Irish school celebrating after RTE star & former pupil helps land major European broadcasting award
A DONEGAL school is celebrating after an RTE star and former pupil helped them to win a major European broadcasting award.
Scoil Cholmcille in Termon produced a news segment explaining Ireland's PR-STV voting system in an accessible way for young audiences.
Advertisement
3
Past pupil Barry Gallagher presented the report on RTÉ's news2day
Credit: Stephen Maguire
3
The story featured the 5th and 6th class pupils from Scoil Cholmcille as actors throughout the video
Credit: Stephen Maguire
The segment was presented by ex-Irish Sun man and former pupil of the
Now the segment has just been named Best News Story at the annual
The story featured the 5th and 6th class pupils from Scoil Cholmcille as actors throughout the video.
Their on-screen performances were a key part of the piece, helping bring humour, clarity and warmth to a topic usually considered complex even for adults.
Advertisement
Read more in News
Produced alongside
The report was selected by other public service editorial teams across Europe and has already garnered over one million views on
The school shared its excitement in a social media post saying: 'Some of you may remember when our fifth and sixth class students starred in a video explaining Ireland's PR-STV voting system,' they wrote.
"Past pupil Barry Gallagher presented the report on RTÉ's news2day.
Advertisement
Most read in News TV
"This week, we received the wonderful news that the report has won a European Award for Best Kids' News Story!'
3
Barry Gallagher at Slane Castle
Credit: Lorraine O'Sullivan
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Taoiseach to meet prime minister and lay wreath at Hiroshima on four-day visit to Japan
The Taoiseach is today kicking off a four-day trip to Japan where he will try to strengthen trade and cultural links between the country and Ireland. Micheál Martin is due to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo on Wednesday. He will also attend meetings with businesses linked with the IDA and Bord Bia on Tuesday. Mr Martin previously visited Japan as Taoiseach in 2022, meeting with former Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and turning the sod on Ireland House Tokyo. He will officially open the building on Wednesday, with the site playing host to Ireland's embassy in Japan, as well as agencies like the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Bord Bia. On Thursday, Mr Martin will travel from Tokyo to Osaka, where he is due to attend Expo 2025, where Ireland has a pavilion showcasing Irish culture. For the final day of the visit, the Taoiseach will visit Hiroshima where he is due to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph to mark 80 years since the atomic bombing of the city. Speaking ahead of his visit, Mr Martin said Japan is an 'important strategic partner' amidst the increasingly turbulent geopolitical environment. 'Ireland and Japan are very like-minded on the major issues facing the world and I look forward to exchanging views with Prime Minister Ishiba and discussing how to strengthen the ties between our two countries,' Mr Martin said. 'I am looking forward to opening the new Ireland House Tokyo, a significant milestone in Ireland's relationship with Japan, and to visiting the Irish pavilion at Expo which is showcasing Ireland's creativity and culture. 'I am also honoured to visit Hiroshima to remember all those who died as a result of the atomic bombing 80 years ago. The memorial at Hiroshima is a stark reminder to us all of the devastation wrought by nuclear war and the importance of peace and stability across the world.'
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Whiskey, horses, and medtech key areas for tariff side deals in EU-US trade agreement, Cabinet to hear
Hammering out tariff side deals across key areas such as whiskey, thoroughbred horses, and the medtech sector will be the best Ireland can hope for in an EU-US trade agreement, the Tánaiste is expected to tell colleagues on Tuesday. With just a week to go until the negotiation deadline, Simon Harris will tell Cabinet that 10% baseline tariffs in some sectors will pose challenges for the Irish economy and businesses. The Tánaiste will update ministers of a growing belief at an EU level that an agreement can be reached within the narrow timeframe on an outline deal. He will say that any deal will have to be assessed against what exclusions from a baseline 10% tariff can be secured, including scope for zero-for-zero arrangements for key sectors, as well as clarity on the outcome of the Sector 232 investigations — including on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and aviation. Last month, Mr Harris wrote to the EU's chief negotiator Maroš Šefčovič, in a bid to have whiskey, thoroughbred horses, and the medtech sector removed from the list of counter-tariff items, as doing so would have a significant impact on Ireland. In a speech to be delivered later on Tuesday at an event marking exactly one year until Ireland takes up the EU presidency, the Tánaiste will say that the ongoing trade talks 'will fundamentally alter the union's relationship with the US'. We remain hopeful of a deal but, whatever the outcome, it is clear tariffs will remain a feature of the geopolitical trading arrangements "Europe has stood tall together, and this has been essential in ensuring we get the best possible outcome. "But there is nobody standing here today that can predict what will happen next week with certainty," he is expected to say. Social housing Mr Harris will chair a meeting of the Government Trade Forum on Wednesday, and will travel to Berlin on Friday to meet with his German counterpart where EU-US trade relations will feature high on the agenda. Meanwhile, housing minister James Browne is to bring a number of memos to Cabinet on Tuesday — including measures to cut red tape for local authorities to construct social housing by simplifying the current four-step approval process into one. Mr Browne will also bring forward the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025 that will give people, under certain circumstances, an extension of up to three years of their planning permission when facing a judicial review. There were more than 40,000 non-commenced residential units on inactive development sites in Dublin alone at the end of last year, and it is estimated that around 15,000 of these units are due to expire within the next two years. Mr Browne hopes to fast-track this legislation to enact it before the summer.
