In September 2010 I started Mary Immaculate College. I done Contemporary Living. I done models of communications, personal effectiveness and written and oral communication.
I met new people that were on the course.
I found it very interesting. I went for an interview. I did an aptitude test. I was very nervous. My teacher was Miriam Toomey.
I graduated on Wednesday 25th May 2011 in the Mary Immaculate College
Nancy Leddin
Last 2nd of June 2011, I traveled to Charleville, Co. Cork to interview one of the greatest GAA footballer of his generation and probably one of the best manager there is in Ireland today. My interview revealed a humble man of good character yet passionate in his goals and undertakings. Interviewing him made me honored and proud that someone as popular as him can lend his ears to a regular sports fan like me. The following is a transcript of that interview.
Mark Whelan: Where and when were you born?
Conor Counihan: 1959 and in Cork, I was born.
Mark Whelan: What secondary school where you in?
Conor Counihan : I went to Middleton Vocational School and I went to Middleton CBS.
Mark Whelan: That’s more of a hurling school isn’nt it?
Conor Counihan: It is! You’re right there.
Mark Whelan: John Fenton came from that school.
Conor Counihan: Yes that’s right! You have a very good information. Ohhh very good!
Mark Whelan: What year did you captain Cork to win the all-ireland?
Conor Counihan: I never captain Cork. I was a Captain in 1987 when we lost the All Ireland.
Mark Whelan: Sorry Connor.Who was the captain in 1989?
Conor Counihan:It was Larry Thompkins when we won.
Mark Whelan:When did you finished playing?
Conor Counihan: I finished playing intercounty football in 1993.
Mark Whelan: When did you start playing?
Conor Counihan: I started playing intercounty football in 1980.
Mark Whelan:When did you start managing?
Conor Counihan: My first year managing was in 2008 intercounty management Mark Whelan: What was the highlight of your managing career?
Conor Counihan: I suppose winning the all Ireland last year.
Mark Whelan: What was the low of your managing career?
Conor Counihan: I suppose losing the All Ireland in 2009.
Mark Whelan: What got you into football?
This summer I got my wish, I got to go to Galway on the Train with my friends.
We went to the station in Limerick and used our bus passes to get our tickets.
We had a lovely trip up on the train chatting and looking at the scenery, while also playing games and listening to our music.
The train didn’t have a dining car, so when we got to Galway we went for coffee before we did some shopping and looked at the sights.
For lunch we tried something different. We went to an Asian restaurant where all our lunch came out in a box, called a Bento Box. This is a very popular way to get food in Japan, and your starter, main course and dessert are served together in the box.
It was delicious and interesting to try something new.
On return to Galway station for our journey home, we all got a coffee and relaxed on our journey home. It was a great day.
Ann Moriarty
For the last number of years Stephen’s PCP was to drive a tractor. It was difficult to find someone who was willing to give permission to drive their tractor.
Stephen’s wish finally came true on 1st June 2011. Thanks to Ann Marie and Ger Slattery, where Stephen got the opportunity to drive two tractors and also spread slurry on their farm.
This was one of Stephen’s highlights of the year and he can’t wait to be given another chance to drive again.
A huge big welcome to our wonderful work place from, Fergal Enright, Carolynn Rennisson, Camille O’Sullivan, Claire McNamara, Ann Fitzgerald, Rachel Hannon, Mary B McMahon, Siobhan Stanley, Kay O’Sullivan, Ann O’Byrne and Ann Meaney.
We started in our new centre on the 3rd of October 2011. Some people came from the Training Centre and others from the Tait and Garvey. We all had our own little worries about our move and even though we visited the building and liked it we were still a little nervous.
Finally the day came and off we went.
We worked on our timetable and discussed our ideas.
We looked at things to do locally. The Crescent close by so we go there to do our shopping etc. I t will be so handy for Christmas.
Library , swimming and zumba.
