De La Salle Scout Group News Page

Group News 2010

Owen steps out as Seamus steps in as Group Leader (05/12/10)

After almost five very successful years as Group Leader of the De La Salle Scout Group, Owen Riordan has stepped down. Owen said he has hugely enjoyed his time in the post and he was sincerely thanked by all of the Group at the recent AGM. During his time the Group has gone from strength to strength both in terms of numbers of youth and adult members and of course in our high standard of programme provision. "The Chief" will be missed but has been replaced by the highly able lifetime member Seamus Purcell. Seamus has been actively involved in the De La Salle Scout Pipe Band for many years and was also a leader in the 13th Troop. Owen will replace Seamus as the Group Chairman. A huge thanks goes out to Owen and best of luck to both in their new roles.

Above: Seamus Purcell (Left) and Owen Riordan (Right).

New Arrival - Congratulations to Eric (05/12/10)

Word comes in that Venturer Leader Eric Whelan and his partner Zoe Staunton have had a baby girl. Congratulations to Eric and his the family and we hear that all went well even in the face of the ice locked Waterford City. We can't comment on rumours that the baby was named 'snow'!

De La Salle Scout Piper and Drummer are Leinster Solo Champions for 2010 (19/11/10)

Seven young pipers and drummers from the De La Salle Scout Group Pipe Band travelled to Dublin on Sunday October 14th 2010 to participate in the Leinster piping and drumming solo competitions. On what was an cold and icy morning these young people showed their interest in one of their chosen pastimes and rose from their beds very early and braved the elements and the dangerous road conditions to be in Dublin to compete against pipers and drummers from all over southern Ireland. On arrival in Dublin the young players commenced their preparations and drums and pipes were played and tuned until each player was happy with the sound and pitch of their instrument. Then when their turn came they played in front of judges who had been selected by the Irish Pipe Band Association to assess their performances. Most of the De La Salle players competed in the under 14 and under 16 competitions while one played in the junior section. Their performances were of a very high standard and all showed improvements since they last competed. They were complemented on their playing and the pitch and tone of their instruments and each player was provided with a written commentary on their performance by the judge to assist them to improve for future competitions. When the final results were announced at the end of a very active, competitive and enjoyable day James Stone was crowned Leinster under 16 solo piping champion for 2010 and Kevin Hennessy was crowned Leinster under 14 solo drumming champion. This finished a very successful year for De La Salle which saw the band wining the Munster pipe band championships in their grade and James Stone also won the 14 and under 16 Munster solo piping championships earlier in the year. The band and its members also took several second and third places in other competitions during the year. The band now returns to normal practice on Monday nights and Sunday mornings at its base in St Stephen Street School and anyone who is interested in learning highland bagpipes and drums are welcome to come along and talk to us.

Shona Murray receives the Chief Scout's Award
& Phoenix Teams Receive Mayoral Reception (29/10/10)

Congratulations to Shona Murray from the 7th De La Salle Scout Troop who was awarded with the Chief Scout's Award by the Chief Scout Michael J Shinnick at a ceremony in Waterford City on Thursday 28th October. Shona is the 21st member of the De La Salle Scout Group to receive the award. The Chief Scout's Award is the highest award that a youth member can achieve within the organisation. Group Leader, Owen Riordan was the first to congratulate Shona on her award saying that it was an excellent achievement for any Scout to progress the full way through the award scheme and it was something that was rarely done.

At the same ceremony, the 3rd De La Salle, the 7th De La Salle and the 17th/20th St. Pauls were also honoured by the Mayor of Waterford City for their excellent achievements at the Phoenix Challenge 2010. They all achieved Gold Standard in the event and came 8th, 4th and first respectively. Well done once again to the teams and their leaders.

Tough Weekend on the Connaught MPC (19/09/10)

Well done to the Scouts from the 3rd and 7th Scout Troops (Jack, Michael, William, Ruairi, Ciaran, Colm) and Leaders Michael, Eoin and Colm on their ascent of the highest mountain in Galway: Binn Bhan (729m) in the Twelve Bens on Saturday last. Their epic trip to the Connaught MPC was marked as usual by outstanding levels of Connemara rain making the bogs brilliantly boggy. Rumour has it that a hasty retreat was made from base camp beside the rising Owenglin river back to Waterford on the Saturday night.

Above: The Team from the 3rd on the summit of Bin Bhan.

Great Weekend for the Group at the Phoenix Challenge (05/08/10)

Above: The team from the 3rd De La Salle Scouts with their Gold Award from the Phoenix Trophy 2010.

