachers and pupils. We incorporate advice, reading lists, lists of podcasts and other resources.

Summer Reading 2: 'I Was a Boy in Belsen'

Last year senior pupils had a memorable visit and talk from the Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental, and many bought copies of his memoir I Was a Boy in Belsen. We hope many have read it in the months since Tomi's powerful talk, and the summer, on holiday with family, may well be the best time to do this: time to count our blessings that we have never had to experience what Tomi did. He writes clearly, directly with without adornment about the Jewish Slovenian experience, and then the horrifying conditions in Belsen itself (the section about the death of his grandmother is particularly heart-breaking). In the earlier pages, describing his rural upbringing, he is more expansive and almost lyrical: this makes the experience of the Holocaust seen by a child all the more devastating.

Leaving Certificate results, 2015

Congratulations to our candidates on their results in the Leaving Certificate, which set a new College record of 472 points per person. More details can be read on the College site here.

In English, 89% of our candidates sat the English exam at Higher Level (compared to 68% nationally).

• 7% of all our candidates achieved an A at Higher Level (nationally, 6.1% of all candidates achieved this).
• 39% achieved a B (nationally, 18.4% of all candidates).
• 36% achieved a C (nationally, 27.2% of all candidates).

 
 See previous results by clicking on the years for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Summer Reading 1

For lots of books to relish during the holidays, go to our summer reading list (which includes an archive of previous years). During July and August there will be intermittent posts on other books.

One of the books of poetry on this list is Anthony Wilson's recent superb anthology Lifesaving Poems (Bloodaxe). The best introduction of the moving spirit of the book is Wilson's own on his site.  Essentially, it his selection of poems (one per poet) which have meant a lot to him at various points in his life, followed by a personal explanation, each a page or so long. There are relatively few anthology 'regulars' here, and one of the delights of the book is the number of poems picked from magazines and small independent publishers. Another delight is Wilson's commentary: his pieces are highly accessible, passionate and persuasive.

Perfect for the summer: start the morning with or two poems and their commentaries over breakfast (we failed to keep to this discipline, but it's now time to revisit the poems in a more leisurely way).

Summer Reading list, 2015

In 2010 we started issuing parents' summer reading lists after some requests (to match the ones we were providing for pupils - click here). Here is this year's (read it online below via Issuu: click once for a closer view, again for the closest, and download it directly here). Go past the 2015 picks and you have the accumulated choices over the last five years: 113 books over 21 pages. Enjoy.

The Oldest Person I Know

For her TY Work Portfolio, Robyn Brady wrote this piece, which she also read out at the TY English Evening last month:

The Oldest Person I Know

I don't actually know that many old people if I’m honest. I know “of” them, like my mum's uncle, and aunt, who I’ve heard stories of but never met in person. They’re old, possibly nearing their 80’s. But no one can compare to my to the little old lady who lives in the house in front of mine.

She’s a very mysterious creature. I’ve only met her three times. The first time was when we had just moved into our house after re-constructing it. She had the loudest dogs in the neighbourhood. Two enormous huskies. They barked all through the day and night non-stop. There was a little forested area between our houses at the time: it was overgrown and unkempt, much like relationships she had with all of her other neighbours.

Not many people try to get to know her: she isn’t pleasant on the eye, but also not unpleasant either. Her hair is mostly white, with a slight purple undertone. She keeps it under a clear hat, but this isn’t any kind of rain hat: this one is triangular in shape and she ties it under her chin. The skin under her eyes droops over the top of her cheekbones. 

The rest of her skin is worn with age, and she spends most of her summers abroad, giving her the appearance of an old leather bag with cracks. The rest of her face is very wide and bony; her jawline is speckled with hairs that make her face look like a peach, fluffy and round. Her eyebrows are always immaculately filled in, which surprises me because her hands shake all the time. Her neck is long and veiny, and constantly covered by her collection of rosary beads.

She lives alone in a large two story Victorian house. The house appears gothic to me, but it has an air of elegance. Its large white doors tower over her when she opens the door. I have never been inside the house but from my glimpses through the door I can tell she is a pack rat. Boxes overflow with trinkets and clothes. Her staircase is full of books. On a marble table beside the door sits a vase with dead sunflowers. They areher prize and glory. In the summer she grows them high enough for them to peek through the forested area, brightening up the dull browns and greens. She comes out of her house everyday at the same time, just before noon. She limps heavily to a battered red car that is covered with cobwebs. Then she leaves her house and comes back just before the six o’clock news.

When she talks she cocks her head to the left, and with a monotonous voice she slides her words together. She never shows any large amount of affection, except for two things: her dogs and her husband. Her dogs howling incessantly causes many of the neighbourhood disputes. One neighbour even tried to muzzle her dogs while she was out one day, which I thought was a very forward and disrespectful act towards a woman whom these people never got to know. This was the day that I heard her speak for the first time. As her mouth let out a hoarse croaky gasp, her eyes were just as amazed as ours, they slightly watered, but her bottom lip pushed up to her top lip to show her look of despite, and her eyes turned to slits. It was possibly one of the scariest moments of my life: her words didn’t slide into each other and as she roared at the man who had muzzled the dogs. Steam must have been trying to come out her ears because her face was so red. She screamed a lot of descriptive words in between her cursing. One line I distinctly remember was: “That flaming man will be the death of all of us.” Needless to say that man was just as flabbergasted as we were.  I was practically pushed into my house so I wouldn’t see what happened. All I know was that the police came by.

I said she was also affectionate towards her husband, this was towards a certain extent. He was also quite mysterious. He had a cleft chin with a little white stringy beard. He wore big round glasses that fell off the tip of his nose a lot. He had a very lop-sided walk that made him look like he was limping, but it was because one leg was shorter than the other. He left earlier than she did in the morning, and he arrived back way after my bedtime. 

The day of her husband's funeral was the last day I saw her. She looked even older than she normally did. Her hair wasn’t as purple and her lips were weighed down on the corners. Her wrinkles pressed together so hard that her face couldn’t even relax. The clothes on her shoulders just hug there aimlessly. She sat in the first pew alone. But if she hadn’t have been sitting alone, you could still see she was alone. Her presence was dim and unwelcoming, like she didn’t want anyone to fill the gaping hole in her heart. She’s the oldest person I know, and I think she's the oldest person she knows too, because with the few people that came to her husband's funeral, I began to see why she didn’t want anyone to fill the hole in her heart. There was only one person who could.