The Sports and Cultural Council - City of Dublin VEC

News Reports > Current News > CulturalNiall Smyth Memorial Bursary Awards > 2010 > Award Recipients

- Plunket College - Tuesday, 22nd April, 2010 - By Louise Browne

Niall Smyth Memorial Bursary Award Recipients

The annual Sports and Council Niall Smyth Bursary Awards ceremony took place last week at Plunket College, Fairview with 15 recipients representing six different CDVEC Colleges receiving funding to support their sports and cultural careers.

Speaking after the event SCC Treasurer Eamon McGinley said “we are very impressed with the quality of applicant, the talent that was there tonight was very impressive"

Before McGinley added “And we expect great things from them for the future and hope that the bit of funding they get from the SCC will allow them to achieve their goals and we wish them every success”.

Ten of the those in receipt of the bursary where from the sporting arenas of Kenpo Karate, Kick Boxing, Karate (Wado), Fly Fishing, Athletics, Rowing, Table Tennis, Mountaineering and Weightlifting.

While the remaining five will use their financial support on cultural fronts such as Irish Dancing, Ballet and Ballroom Dancing. Sinead Byrne of Inchicore CFE was first to accept her award with the Walkinstown native explaining

“I’m going to use it to go over to Pittsburgh in November to go into the Hall of Fame to sit on the International Youth Council to promote a positive attitude to martial arts with other people from around the world”

Byrne then touched on what it means to get the funding “It really is a big help as there are no other means for getting funding for martial arts here in Ireland”

Presentation of Award by Mr. Niall Smyth Jnr.Next up three students Rachel Doyle, Janine Geoghgan and Joe Hanley all from Crumlin CFE hope to further their careers in Kick Boxing, Karate (Wado) and Fly Fishing respectively courtesy of the SCC award.

Aishling Kelly of Colaiste Eoin was “very happy” with the second year student using her bursary to travel over to Hollywood to compete in the North American Irish Dancing Championship.

Kelly has been dancing for ten years at the Bennett School of Irish Dancing in Finglas and rates her chances at the two day competition as “good”.

A fellow student of Kelly’s at the Finglas School is Nicholas Melia with the keen athlete’s subsidy going towards “Using it for new gear, lots of stuff like spikes, runners and shorts, it’s great to receive the bursary”.

Melia, All Ireland silver medalist in the 100 and 200 metres, is relatively new to the track with less than a year under his belt with the future looking bright for the Fingallians AC runner going on his achievements to date.

Baldoyle student Catherine O’Reilly who attends Inchicore College was “overwhelmed for the support received by the SCC” with the Ballet dancer auditioning at two private dance company’s this year in London.

Laban is one of the world’s finest centres for the training of professional contemporary dance artists while Rambert is Britain’s flagship contemporary dance company. O’Reilly is hoping do a BA in dance theatre and ballet contemporary dance before adding that her principal at Inchicore Michael Chandler “rocks” for his overall support.

Presentation of Award by Mr. Niall Smyth Jnr.Another Crumlin College recipient David O’Sullivan career in rowing will be hugely aided by his grant. Inchicore’s John Travers, one of Ireland’s top young athletes, narrowly missed out on breaking the Irish Junior record set by Frank Greally over the May bank holiday when he competed over 10km in Poland.

Despite missing out on the World Juniors qualification time in Poland by just 14.72 seconds the Donore Harriers athlete believes he can still qualify for the World Junior Championships in Canada this July with the funding “helping a lot towards gear etc, I’m delighted to have received it” said Travers.

Ireneausz Trubilowicz’s sport is table tennis with the Ballbridge CFE student overjoyed with the grant from the SCC.

Meanwhile on the dance front Stanislav Wakeham of Inchicore CFE is a Ballroom Dancer while identical twins Clare Ann and Lisa Marie Watson of Pearse College and Crumlin College are Irish Dancers with all three accepting awards on the night.

“It feels brilliant to receive it and we’re going to use it to travel to competitions, costumes and stuff like that” remarked Clare Ann Watson.

The sisters will also use the funds to compete in the south of England Irish dancing championships at the end of May and the Scottish equivalent at the end of August.

In the outdoor arena of mountaineering St. Kevin’s Magdalena Ziola was next to receive a bursary before Ali Akbar Nadery of Crumlin College concluded the evening’s list of SCC bursary award recipients.

The former Iranian champion was “very, very happy” with the body builder using it to supplement his training towards competing at this year’s Mr. Ireland championship in September.

. Photo Gallery

[ View the photo gallery of the event ]
Name
School
Activity
1
Sinead Byrne
Inchicore CFE
Kenpo Karate
2
Rachel Doyle
Crumlin CFE
Kick Boxing
3
Janine Geoghgan
Crumlin CFE
Karate (Wado)
4
Joe Hanley
Crumlin CFE
Fly Fishing
5
Aisling Kelly
Colaiste Eoin
Irish Dancing
6
Nicholas Melia
Colaiste Eoin
Athletics
7
Ali Akbar Nadery
Crumlin CFE
Body Building
8
Catherine O Reilly
Inchicore CFE
Ballet
9
David O Sullivan
Crumlin CFE
Rowing
10
John Travers
Inchicore CFE
Athletics
11
Ireneusz Trubilowicz
Ballsbridge CFE
Table Tennis
12
Stanislav Wakeham
Inchicore CFE
Ballroom Dancing
13
Clare Ann Watson
Pearse CFE
Irish Dancing
14
Lisa Marie Watson
Crumlin CFE
Irish Dancing
15
Magdalena Ziola
St. Kevin’s
Mountaineering
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