It's been an excellent weekend in Larch Hill for all of the Waterford Scout County teams. Phoenix Challenge 2010 "The Big Bang" has been an absolutely brilliant weekend of scouting and the sun even shone all day today. All 3 Waterford teams achieved the Gold standard of participation in the event along with 13 others from a total field of 52. Group Leader Owen Riordan had high praise for the teams and was thrilled that both our troops competed to such a high standard. In the final placings the 3rd De La Salle came eighth and the 7th De La Salle came fourth. Congratulations to the scouts and leaders on all the hard work, effort and top class placings. Sincere thanks to the organisers and staff too who pulled off a brilliantly run and enjoyable event. A huge well done finally to St. Pauls from Waterford who won the Special Projects, the Campcraft and the overall Phoenix Trophy. An amazing day for the Deise! There are more photos in our Phoenix Challenge 2010 Gallery.

Band Depart for France (05/08/10)

Best of luck to the 26 members of the De La Salle Scout Group Pipe Band going to Lorient in France for the Festival Interceltique being held from Aug 5th to 15th 2010.

Wedding Bells (25/07/10)

Congratulations from the De La Salle Scout Group to Assistant Scoutleader James Doherty who was married on Saturday 24th July 2010 to Susan O'Malley. James is a member of the leadership team from the 3rd. Brendan Kiersey, County CPC (Programme Coordinator) has also announced his engagement to Donna Fitzgearld, Assistant CPC Cubs, so another scouting wedding to look forward to. Best wishes to all.

Congratulations to Cian on achieving the Explorer Belt 2010 (19/07/10)

Congratulations to Cian O'hOgartaigh of the De La Salle Scout Group who successfully completed this year's Venturer Explorer Belt that took place in the Benelux region from the 3rd to the 18th of July.

The basic elements of the Explorer Belt are a 10 day hike, covering 200 km, while living on a limited budget and completing a number of projects along the way. This year an additional 100kms could be covered using certified public transport. The aim of the Explorer Belt is to get to know a different culture from your own, and the method is to meet people from the country concerned and learn about their way of life, their traditions and customs.

De La Salle Scout Group Pipe Band are Munster Champions (06/07/10)

On a very sunny Sunday, on June 20^th 2010 22 members of the De La Salle Scout Group Pipe Band and their supporters met in Waterford City Centre at a very early hour and travelled to Tralee in Co Kerry to compete in the Munster Championship pipe band competition. During the morning all the competing bands from all over Munster and beyond gathered to begin their preparations for the event. Uniforms were donned and pipes and drums were tuned as the bands made ready for what was to be a fiercely competitive competition. Then at 1.30 in the heart of Tralee Town Centre the crowds gathered in scorching sunshine and the contest began. De La Salle had 14 pipers, four side drummers, two tenor drummers, a base drummer and a Drum Major competing and were involved in four competitions and they and the other competing bands filled the air in Tralee for several hours with beautiful music. When the results were finally announced De La Salle were awarded first place in their grade and were crowned Munster Champions for 2010. Their young Drum Major was also awarded second place in her grade. This was a great result for the band and concludes what has been a very successful competition season for the band. Hopefully they will continue with this winning trend when their pipers and drummers compete in solo competition in Northern Ireland in September.

Congratulations to the new Mayor of Waterford City - Mary Roche (10/07/10)

Congratulations to Independent Counsellor Mary Roche on her election as the new Mayor of Waterford City. Mary was a former Girl Guide Ranger who worked with the Waterford City Venturers in Mount Melleray as Crew on many occasions. She is also a member of the Waterford Youth Committee.

The De La Salle Scout Group would like to wish Mary every success in her 12 month term.

Excellent Performance by De La Salle at County Challenge (25/04/10)

The Waterford Scout County Challenge was held in Stradbally, Co. Waterford from the 23rd to the 25th April 2010. Surrounded by magnificent woodlands the field close to the beach which was used for the event was also used by De La Salle for decades as the site for its Annual Camp. The competition involved the building of a full campcraft site including sleeping and store tents, table and seating, dresser, waste gadget, gate and a store gadget. On Saturday afternoon there was a range of skills bases including Emergencies, Survival, a Water Base and a Fun base which included campfire sketches. On Saturday evening there was a full testmeal and on Sunday the pioneering project was the tricky Bryan Bach Tower. The event concluded with a tough final inspection which had a few heavy rain showers thrown in for good measure. No less than 18 teams from Waterford took part in the event which is the highest number ever for a County Challenge and over 220 scouts, venturers and leaders were camped in Stradbally for the weekend.

