Portmarnock Community School are #RaisingTheBarr
On Thursday 16th November the Irish Olympian Thomas Barr trained our students in a two hour session. The school won this amazing training session as a prize for competing in the Irish Life Health Schools Fitness Challenge.
Thomas ran two great sessions on Thursday morning. The first was from 10-11am with 36 lucky first year students. These students were randomly selected as all 136 of our first year students wanted to participate in this once in a lifetime event to be trained by a current Olympian.
The second session was from 11am-12pm with the schools’ Athletic Club and also a group of juvenile athletes from Portmarnock Athletic Club took part. Thomas started each session with a personal and motivational speech about his life in Irish Athleticsand his journey to the Rio Olympics. This was followed by a drills and hurdling skills session that pushed our students.
The huge interest and large numbers involved in this unique school event meant that Thomas was assisted by the schools P.E teachers, Portmarnock Athletics Club coaches and a group of past pupils (David Rooney, Sarah Hawkshaw, Ciara O’Regan, Megan Connolly and Ina Caul) that were once members of infamous ‘Friday mornings’ 7.30-8.30am Schools Athletic Club training sessions that are still a part of school life today. The group of past pupils were a huge help on the day and it was great to catch up with everyone. Unfortunately there were a number of past pupils that could not attend due to college/work commitments but wanted to lend their support:
“Throughout my time in Portmarnock Community School I was involved in the athletics club. Every Friday morning at 7.30 there would always be a large group of us who showed up at Ms. Malone’s sessions. I started off competing in everything from sprints to cross country and I was fortunate enough to medal in the All-Ireland schools finals during my time as a senior athlete. Racing in competitions for Portmarnock is definitely one of my fondest memories of school”. Aisling Drumgoole
“I was part of the Athletics Club when I attended Portmarnock Community School. I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the club. From early Friday morning hill runs to winning gold at Santry events, we had so much fun along the way. I loved taking part in the Santry events, win or lose, I felt a great sense of achievement and pride for being part of the day, but we generally won! I would strongly urge any student with any level of fitness to join the Athletics Club”. Caitlin Glover
“There were many times when I thought that I couldn't bear the early, cold Friday morning training sessions, however looking back, I'm so glad that I pushed myself to go. For me, the Athletics Club was unlike any of the other sports teams I was on at Portmarnock CS because every year group interacted and trained together. From this, I was able to get to know students in all of the different years that I would never have met before. The club was always a close group and therefore, one of my best memories of the Athletics Club was when the whole school one the overall prize at the Phoenix Park competition. The cross-country competitions and Santry competitions were always daunting, but the support and encouragement provided from everyone in the club made them some of the most exciting events of the year. There was also no other better feeling than winning a competition”. Kate Hawkshaw
The event was supported by Irish Life Health and they work in close partnership with Dublin City University and the creator of the Irish Schools’ Fitness Challenge, Professor Niall Moyna. Thomas was so generous with his time and the school is still buzzing with excitement from the event and the lucky students who got to participate #RaisedTheBarr thoroughly enjoyed it! Who knows he may have inspired future Olympians!
For More Information Contact:
Jennifer Malone
P.E Teacher and Athletics Coach P.C.S
Email: