Tributes paid to ‘beautiful child' who drowned off Co Sligo beach
Funeral details have been announced for the seven-year-old boy who drowned off the beach at Lissadell,
Co Sligo
, on Saturday.
Alan Singh was a second-class pupil at St John's National School in Ballisodare, Co Sligo, and the son of IqbalJeet Singh and Andrea Dzurikova, of Main Street, Ballisodare.
A death notice on Rip.ie said Alan will be sadly missed by his parents, sister Aisha, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and many friends and classmates at St John's school.
His funeral Mass will take place at the Church of the Assumption, Collooney, at 11am on Thursday.
READ MORE
Tributes have been paid by Alan's family, friends, school, neighbours and others who were at the beach on Saturday afternoon.
In a statement, St John's National School principal Mary Curley said: 'Alan was a much-loved pupil – always smiling, warm, and full of kindness. He was friendly, hardworking, and a talented young artist who brought joy and creativity to our classrooms. His gentle nature and positive spirit left a lasting impression on everyone who knew him.'
Staff from the National Educational Psychological Service were attending the school on Monday, with resources available for parents 'to help support their children through this time of grief'.
Ms Curley also asked for privacy for Alan's family and the school community 'as we all come to terms with this tragic loss'.
'On behalf of everyone at St John's, we extend our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences.'
Writing on the rip.ie the owners of Lissadell House, Constance Cassidy and Eddie Walsh, said: 'Good night beautiful child. We are here in solidarity with your mother, father and your family.'
Many other tributes were simply signed off as being from 'a dad' or 'a mother'.
One signed by 'a Cavan mother' stated: 'Absolutely heartbreaking, may Alan rest in peace. Condolences to his parents and sister.'
A 'Westmeath mum' wrote: 'My deepest condolences on the heartbreaking loss of your beautiful boy Alan. May he rest in peace.'
Another stated: 'There are no words. Our condolences to Alan's family. Fly high beautiful little boy.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Irish Times
Carl O'Brien: How will ‘difficult' exams be graded over the coming weeks?
It's been another milestone day for Leaving Certs: taking on two of biggest exams, maths paper two and Irish paper one. Whether students came out smiling or just relieved to be finished, they can be proud of how far they have come. Students aren't just surviving these exams, they're growing through them. The reaction to maths, in particular, has been mixed and we've received queries from some parents whose children are worried about passing the paper or want to know how they are likely to be graded. We've a short explainer below which should demystify the process - and it should hopefully give a little boost to worried students. Who marks the exams? READ MORE The exams are marked by a team of more than 4,000 examiners, typically experienced teachers, who work under the overall direction of a chief examiner for each subject. Examiners normally mark scripts from a number of schools and do not know either the region or the schools from which the papers they mark are drawn. How does the marking process work? The marking process for each subject and level is typically overseen by a team consisting of the chief examiner, a chief advising examiner and a number of advising examiners, who monitor and advise the examiners. The chief examiner and the advisory team discuss, test and adjust a draft marking scheme. This takes place at a 'pre conference' that normally lasts two days and takes place before the main marking conference for the full examining team. All examiners attend this online training conference before marking. They then begin marking by selecting a random sample of scripts and applying the draft marking scheme to this sample. Feedback from the examiners, along with data from the marking of this random sample, is analysed by the chief examiner and senior advisory team. A minimum of 5 per cent of scripts marked by each examiner is monitored during the course of the marking. How are they graded? The marking scheme is adjusted to help achieve a 'bell curve' which aims to ensure a similar proportion of students from year to year achieve the same proportion of H1s, H2s and H3s, etc, across individual subjects. It might sound unfair, but it is aimed at ensuring standards are maintained each year. If it has been a particularly hard exam where many struggled, the marking scheme may be adjusted to be more generous to the questions where students generally performed better; equally, if it has been a relatively easy exam, the marking scheme will be adjusted to be less generous to the questions where students performed well. How will they be graded this year? Grades have been artificially kept at a high level – 7 per cent higher, on average, than pre-Covid results – through what authorities call a 'postmarking adjustment' since 2021. Very simply, exam papers are marked as normal and then, when the process is complete, a weighting of marks s added across all results to ensure overall grades match the tally from previous years, on aggregate. The plan this year is that a 'postmarking adjustment' to students' grades will reduce from 7 per cent to 5.5 per cent. In other words, students' grades will still be inflated – just at a lower level, on aggregate, compared with the bumper grades achieved over recent years. The good news, then, is that students' results will get nudged upwards after they have been marked. Where it might be unfair is in the competition for college places against students from recent years on bumper grades – but we'll explore that later in the week.