Eleven girls, made and modelled their own outfits. Over the past year since their last Personal Centered Plan (PCP) it has been the dream of the girls to make their clothing. So under the guidance of Pamela Noonan and Bridget Kennedy they made them. The dream grew to we’d like to model our clothes.
So with this in mind the next step was to organise the show. The lovely Celia Holman Lee graciously gave her time to making the final part of the dream come true. Now she was absolutely fantastic, the girls were at their ease modelling.
In preparation we held our own meeting and mind mapped our ideas, thus ensuring nothing was left out. We wanted to send out invitations, a red carpet, lighting, music, the press, 95 Fm, a photographer, refreshments etc. We designed our own invitations and printed them off on the newly acquired desktop and printer.
The up and coming fashion has been foremost in our minds, “we talked about it even when we were in our Community House” says Caroline Keane.
A week before the show we had the Limerick Leader do a piece on us, when we were putting our finishing touches to the garments.
Make up and hair was done by Pamela and Breda Fleming. The day before our lovely volunteer Juliette Moriarty had all our nails manicured and polished. For whom we are gratefully appreciative of. Every last detail was covered, even the hair spray, Carol Ann O Toole brought that in.
Talking about all hands on deck, well they were. Donal Sherlock our Manager got Daghda Church as the venue. Jane Toal furnished us with her curling tongs. Roy and Jim of Daghda gave us great assistance on the day and we are very thankful.
John Neylon and his men were collecting red carpets from Kilmurry Lodge and Castletroy Carlton. Tom Connolly in Catering gave us a loan of water jugs. Cahills, “The Bow”, William St, gifted us with four dozen beautiful pink cup cakes. Now these were finger liking good.
Well the fun of putting it all together was great. All the props were assembled the day before. Excitement was palpable. Daghda Church was stunning. We had our own sign up on the main stage, and decorating it were Marie Ryan’s hand painted glass jars each with night lights. Gracing the nearby window a huge bouquet of flowers stood, which Norma presented to Celia in her thank you speech.
Behind the scenes and before the modelling commenced, Celia came back stage, was introduced to all the models, with an expert eye she examined their outfits.
Even though Mary P Ryan was absent on the day her two toned check fleece caught the attention of Celia. Mary P’s fleece was modelled by Norma. Celia traced her index finger along the matching pink and lilac check from the tip of the collar to the front piece, the matching at the zipped front, and noted the continuous matching from front to back. Celia examined the inside finish of the garments. She said, “their work was of an exceptional high standard it could be placed alongside the Fashion Design students at Limerick School of Fashion Design”.
Celia certainly highly commended our very high standard of work, we need to give ourselves a clap.
Norma Hogan was no stranger to the microphone and welcomed everybody, followed by Bridget Kennedy saying a few words and then Celia started the show.
Pamela and Breda had us all lined up in order of appearance. Day wear was presented first, and then sports wear, followed by night wear and final presentation was evening wear.
Oh boy did we walk that walk and gave the twirl. “We loved it”, says Caroline O Donovan.
Now we didn’t leave anybody out, Martin Malone wore a fabulous scarf knit by Caroline Keane.
Celia commented on the creativity of wearing something from last years wardrobe to complement the piece they had made. She had all the descriptive words flowing off her tongue, describing each girls outfit, with the exception of when she was describing Elizabeth Doris outfit. “Elizabeth’, says Celia “˜made her A line ankle length skirt, it fits beautifully at the waist. She has an over blouse with waterfall effect in the front, and it’ keeping with the’ “¦, there was a pause from Celia. Elizabeth came to her rescue and prompted, “the line”, to which Celia took her cue and said “the line”. She laughed and said. “imagine Celia forgetting her lines”. The lively spontaneity of both ladies evoked a clap and great laugh from the interested audience.
Maura Gleeson exhibited twice, a royal blue blouse and navy skirt. Her royal blue blouse had detailed frilling around the front opening and collar and black buttons. She pinned a black silk flower to the blouse.
Maura’s second idea was a fabulous sea green satin leisure robe. Based on the traditional dress of the Chinese. Celia drew our attention to the belt, hand embroidered by Maura herself at the front and had the added detail of a large bow at the back.
