I am delighted and honoured to serve as Principal of Pres Bray at such an exciting time in the College’s history. I am truly looking forward to the coming year where we aim to promote and celebrate all that is good about our vibrant school community.As you will see below we have a range of activities and gatherings organised for during the year and we hope that there will be something for everyone in the school community to get involved with.I wish to express my huge thanks to my fellow Centenary Celebration Committee members who have been working tirelessly over the past 20 months to bring the following event to fruition. The enthusiasm and passion shown for the entire project from the beginning are to be greatly admired and it was a pleasure to work alongside them all.We will launch our celebrations on our centenary date, September 5th, 2021 with a Centenary Mass in the Queen of Peace Church, Bray. It was on that date 100 years previously that the college first opened its doors to 52 lucky students. Presentation College had been proudly supporting education in the community ever since. Our mass invitees will join us in the school for a social gathering and light refreshments afterward. A huge thanks to Fr. Whelan and his parish team for their support in facilitating such a poignant occasion for us. Their sense of community spirit is greatly appreciated.
We are extremely excited about the central role that our ‘Centenary Students’ will play in this year’s celebrations.
To mark their special status as ‘Centenary Students’, each student will be presented with a centenary tie at the beginning of the school year. Students will be invited to wear this tie, not just for the year, but for the duration of their time in Pres. Bray as part of their school uniform.
We are particularly excited about our ‘Spirit of Pres’ week which will be held at the end of November in celebration of the ‘Feast of the Presentation’ on November 21st. This week will give us the opportunity to celebrate our students as valued members of the Pres and wider Bray community. As in other ‘Spirit of Pres’ weeks, we hope to reach out and strengthen our ties and relationships with our local community, with a particular focus on celebrating a century of involvement in the Bray community. This week, as always, will be student-centred and student-led and will highlight the wonderful and long-standing connections the boys of Pres maintain with their own community. Further details will be revealed in early November.
We are also planning to host an Open Gala Day in the Spring of 2022 to showcase our school to the wider community. Our friends from our sister PBST schools, as well as parents, families and members of the wider community will be invited into the school where we will showcase a snapshot of the great work that is done in our school by students and staff alike on a daily basis – both inside and outside of the classroom.
As the year gets underway, further activities and events will be planned with a focus on student activity and student involvement. We will communicate any activities and projects that are untaken as the year progresses.
There is a long-standing history and tradition of rugby in Presentation College, Bray. Through the outstanding work and commitment of school staff and coaches, Pres continues to maintain its reputation as one of the leading schools in Leinster Rugby. We are, of course, enormously proud of this tradition, and of the achievements of our teams and indeed our individual players who have gone on to represent both province and country.
We are excited to announce that we will be having a special evening in early Springtime 2022 to celebrate this wonderful tradition. This event will take place in Greystones Rugby Club, a location that symbolises the strong and long-standing links between the two organisations.
On the night, school teams who achieved great success will be celebrated, as well as individual players who have succeeded at province and country. Recordings of performances and games from down through the years will also be screened on the night.
Director of Rugby in the College, Kevin Conroy, alongside Tony Bellew and Brendan Toolan have put tremendous work into this landmark and celebratory event.
More details for this event will be furnished closer to the date.
The Past Pupils Union (PPU) will be hosting a number of events throughout the schoolyear to mark the centenary of the College.
The annual PPU Golf Outing will take place on Friday 10th September in Bray Golf Club. All registered members of the PPU are invited to attend what should be a very memorable outing. Subject to restrictions, dinner and prize-giving will follow in the clubhouse, where the Scannell Cup will be presented to the winner.
On Friday 5th November, The PPU Centenary President’s Dinner will take place in the Glenview Hotel. This special dinner promises to be an exciting one, as proud past pupils will gather to celebrate 100 years of Pres. Bray and to reminisce on their time in the College. The PPU is hoping that as many past pupils as possible can join them in the Glenview for the night, subject of course, to Covid-19 restrictions.
President of the PPU, Brendan Toolan is very excited about the upcoming events and invites all past pupil to become a member of the PPU and join in the celebrations. Further details of the PPU and of the upcoming events can be found on the PPU website: https://www.presbrayppu.com/.
The Presentation College Centenary Year Book will launch later in the year. This book promises to be a ‘must have’ on the booklist of all in the Pres community. Personally I eagerly await its release as I am aware of the volume of work that has gone into its preparation and publication. It is packed full of memories, events and reference to many people all of whom have contributed to the past ten decades to provide us with such a rich history. Honourable mentions must go to Tony Bellew, Tino Cassoni, Brian White, and T.J. Page as our team of enthusiastic historians, and also to our publisher, Aidan Flynn, who has patiently supported their efforts in compiling such a timely showcase of our history.
