Latest news with #KinsaleCommunitySchool
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Kinsale: For great natural produce, accommodation and fun things to do
Every season, Kinsale seems to add new food outlets and innovative new services to its deserved global reputation for culinary and entertainment excellence. Here is a personal selection of some of the many fine food outlets keeping Kinsale's worldwide fame alive. Where to eat? The best for Michelin — Kinsale is home to a Michelin one-star and a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant. One-star Bastion continues to impress with classic cuisine and precise plating that celebrates Irish produce and seasonality. Emile Moisy, Grace Coyle, Caoimhe Heffernan and Isobel Bergin in the Grind School Coffee Shop, Kinsale Community School after receiving their leaving certificate results. Picture: Dan Linehan The vibrations emanating from the chatter about the food, wine and service at St Francis Provisions is rightly deserved, and you will want to order everything on the menu. Prebooking is essential, though bookending the service might get you a walk-in spot. Best for Fine Dining — Rare 1784 has all the critics talking for its incredible cuisine, great wine and cocktail service and unique dining room. Executive head chef, Meeran Manzoor, has cemented his position as an exciting and innovative chef to watch. His food at Rare is a heady blend of classic French technique, Irish produce, and flavours of his Chennai homeland that outrageously flirt with all your senses. Fishy Fishy restaurant in Kinsale. Best for Views —Man Friday's is the kind of place loved by locals but sometimes overlooked by visitors who may not venture outside of the main hub of the town. What awaits is an elegant dining room serving food of the highest order with beautiful views over Kinsale Bay. Plates are classic and beautifully presented, and the interior has been given a spruce for an extra sprinkle of classiness. Best for Breakfast — Smart people book ahead for breakfast at O'Herlihy's Café (or OHK Café) where everything is stellar. Seasonal and delicious ingredients adorn plates built for refuelling and pleasure. Be sure to sneak in a drink — especially the mocktails and always leave room for cake. Shirley Walsh of Shirley's by Fort Charles, Kinsale. Best for Coffee — Wild & Tame has a buzzy café vibe serving Stone Valley Roasters Coffee and a curated mix of lifestyle goodies. Keep an eye out on their Insta Stories for the occasional pop-up event. Best for Brunch — Nine Market Street has a tight menu of well-versed dishes spanning breakfast, brunch and lunch. Sesame-crusted fish burger, Macroom wagyu beef and loaded flatbreads are all waiting for you. Best for Lunch — Fishy Fishy is almost a by-word for Kinsale food by now. Martin Shanahan's famous fish restaurant is much loved for a reason. Super fresh fish and seafood, whip-smart service, and great wines on Cork's riviera. Best for Bakes — Seeds Bakery French patisserie and rustic breads have proved a winning combo. Mornings are buzzy serving up a storm for a baying crowd looking for luscious laminations and super sourdough. Follow the happily be-crumbed to this place where bread is heaven. Best for Provenance — When it comes to farm to fork, Finn's Farmcuts take it literally. Grass-fed beef and lamb are raised on Finns family farm in Mitchelstown and everything else sourced from other like-minded farmers, aged to perfection, then cooked in their woodfired oven nicknamed Bertha. Upstairs at The Bulman serves up fresh oysters to handmade burgers, locally landed fish, and a fine selection of Irish cheese. Eating here is always a pleasure, and the bright upstairs location with large windows overlooking beautiful Summercove below add a special something to the experience. Kinsale living Best for Pizza — Bruno's Italian Eatery is where all the Kinsale foodies go when they're let loose from their kitchens. Simple food done well, it's a crowd-pleasing array of wood fired pizzas, seasonal pasta plates, and comforting risotto — something on the menu for everyone and anyone. Opening times can be a little haphazard, so it's best to look at their Instagram before rocking up. Best for Small Plates — St Francis Provisions has all the goodies with exceptional wines and great aperitivos to match. The menu changes daily here depending on what shows up in season and heavily inspired by less-familiar Spanish flavours such as outrageously good slow-cooked tripe or sweet and sour bombs with fresh fish. Always order the Gildas. The Farmers Market which takes place every Wednesday in Kinsale, Co Cork. Best for Cocktails — The