Two All Ireland Titles in a Row for Community College

Teacher Doreen Killington pictured with the latest Young Environmentalist Award 2018 with her team from left: Kevin Lenihan, Laura Fleming, Kevin Keane, Maebh Young and Mark O’Donoghue. The team also includes, Eric O’Sullivan. ©Photograph: John Reidy
One of the biodiversity signs erected by Castleisland Community College in conjunction with Castleisland Tidy Towns.

Fifth year students from Castleisland Community College won the senior water category award in the national finals of the Eco Unesco Environmental Competition in Dublin on Tuesday.

4,000 Students Involved

The Castleisland students and their teacher, Doreen Killington were among 320 entries this year and over 4,000 students from all around the country took part.

Eighty groups were shortlisted to take part in the final and there were just 20 awards to be won.

The Castleisland college project involved working with the local Tidy Towns group and undertaking research on the River Maine.

River Walk Signs

The research resulted in the four biodiversity bilingual signs found along the river walk near the Crageen Bridge.

“Their presentation skills were excellent on the day and their enthusiasm and commitment was evident by their answers to the judges’ questions.

Environmental Competition

“This is the second year in a row that the community college has won an award in this environmental competition. Last year they won the senior category in the climate change section,” said Ms. Killington.

The dedication of the students and teacher is reflected in the epic journey they undertook. They left Castleisland at 3.30am and returned at 8.30pm.

Early Last March

Early in March the same community college team along with Mary Walsh and Sheila Hannon of the local Tidy Towns committee worked hard over the previous number of months researching the biodiversity of the River Maine.

In 2017 the Transition Year students from the college won a €1,000 prize-fund in the Regional Youth Award for their work on an environmental study on the river.

Biodiversity Information

They decided to reinvest their winnings back into the community and to produce the signs to convey the biodiversity information.

The signs are located beside the Crageen Bridge leading up to An Ríocht on the community college boundary wall with the river walk. It was a combination of all this work which earned them the most recent award.

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