Mary Considine was “˜the lady in red’ , she made the red trousers and teamed it with a red flowing sheer over blouse. Her second outfit was in the evening wear section. Now as Celia put it, ” Mary wore this outfit last year at her sisters wedding, she did not make it. She loves an occasion to wear this outfit, party and have fun. And why not give her another occasion to wear this beautiful deep rose, full length evening skirt and top, draping over her shoulders she has a matching wrap.” Mary walked the red carpet, stopped, put her hand on her hip, looked over her shoulder and gave the captivated audience a twirl, midway down the stage. The audience cheered and clapped.
Caroline Keane was wearing a stunning dress in grey blue with a deeper coloured insert down both sides, the short sleeves were trimmed with colourful flower trim. Caroline was like a professional model, I nearly fell over when I saw her flick the jacket off one shoulder, and with a toss of her head she proceeded to twirl at the end of the catwalk. Later Caroline said to me, “next year we have to get the music part right, that’s my recommendation”.
Marie Ryan made a swing brown tweedy below the hip length jacket, and wore it with a brown trousers she also made. She looked lovely. Marie said ” it was the best day of her life”.
Christine Delaney modelled for the night wear. Her outfit was a two toned pink and lilac silk pyjamas. The pocket of the pink top was piped in the lilac. The legs of the pyjamas were in lilac. ” How beautiful” says Celia.
Caroline O Donovan wore a fleece and matching hat. The fleece had the top part in lilac, the sleeves and lower part in the pink. It had a zipped front. Celia got Caroline to show off the detail of the ruching in the back and how it complemented her shape.
Carol Ann O Toole had fabulous white a line skirt, teaming it with one of her favourite blouses from last year. ” White, says Celia is this Summer must have color”.
Orla Gillan from Crafts did a work placement with us. During her time in Sewing she made a fabulous fleece, in the softest of fabric. It was a hooded style, and had a large pocket in the front. Orla purchased two green t-shirts that contrasted with the fleece. One was cut up to line the hood, and the second, had the neck line changed, detail added to the sleeves, to complement her fantastic sewing. She made a ski hat and scarf with fabric that was left over.
Martin Malone, the only man in our group in sewing, modelled Caroline Keane’s scarf. He loved been on the catwalk, he didn’t want to get off.
The final part was the grand finale where all the models, with Pamela and Bridget took to the catwalk. At this stage the audience were on high and gave us a standing ovation.
Celia and all the girls individually said a final few closing words. The girls posed with Celia for more photos to be taken.
It was a great day for all the models, and thanks to everybody for making it so, your contribution made it a success. PCP is very much alive in Limerick, and today we showcased it.
All the parents who came, told Bridget and Pamela of their joy today. One Mother with a tear in her eye said ” she never thought she would have such a day like she had today, ever again’. She continued to say, “˜You don’t know what today has done for me, I can’t put words on the way I feel”.
Four months after the Fashion show the girls are still talking about their day, and planning next year
At the Tait this year we had 3 successful Graduates from the Limerick Institute of Technology. These were Barbara Hanley, Brian McNamara and Josephine Mulqueen. The course they completed was a Certificate in Leadership and Advocacy.
The aim of this course is to develop leadership and advocacy skills in people who have an intellectual disability. This programme is a good choice for those who want to further their understanding of basic human rights and who want to develop their skills in a safe classroom environment. The course was delivered on a one-day-a-week basis over 14 weeks. The participants had a full day on campus in LIT and took part in the graduation service too.
We had great fun this summer at a sports day that we organised. We went to the University Of Limerick campus and set up our games. We decided that we would play team games and individual games, for a bit of fun. We played soccer, where we had to dribble the ball between cones, then pass the ball to our next team member. Whichever team finished the course first was the winner.
We had an egg and spoon race ( or potato and spoon for”¦”¦.you know who you are ) and a sack race. These were great fun.
