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St. Farnan's TY students shine in Dublin Castle debate

1st Mar 2020

For the first time, students from St. Farnan's Post Primary School participated in the EU Model Debate which was held in Dublin Castle on February 27th.

Only 26 secondary schools are selected to take part in this prestigious event which allows students to debate an issue in a manner similar to Council of Europe meetings in Brussels. Each school is given a European Union member state and has to debate the theme from the viewpoint of that country.

St. Farnan's were given the Netherlands and so for the last number of weeks, the TY class has been researching this year's theme, Climate Action and the EU's Green Deal, from the stance of that country.

The task proved to be both challenging and inspiring for the TY class, who completed excellent research and practiced their presentation and debating skills under the guidance of Mr. McGovern, Mr. Dockery and Ms. Flanagan.

Before the debate, the delegation from St. Farnan's was very pleased and honoured to have a meeting with H.E. Adriaan Palm, Ambassador of the Netherlands to Ireland and he was very impressed with their knowledge and very supportive of their participation on behalf of his country. During the debate, he was also clearly very impressed by Cal's opening statement to the debate in Dutch!

On the day, all members of the team spoke brilliantly and they were highly commended by the Chair and the staff of the European Commission Representation in Ireland who organised the event. Supporting Cal, Ruby and Eleanor were not only their classmates from TY who travelled to Dublin with them, but also the staff and students back in school who were following the proceedings on a live web-stream.

It was a fantastic experience for all who attended and Cal, Ruby and Eleanor deserve immense praise for their outstanding performance and for representing our school so well.