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
In a Word...Perfection
Perfection? It's lovely in other people. Yet, even then you know it's a temporary little 'derangement'. To quote from Shakespeare's sonnet 15 : 'every thing that grows/Holds in perfection but a little moment.' That is the natural order of things, 'all in war with time'. Like the whitethorn-strewn countryside of the west last month. Glorious, and gone! Soon it will welcome haw, the fruit of all that wild largesse. On a personal level I've always found any ambition towards perfection to be something of a waste to time. So much effort, such little return. Then, as I explain to friends and acquaintances, 'somethings are simply beyond improvement', which they rush to interpret as they will. And they do. Oh yes, they do. My glory is to have such friends. Human perfection is for the moment, not a living lifetime. Apart from the moment, such perfection can only be realised through the inanimate, such as stone, paint, the word; art, in other words. 'Quite useless,' as Oscar Wilde described it. READ MORE 'Art is useless as a flower is useless. A flower blossoms for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it. That is all that is to be said,' he said. The aim of art is 'simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct, or to influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile,' he said. Wilde said a lot. It included expressing a preference for the artificial over the real, as the artificial held its perfection while in reality that perfection just withered and died. Wilde went so far as to say: 'The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.' Pithy nonsense or profound truth? The best description of a perfect man I have come across concerned one who rises at 5am, exercises, makes his bed, cleans his room, works well, does not drink, helps in the kitchen, is always on time, reads, prays daily, does not go out at night, and is in bed by 9pm. He exists, definitely. In a prison. Preserve your flaws. They're all that's left you. Perfection, from Latin perfectionem, for 'that degree of excellence which leaves nothing to be desired'. inaword@
Irish Times
9 hours ago
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert maths paper 2: Students seeking H1s or H2s find paper particularly challenging
Higher-level maths students who were anxious about their performance in paper one did not find comfort in paper two, but ordinary-level students will be pleased, teachers have said. Aidan Roantree, a maths teacher at the Institute of Education, said that students looking for H1s and H2s will have found the paper particularly challenging, especially towards the end. 'The paper continued the same mixture of the familiar and the quirky, but on a larger scale with more of both,' he said. 'The question setter is consciously creating papers that are unlike previous years by adding novel questions that would have been hard to prepare for,' Mr Roantree said. READ MORE 'Upon opening the paper, students will have felt an initial confidence boost to get them going. Section A's Q1, Q, 2, Q3 offered a reassuring and familiar start to the paper. This will have allowed students to accrue marks before venturing into the trickier sections. 'At Q4, the quirkier aspects of the paper emerged with questions that were evocative of pre-2015 statistics: interquartile ranges, averages, and later stratified sampling in Q10. Section B followed a similar pattern with approachable opening questions followed by mounting difficulty. In particular, Q9's part C was a very challenging probability question which would have tested the abilities of even the highest achievers. 'Indeed this paper contained some of the hardest questions on either paper, so students will leave the exam with a sense of having really pushed themselves,' Mr Roantree said. Niall Duddy, ASTI subject representative for maths and a teacher at Presentation College Athenry in Co Galway, agreed that higher-level paper two was more testing than paper one. 'But students didn't say they couldn't do it, and paper two is traditionally the trickier of the two,' he said. 'On the plus side, it was user-friendly and contained hints here and there, such as where to use sine and cosine. 'The topics were quite focused, except for the trigonometry question which included some algebra; this is part of a recent trend of amalgamating the topics on the papers. 'Questions on statistics and probability would be familiar. Some students didn't like the look of question eight, which included a 3-D problem, but the question itself wasn't unusual. 'Overall, my students felt that while it was trickier, it was doable.' Conversely, on the ordinary-level exam, Jean Kelly, a maths teacher at the Institute of Education, said that students who felt uncertain about their performance on paper one will have been relieved. 'Gone are the questions that jump around topics or hide aspects behind the language of the question,' she said. 'The paper was snappy, cutting right to the point and unified in the topics examined. Question one was focused on statistics, Q2 on trigonometry, Q3 on the circle. This helped students stay focused on the task and feel like they are being helpfully scaffolded as the questions got harder. This feeling of momentum will help them get through the paper and feel much more assured in their performance.' The paper was heavy on statistics, probability and trigonometry, with area and volume having a lesser presence than in previous years, which was likely due to a surprise appearance on paper one, Ms Kelly said. 'While there were enough challenging pieces on the paper to distinguish those striving for the O1, even those who struggle to pass will find themselves in a good position,' she said. 'The paper was often helpful, either through tips or by combining topics into a useful grouping. For example, the appearance of constructions in section B was new, but the helpful pairing of dilations and area and volume helped ease students through the material. 'While paper one needed students to constantly, even anxiously reread the questions, there was a nice snappiness to this paper. Students who had the fundamentals were able to quickly get their marks without fuss and frustration,' said Ms Kelly. Mr Duddy said the ordinary-level topics were laid out clearly and that the paper was user-friendly with lots of helpful hints.