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Government proposal on triple Lock gives an Irish solution to an Irish problem
I welcome the Government's latest proposals to fully restore Irish sovereignty over decisions to deploy Irish troops on armed missions overseas. It's time to unlock the triple lock. The rejection by the Irish people of the Nice referendum on the June 7, 2001, was a uniquely Irish generated crisis. The treaty was aimed at preparing the then 15-member state union for its biggest enlargement to 27 member states by 2007. Crucially, it had to be ratified by all member states but only Ireland was obliged to conduct a referendum. In effect, the failed referendum had blocked — or at least threatened to seriously derail — one of the most ambitious projects of the European Union. The news was most keenly felt by the 8,000 Irish citizens living and working in Brussels, particularly the approximately 100 Irish diplomats and civil servants attached to the Irish Permanent Representation to the EU. After almost 30 years of hard work, Ireland's reputation as a model EU member state had evaporated overnight. From model state to pariah state, Ireland was seen to have benefitted greatly from EU handouts and then stabbed the union in the back. The international media feasted with a frenzy on the carcass of Ireland's EU reputation. Those of us Irish working in the Brussels bubble were detached from the reality of politics at home. It was realised in Dublin that if we continued to block the expansion, the EU would do us no favours There was still time to run another referendum, but new parameters had to be included to mollify the ideologues of neutrality. Taking inspiration from former health minister Charles Haughey's solution to the problem of legalising contraceptives in 1979, the Nice Treaty required 'an Irish solution to an Irish problem'. In the end, however, instead of a doctor's prescription, all we needed was UN approval. The triple lock was born. It was rushed from the Rotunda to Leinster House, quickly baptised, and greeted by the people. Within a year, the bonny baby triple lock, a child genius at age one, secured the second Nice referendum. The day was saved. Ireland was saved. Former states that had emerged from communism were able to join the EU. Peacekeeping missions For the first few years, the child grew and was doted on by everyone. Its tantrums were gently tolerated, even when it insisted that any one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — China, France, Russia, US, and Britain — can effectively withhold UN approval on Irish participation in overseas peacekeeping missions. One of the unintended possible consequences of retaining the triple lock limits the State's capability to rescue Irish citizens in trouble abroad. The obvious example is in crisis-prone countries, such as countries in Africa, where thousands of Irish missionaries and NGO staff are working. The competition among UN permanent members is such that, in almost every conflict in Africa, they are pitted against each other to the extent that security council approval is very difficult or impossible. In the event of the EU mounting an armed rescue mission, where UN approval could not be achieved, the triple lock would block Irish troops' participation in missions aimed at saving the lives of our own people. The triple lock undermines Irish sovereignty and should have been constitutionally challenged years ago. Why should we be subservient to any foreign power when it is not even reciprocated? It was a self-imposed straitjacket. Another restriction was that the maximum number of armed Irish troops that could be sent abroad without Dáil approval was set at 12. Why 12? Was somebody over influenced by that Second World War action film The Dirty Dozen? The one where tough guy, cigar-chomping Telly Savalas toured military prisons to recruit 12 military psychopaths for a special operation. Recently, in the Letters to the Editor column of the Irish Examiner,fellow veteran Tim O'Connell explained why 50 was the right number for small unit operations abroad. Based on the infantry platoon of 34, the remaining 16 would be specialist support elements selected for the specific mission. Even Luxembourg has sent more troops abroad than that without external approval. Irish neutrality was never dependent on the triple lock. The neutrality policy preceded the triple lock by 60 years. In reality, the triple lock undermines Irish neutrality by empowering five foreign powers to veto the sovereign will of our Government and the Dáil. At last, Houdini himself has come back from the dead to unravel the straitjacket. The Government's proposed legislation has realistically broadened its application to most of the situations we can foresee at this stage. In practice, the changes effectively decouple future governments neatly from the permanent members' veto. Times have changed. The blissfully unaware Irish public should no longer be kept in the dark on security and defence matters. A properly informed public in 2001, would most probably have passed the first Nice referendum and avoided the need for the triple lock in the first place. Colonel Dorcha Lee (ret) is a former Irish military advisor and military representative in Brussels.
