February 2012 - St. Andrew's College, Dublin

February 2012
In this edition…
Dates for your Diary and Past Pupil News
Important Dates for your Diary
Friday, 20 April 2012— Clyde Road & St Stephen’s Green Lunch
Royal St George Yacht Club - Booking forms will be sent out next week. Open to
all who sat their Leaving Certificates in St Stephen’s Green and Clyde Road.
Friday, 15 June 2012—PPU Golf Outing
Edmondstown Golf Club Contact: Terry Forsyth - terencehforsyth@gmail.com
Friday, 12 October 2012—Annual PPU Dinner
Westbury Hotel
Reunions for the classes of 1952, 1962, 1972 and 1982! Great fun
gathering the troops for all of these reunions! Can you recognise yourself
below?
For the members of the Class of 1982 log on to the group Facebook page —St.
Andrew’s College Class of 1982. There are already 53 members in this group and the
chat is amazing! Alan Lewis, the current PPU President, and Carole in the Alumni
Office are trying to contact as many of the years as possible. For the class of 1982
well done to Kyra Cheremeteff and Debbie Fasey who have already booked their
flights—who’s next?!
St Andrew’s College, Booterstown Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin
T: (01) 288 2785 - Email: ppu@st-andrews.ie - Website: www.sac.ie

Congratulations to:
Clare Lush (2000) and David Mansell on the birth of their son Harry.
Luke Sloper (1998) and Jo on the birth of their son Rafe.
Niall Taylor (1991) and Myra the birth of their son Kyle.
SPORT
Mens Hockey
All the best to Gareth Watkins (2003), David Fitzgerald (2005), Stuart
Loughrey (2005), all members of the Irish Senior Men’s Hockey Team, in
the Olympic Qualifying Tournament which takes place in UCD in Dublin in the 2nd
week of March—all support welcomed. The qualifier is a 6 team tournament with
only one ticket to London up for grabs!
Ladies Hockey
Also, all the best to the Irish Senior Ladies Team in their quest for a place in the
Olympics, past pupils from St Andrew’s are Niamh Atcheler (2010) and Chloe
Watkins (2010 and sister of Gareth above!) who are hoping to be picked for the
Squad.
Congratulations to Darragh O’Conaill (2006) who won a Bronze medal in the
Middleweight category at the European Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championships held in
Portugal recently.

Other News
(Not for the fainthearted!)
Heather Irvine was one of a team of Irish swimmers who recently endured
freezing conditions to compete in the Winter Swimming World Championships in
Latvia. Heather was competing for the first time in this event, along with 24 other
Irish swimmers. As Heather said ―cold-water swimming sounds hellish but it is
more popular than you might think. Throughout the three-day event, 1,028 people
from 24 countries take part over various distances. Nobody flinches as bodies are
immersed in the icy –1C water. Watching from land, the temperature is –5Cand
soon it will be my turn to enter the water!
To get here you had to simply sign up. There is no qualification process, but that
does not mean standards are low. A large proportion of people in the 25m
freestyle, 450m endurance and relays are competitive swimmers. All but five of the
Irish contingent are experienced racers, I am one of the five. The air temperature
feels fine and I can’t believe I wasn’t moaning about the cold. Either months of
training in the Irish Sea have made my body a finely tuned thermal regulator or it’s
simply that adrenaline is surging through my veins. Despite being an amateur, I
have been preparing for this moment. Before the start of the winter I joined
Dalkey Ducks, who swim each day at 8am at the Vico in Dalkey, Co Dublin. When
it’s time for my race I step out in the snow and don’t feel the cold. My name and
country are announced and I thrust the Irish flag high above my head, breaking
into a jog on the way to the poolside. I slip off my flip-flops and put my feet on the
icy ladder. It feels as though knives have been inserted into my soles and are
moving towards my calves. Once fully immersed it doesn’t feel too bad but that
might be because my body is numb. The starting gun sounds and I push off the
ladder as hard as possible. I throw my head into the water and wonder what I’m
doing. It feels as if I’m eating 10 tubs of ice cream in one go, the worst brainfreeze
ever. The water is black, I weave to the other end of the pool as fast as I
can and in 16.4 seconds the ordeal is over. The experience has been surreal but I
feel incredible. Like a champion, albeit one that didn’t win! With medals won in
various categories, the Irish, it turns out, are hot at cold-water swimming‖.
Heather Irvine (2003)
To read the full article see The Sunday Times 19.2.12.