ABBEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL - Press Release 2003

London Trip 2003

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A group of 76 pupils went to London in 2003 (March 6-8) and were accompanied by eight adults, with Mr P O'Neill being the organiser.

Many sights were seen and they stayed in a youth cntre in Hampstead Heath.

They saw a James Bond Exibition in the Science Museum, the musical Blood Brothers, the Namco centre, the National History Museum, the RAF Museum and Hamleys toy store.

Our London Trip----By David Burns

On the 6th March 2003, I awoke at 3.15am looking forward to one of the best weekends of my life. GOING TO LONDON!!!

At 3.40am, my friend Daniel Sutherland collected me at my house to take me up to the Abbey Grammar. We then proceeded by bus to Dublin Airport. Here, we all split with half of us going to Gatwick and the other half to Stansted.

Later we arrived at Stansted to be met by a luxury coach. We then travelled into London to meet up with the other group. When we did meet up, we went on a three-hour tour around London, stopping at McDonald’s for lunch. We got to see places like Buckingham Palace, where we were all allowed to stop and take photos.

Next up after the tour of London was Madame Tussauds. This was great only I didn’t get to go down into the chamber of horrors because I didn’t have a special sticker. I thought the wax figures were very realistic and I got some photos with some of my heroes. Then we checked into the Youth Hostel. It was very nice but basic. That night we went to see the show Blood Brothers. There were some very dramatic scenes in the production. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it, and my favourite character was Mickey.

On Friday we made our first trip was to the Science Museum, I thought it was great. At that time there was a James Bond Exhibition on and I got to got into M’s office. Here we got lunch. Following that we attended the natural history museum which was truly amazing. There was an earthquake simulator of the Kobe earthquake, although this proved to be quite disappointing. We had intended to visit a local park after the history museum, but because of the weather we were unable to go,so we went back to the Youth Hostel. I looked forward to that evening because we were going to Namco which has loads of games and Europe’s fastest bumper cars, as well as ten-pin bowling. I won over 1000 tickets on the machines and was able to claim a remote-controlled car!

We were going home on Saturday, but there was still much to do. After checking out of the Youth Hostel and loading our luggage on to the bus, we headed for the Royal Air Force Museum (R.A.F for short.) I enjoyed this museum, especially the ride which made you fel as if you were in a plane on a special mission. This was a lot of fun. Next up was Hamleys, the biggest toy shop in the world. There were so many toys but hardly anything that interested me. We then went to Convent Gardens to do whatever we liked.

I got home at one o’clock in the morning with presents galore. I had a really enjoyable weekend and I am so grateful that the teachers had organised it.

A West End Show----By Conor Boylan

When I visited London, I and the rest of the ‘1st years’ went to see a very dramatic play called BLOOD BROTHERS! It was about a poor mother who had 7 seven children. She found out that she was about to have another one and planned how she was going to ration her money. Some days later she was told that she was expecting twins and she could not afford to keep both of them! The person she worked for could not have children and so she begged her to give her one of them. She thought long and hard but in the end she had to give one of them up!

The birth mother’s twin was called Mickey and the mother in law’s child was called Eddie. When they were 7 years old, they met in a nearby park and played with each other. They promised each other that they would be blood brothers! Each of their mothers did want them to play with each other incase they found out that they were twins separated from birth. They liked each other so much though, that they could not keep away from each other. The mother in law could not stand this so she moved away from where she lived and bought a house in the countryside. The brothers were so sad about this and hugged each other before they left!

Some years later, the birth mother was told that her street was going to be demolished and made into another park and she was told she was going to be given a house in the countryside. When they got there the twins never noticed each other for afew months but when they eventually did, they spent all their time with each other and went to clubs all the time. There came a time though when Eddie was going to college and Mickey was getting married. They spent far less time with each other and when Eddie came back for Christmas he had an argument with Mickey and they became enemies! Eddie had become a politician and Mickey had started to get involved with a gang and one day he was caught trying to rob a shop with some of his mates. Mickey was the only one caught though and he went to jail for some time!

There he lived a very unhealthy life and took drugs. When he had done his time he came home confused and a wreck. He thought Eddie was trying to steal his wife so one day so he took a gun to him. When he was about to shoot him, the birth mother of the twins jumped out with the police and told Mickey not to shoot because Eddie was his brother! He was gobbsmacked and when he was about to put the gun down, a policeman took a shot at him and Mickey accidentally killed Eddie and the policeman killed Mickey! It was a very sad moment and no one could believe what had happened!