Sixth Class Tour To Dublin.

In Togher Boys’ School we believe in the old Irish seanfhocal ‘ An té a bhíonn siúlach bíonn scéalach’-The person who travels has stories.

To this end every class in the school from Junior Infants up to sixth class enjoyed trips out this year . It is just wonderful to see the excitement and the learning that these trips provide for our boys.

The culmination of the year in sixth class is our school tour to Dublin.Many of the boys had never been on the train to Dublin and so we decided to give them the experience and travel on the 07:00 train yesterday from Kent Station to Heuston Station in Dublin. There was great excitement in the station at 06:30 as we waited to board. Our very talented pupil Tsikhan played the piano in the building and regaled us with some lovely tunes. There were smiles all round.

Our first stop in Dublin was Glasnevin Cemetery. We spent many weeks in school lately learning about Irish History in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We visited Daniel O’ Connell’s crypt and tower and proceeded on the 1916 tour of the cemetery taking us through the War of Independence and the Civil War. Our final stop was at the grave of Michael Collins. It was a fantastic learning experience and many of the boys are planning to visit Béal na Bláth and Michael Collins’ home place near Clonakilty during the summer. This trip has sparked a great interest in Irish History in our classes.

Next we proceeded to Croke Park where we had lunch and a tour of the stadium. It was amazing to see the dressing rooms, the press boxes and all the stands. It is the fourth biggest stadium in Europe and we were fascinated. Again we had studied the History of the GAA and thoroughly enjoyed this tour also.It is now great to know how the stands in Croke Park were named.

Finally we went shopping in Jervis Street Shopping Centre and we walked to see The Spire and the GPO, the headquarters of the Easter Rising. At the request of the boys our final stop was The Portal where the boys had great fun communicating with the New Yorkers.

We had an absolutely wonderful day and as usual the behaviour of our boys was exemplary. They are a credit to their families .