Pictured here are the members of the Irish department in the Abbey Christian Brothers’ Grammar School, Mr. Maurice Mc Kevitt, Mr. Sean Gallagher, Miss Pauline Friel and Mr. Desmond Tennyson with the winners of the annual Abbey oral awards for the most fluent speakers of Irish in each year group. Also in the photograph is the Irish Language Assistant, Mr. Robbie Keenan.
The trophies are dedicated to former members of staff who either taught Irish, or contributed to the promotion of the language in some capacity or in one case to a former student who excelled in the subject. The first year trophy (Bás Chuchulainn) dedicated to the late Brother Beausang was jointly awarded to Niall Duffy, John-Benedict Farrell, Tony Fearon and Owen Carragher. The second year trophy (Méabh agus an Donn Chuailgne) dedicated to the late Mr. Patrick Arthur Crinion, a former teacher of Irish and the Classics, was jointly awarded to Christopher Cunningham, Donal Daly and David Digney. The third year trophy (Corn Durkin) dedicated to the late Matt Durkin was jointly awarded to Conor Bell, Philip McClory and Conor Sweeney. Following the sudden and unexpected death of this former Abbey student, his classmates decided to present an award to the school in his memory. Ever since, it has been presented annually to the best Gaeilgeoirí in third year and indeed it lead to the decision to present similar awards to each of the other year groups. The fourth year trophy (Clann Lir) dedicated to Brother Aidan Quinlan, who during his time in the Abbey was a founder member of Féile Scoildrámaíochta an Iúir, was awarded to Patrick Tierney. The fifth year trophy (Bás Chúchulainn) dedicated to the late Brother W. 0. Murphy, former Head of Irish and Vice-Principal of the Abbey, was won by Sean McClory who was not only the best student in the school for 2004 but also the top student in N. Ireland 2004 GCSE examinations with a perfect score of 100%. The sixth year trophy (An Lóchrann) dedicated to Mr. Hugh Murphy, Lislea poet and former Head of Irish, was jointly awarded to Garrett Doran and Darren Magee.