At the closing ceremony the 7th De La Salle were presented with the JD Hennebry Trophy for the cooking. JD was a legendary De La Salle man and former Group Leader who passed away some years ago. He would have been delighted for the cooking trophy to have stayed in the Group for the second year in a row. The 7th who had three teams in the event also took the prestigious Campcraft trophy. The top three teams in the overall competition were St Pauls Team 2 - 3rd, 7th De La Salle A Team - 2nd and St Pauls Team 1 - first place. In addition it was announced that the 17th St Pauls, the 3rd De La Salle and the 7th De La Salle will go on to represent the County at the Phoenix Challenge which is the national scoutcraft competition in August.

Speaking after the event, Group Leader, Owen Riordan congratulated the scouts on all four teams from De La Salle who had represented the Group to an incredibly high standard. Owen added: "the PLs and all the scouts put in a fantastic effort, they also had a great time and the hard work of them and the leadership teams in both troops certainly paid off. It is fantastic that two of the top three troops in the County Challenge this year were from De La Salle". A hearty congratulations to St. Pauls from all at De La Salle for being the outright winners also.

At the Munster Solo piping and drumming championships held in Newcastle West in Co Limerick on Sunday March 28th 2010 10 De La Salle Scout Group pipers and drummers competed in a fiercely contested event which was attended by players from all over the South and Southeast of Ireland. James Stone won the under 14 and under 16 piping solo events and was crowned Munster Champion for 2010. He had already won the under 14th event last year and he follows in the footsteps of his older brother David and sister Elaine who already won Munster Championships in the past and who have gone on to win All Ireland titles also. All of the De La Salle Scout players performed well on the day and a number of them achieved 2nd, 3rd and 4th places in their various grades and age levels.

The following won Munster championship medals on the Day. In the under 16 drumming Kevin Hennessey achieved 2nd place and in the Novice drumming Emily Costello achieved 2nd place and Eoin Smith took 3rd place. Elaine Stone competed in the Junior piping event and was placed 3rd which was an excellent achievement as Elaine was the only youth player, as all of the other competitors in this grade were adults. The players will compete again in the South East Solo Championships to be held in mid April in Gorey in Co Wexford and then will go on to compete in the Mini bands competition to be held in Stephen Street School in Waterford City at 12 noon on Sunday May 2nd 2010. Anyone interested in hearing some excellent piping and drumming are very welcome to come along on the day and listen

The De La Salle Scout Group would like to extend its congratulations to Pat O'Connor of St. Pauls who received the Order of Cuchulain award at National Council on March 23rd 2010. The Order of Cú Chulainn Award is the highest award that can be awarded to any leader in the Scouting Ireland. In order to receive this award the recipient has to be nominated by a fellow Scouter in recognition of their many years of dedication, commitment, selfless effort to scouting at local, county, provincial and national level. In other news from National Council the new National Treasurer is Francis Minogue, Chief Commissioner is Ian Davy and our new Provincial Commissioner is John Watmore.

Group Leader, Owen Riordan has confirmed that the De La Salle Scout Group was awarded the System of Quality Scouting Excellence Award for 2009. The SQS Award is a quality strategy adopted by Scouting Ireland that challenges Groups, Counties, Provinces and National Teams to provide a high standard of Scouting to its members. The Excellence Award level reflects the high quality programme provided by all sections in the Group in the past year and the overall top class manner in which the Group is run. The Award was presented by Brian Fanning, County Commissioner and Francis Minogue, Provincial Commissioner.

Our Scout Centre at Faithlegg, Co. Waterford has seen a huge amount of campcraft and pioneering over the years. To keep our timber in top shape we have just acquired a new timber store. Pioneering is as important today as it was in BPs day - why?: It constitutes a clear exposition of BPs revolutionary education theory - to provoke interest, to provide sound basic training, to apply training instantly, to stimulate the imagination, to leave the end open.

To mark the end of their 75th Anniversary year, members of the De La Salle Scout Pipe Band were presented with a limited edition DVD of the Pipe Band's Christmas Concert. The DVD was limited to 50 copies which Pat Murphy, Pipe Major presented to band members at a ceremony on February 6th February last.

At the Annual Group Christmas Mass held at the De La Salle College on December 4th last, Brian Fanning, County Commissioner presented four National Scout Awards to scouts from the 7th De La Salle Scout Troop. They are Sarah Lawrence, Shona Murray, Emily Costello and Matt Carrick who are pictured below with Brian Fanning; Owen Riordan, Group Leader, Michael Kavanagh, Assistant Scoutleader and Robert Windle, Scoutleader.