On the 24th of November 2016, the Cork Quitar Quartet visited Rusheen N.S.  The music they played took us from the Renaissance to the current day.  The group has been together for three years.  At the start it was just Jerry Creedon, David Keating and Colin McClean.  A month beforehand Aengus Kirakowski had joined the trio.  Jerry Creedon had taught the other three about music in The Cork School of Music in UCC.

My personal favourite piece was “Loose Canon” which was a four part round.  It was quite unpredictable with a sense of hecticness.  We listened to many pieces, one of which was “Lotus Eaters” by  Andrew York (b. 1958).  He was a classical guitarist and composer.  We also listened to “Quiccan”.

Johann Sebastian Bach, who was born the 21st of March, 1685 and died 28th July, 1750.  He was a German composer.  He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.  He wrote “little Fugue”.

Another composer, Johann Pachelbel, was born on September 1st 1653 and died on March 9th 1706.  He composed a large body of sacred and secular music.  He composed “loose canon”.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the music.  We thank the Parents’ Association for funding the Irish Guitar Quartet Seminar.

This year the Cork ladies Football Team visited our school.  Briege and Mairead Corkery, Marie Ambrose and Sinead Cotter are all on the Cork Panel and won All-Ireland Medals again this year.  Ciara McCarthy was on the Minor All-Ireland winning team.  They brought all the cups they have won during the year.  We are extremely proud of them.  Briege Corkery, former pupil of Rusheen N.S., has won 17 All-Ireland Medals.  Briege and Marie both won All-Stars.  Cork played their arch rivals, Dublin, in the All-Ireland Final.   No doubt they will go down in the history books. They are all legends and we are looking forward to supporting them again next year.

This year Rusheen N.S. were in Group F7 of Sciath na Scol.  In our group we faced Cùil Aodha, Inchigeelagh and Cloughduv.  Cùil Aodha suffered a defeat to us in our first game 5-7 to 4-2.  Our second game was an easily won game against Inchigeelagh, winning 4-7 to 0-0.  The third game V Cloughduv brought a tough start but we won comfortably 4-7 to 3-3.  Our final group game was against Blarney who suffered a heavy defeat 6-8 to 3-0.  We finished top of the group with 12 points and Cloughduv following up behind us with 9 points.  In the semi-final we clashed with Vicarstown.  We started poorly, loosing 1-1 to 0-0 at half time.  We came through in the end, winning 2-4 to 1-3.  Cloughduv lost to a strong Aghabullogue team 4-7 to 4-2.  The final was held in C.I.T. with Robbie Cunningham leading the team.  We started with high hopes, but Aghabullogue were leading at half time.  We came back in the second half, sadly and unluckily hitting the post twice.  In the end, Aghagullogue were the better team winning 2-3 to 1-0.  We were distraught with the loss, but did receive a memorable plaque and medals.  We still have the football blitz at the end of the year, in which we are two year reigning champions.   Hopefully it will be 3 in a row and a good year ahead.