We then had a chance to practice our rugby kicking, we all wanted to try to be Ronan O Gara for a little while, it was very hard but great fun. Fergal won this one as he kicked the ball the farthest.
To finish up, we had a game of long puck with a hurley and ball.
Whoever managed to rise the ball and hit it the farthest was the winner. This was the hardest of all the games and we even ended up with a broken hurley.
To finish the day we went for our lunch at the UL sports bar.
CRAFT ROOM RUGBY WORLD CUP PROJECT
We got creative with recycling this year, and used some cardboard inner tubes from rolls of material from a nearby unit, to make commemorative batons to decorate our work area for the rugby world cup.
We picked out our own patterns and used acrylic paints over a layer of white emulsion to create the designs. They were very detailed and took a long time to complete, but they look great and we were delighted with our finished wall hanging.
Make n Model Makes Dreams Come True
Eleven girls, made and modelled their own outfits. Over the past year since their last Personal Centered Plan (PCP) it has been the dream of the girls to make their clothing. So under the guidance of Pamela Noonan and Bridget Kennedy they made them. The dream grew to we’d like to model our clothes.
So with this in mind the next step was to organise the show. The lovely Celia Holman Lee graciously gave her time to making the final part of the dream come true. Now she was absolutely fantastic, the girls were at their ease modelling.
In preparation we held our own meeting and mind mapped our ideas, thus ensuring nothing was left out. We wanted to send out invitations, a red carpet, lighting, music, the press, 95 Fm, a photographer, refreshments etc. We designed our own invitations and printed them off on the newly acquired desktop and printer.
The up and coming fashion has been foremost in our minds, “we talked about it even when we were in our Community House” says Caroline Keane.
A week before the show we had the Limerick Leader do a piece on us, when we were putting our finishing touches to the garments.
Make up and hair was done by Pamela and Breda Fleming. The day before our lovely volunteer Juliette Moriarty had all our nails manicured and polished. For whom we are gratefully appreciative of. Every last detail was covered, even the hair spray, Carol Ann O Toole brought that in.
Talking about all hands on deck, well they were. Donal Sherlock our Manager got Daghda Church as the venue. Jane Toal furnished us with her curling tongs. Roy and Jim of Daghda gave us great assistance on the day and we are very thankful.
John Neylon and his men were collecting red carpets from Kilmurry Lodge and Castletroy Carlton. Tom Connolly in Catering gave us a loan of water jugs. Cahills, “The Bow”, William St, gifted us with four dozen beautiful pink cup cakes. Now these were finger liking good.
Well the fun of putting it all together was great. All the props were assembled the day before. Excitement was palpable. Daghda Church was stunning. We had our own sign up on the main stage, and decorating it were Marie Ryan’s hand painted glass jars each with night lights. Gracing the nearby window a huge bouquet of flowers stood, which Norma presented to Celia in her thank you speech.
Behind the scenes and before the modelling commenced, Celia came back stage, was introduced to all the models, with an expert eye she examined their outfits.
Even though Mary P Ryan was absent on the day her two toned check fleece caught the attention of Celia. Mary P’s fleece was modelled by Norma. Celia traced her index finger along the matching pink and lilac check from the tip of the collar to the front piece, the matching at the zipped front, and noted the continuous matching from front to back. Celia examined the inside finish of the garments. She said, “their work was of an exceptional high standard it could be placed alongside the Fashion Design students at Limerick School of Fashion Design”.
Celia certainly highly commended our very high standard of work, we need to give ourselves a clap.
Norma Hogan was no stranger to the microphone and welcomed everybody, followed by Bridget Kennedy saying a few words and then Celia started the show.
Pamela and Breda had us all lined up in order of appearance. Day wear was presented first, and then sports wear, followed by night wear and final presentation was evening wear.
Oh boy did we walk that walk and gave the twirl. “We loved it”, says Caroline O Donovan.
Now we didn’t leave anybody out, Martin Malone wore a fabulous scarf knit by Caroline Keane.
Celia commented on the creativity of wearing something from last years wardrobe to complement the piece they had made. She had all the descriptive words flowing off her tongue, describing each girls outfit, with the exception of when she was describing Elizabeth Doris outfit. “Elizabeth’, says Celia “˜made her A line ankle length skirt, it fits beautifully at the waist. She has an over blouse with waterfall effect in the front, and it’ keeping with the’ “¦, there was a pause from Celia. Elizabeth came to her rescue and prompted, “the line”, to which Celia took her cue and said “the line”. She laughed and said. “imagine Celia forgetting her lines”. The lively spontaneity of both ladies evoked a clap and great laugh from the interested audience.
Maura Gleeson exhibited twice, a royal blue blouse and navy skirt. Her royal blue blouse had detailed frilling around the front opening and collar and black buttons. She pinned a black silk flower to the blouse.
Maura’s second idea was a fabulous sea green satin leisure robe. Based on the traditional dress of the Chinese. Celia drew our attention to the belt, hand embroidered by Maura herself at the front and had the added detail of a large bow at the back.
Mary Considine was “˜the lady in red’ , she made the red trousers and teamed it with a red flowing sheer over blouse. Her second outfit was in the evening wear section. Now as Celia put it, ” Mary wore this outfit last year at her sisters wedding, she did not make it. She loves an occasion to wear this outfit, party and have fun. And why not give her another occasion to wear this beautiful deep rose, full length evening skirt and top, draping over her shoulders she has a matching wrap.” Mary walked the red carpet, stopped, put her hand on her hip, looked over her shoulder and gave the captivated audience a twirl, midway down the stage. The audience cheered and clapped.
Caroline Keane was wearing a stunning dress in grey blue with a deeper coloured insert down both sides, the short sleeves were trimmed with colourful flower trim. Caroline was like a professional model, I nearly fell over when I saw her flick the jacket off one shoulder, and with a toss of her head she proceeded to twirl at the end of the catwalk. Later Caroline said to me, “next year we have to get the music part right, that’s my recommendation”.
Marie Ryan made a swing brown tweedy below the hip length jacket, and wore it with a brown trousers she also made. She looked lovely. Marie said ” it was the best day of her life”.
Christine Delaney modelled for the night wear. Her outfit was a two toned pink and lilac silk pyjamas. The pocket of the pink top was piped in the lilac. The legs of the pyjamas were in lilac. ” How beautiful” says Celia.
Caroline O Donovan wore a fleece and matching hat. The fleece had the top part in lilac, the sleeves and lower part in the pink. It had a zipped front. Celia got Caroline to show off the detail of the ruching in the back and how it complemented her shape.
Carol Ann O Toole had fabulous white a line skirt, teaming it with one of her favourite blouses from last year. ” White, says Celia is this Summer must have color”.
Orla Gillan from Crafts did a work placement with us. During her time in Sewing she made a fabulous fleece, in the softest of fabric. It was a hooded style, and had a large pocket in the front. Orla purchased two green t-shirts that contrasted with the fleece. One was cut up to line the hood, and the second, had the neck line changed, detail added to the sleeves, to complement her fantastic sewing. She made a ski hat and scarf with fabric that was left over.
Martin Malone, the only man in our group in sewing, modelled Caroline Keane’s scarf. He loved been on the catwalk, he didn’t want to get off.
The final part was the grand finale where all the models, with Pamela and Bridget took to the catwalk. At this stage the audience were on high and gave us a standing ovation.
Celia and all the girls individually said a final few closing words. The girls posed with Celia for more photos to be taken.
It was a great day for all the models, and thanks to everybody for making it so, your contribution made it a success. PCP is very much alive in Limerick, and today we showcased it.
All the parents who came, told Bridget and Pamela of their joy today. One Mother with a tear in her eye said ” she never thought she would have such a day like she had today, ever again’. She continued to say, “˜You don’t know what today has done for me, I can’t put words on the way I feel”.
Four months after the Fashion show the girls are still talking about their day, and planning next year