Supper Club cocktails are perennially good so grabbing a seat at the bar should be on your list. Kinsale Hotel and Spa, although a short spin from town, has an excellent cocktail offering including a briny spicy Blood Orange Marguerita. Best Beer Garden — Hamlets sunny courtyard beer garden with it's very swanky roll-back roof and brightly coloured walls is a total sun trap that ticks all the boxes for a great summertime session. Best for Wine — Over 200 wines, many by the glass, pouring by the best sommeliers in Kinsale makes The Black Pig Wine Bar the go-to place for anyone curious about wine. The food is always classy, too. Best for a Pint — Kinsale is strewn with atmospheric pubs, many of them with long and storied histories. The Greyhound is a perennial favourite for a well-poured creamy pint, as is The Tap Tavern which hosts music sessions every Wednesday and are not to be missed. Where to Stay The Old Bank Townhouse boasts five-star luxury in the heart of town and is the sister property to the Blue Haven Hotel, home to celebrated restaurant Rare 1784. Making the most of harbour views, the historic Acton's Hotel is a Kinsale stalwart welcoming guests for nearly eight decades. If falling asleep to the sound of tinkling ship masts is your thing, the Trident Hotel is ideal, and where great food and exceptional suites with private balconies make for a memorable escape. Perryville House, Kinsale, Co Cork. The elegant charms of Perryville House are as renowned as its famous breakfast, and a short distance from town set in 90 acres of beautiful woodland overlooking Oysterhaven Bay, Kinsale Hotel and Spa is a secluded sanctuary to rest and unwind. The Other 43 is an opulent light-filled self-catering apartment with eco-friendly credentials hovering above Kinsale harbour at Shearwater where luxury permeates from linens to finishes with a particular nod to Kinsale's own crafted traditions. The Lemon Leaf has three cosy rooms above the café which make for a perfect ending to an evening spent at their 'Lates' running summer long. The Old Presbytery is a Georgian property with five self-catering apartments in a quiet nook just seconds walk from Kinsale's restaurants and bars. Festival is 'sewing' the seeds of change From the world of high fashion publishing to the green fields of Kinsale, Ciara Hunt's career has taken her to London, Toronto, Boston and Munich. But a return to Kinsale, the favourite place of her childhood, has been the catalyst for a new chapter in an extraordinary life. Mareta Doyle and Ciara Hunt, founders of Fashion & Farming, a new festival attracting respected speakers. In May, Ciara co-founded a new festival, Fashion & Farming, with her mother, Mareta Doyle, a familiar face behind Kinsale Arts Week. The festival aimed to kick-start a conversation around where these two seemingly disparate topics converge — the soil. The festival drew in a diverse array of big-name speakers. U2's Adam Clayton, MEP Mairead McGuinness, former TD Simon Coveney, and Farming for Nature Ambassador Darina Allen, and activists from the worlds of farming and fashion, political and not, all gathered at Kinsale Community School's new theatre. But where did the idea germinate? Seven years ago, Ciara and her husband Richard, purchased a dilapidated farmhouse which came with 60 acres of land. While the house was what drew them and their three children to this pastoral scene, it was an unnatural silence in a natural place that became a revelatory and life changing moment. 'I was super excited about the house,' says Ciara. 'It's nestled among trees, deep set and cocooned. The setting is beautifully serene. I had been walking the land when I began to wonder why it was so quiet. There was no sound; the landscape was dead around us — no birds, no bees, no buzzing, nothing. I became obsessed about it; I couldn't understand why I wasn't hearing anything? 'The first thing I did was to stop all farming. I realised we had to bring fertility back into the soil because it was dead after years of intensive farming. We planted lots of grasses and clovers, thousands of trees, and restored the hedgerows by going back to the original field maps. 'By creating hedgerows, cultivating shrubs, trees, edges, margins, building ponds and restoring dry-stone walls it has brought the wildlife back. The Dawn Chorus wakes me every morning now. It's so loud, but exciting because we created that. There was nothing there and now there's so much life.' The two worlds of fashion and farming do not naturally connect in the mind, but the big picture is — clothes or food — it all starts with the soil. 'Mum brought these two worlds together, stemmed from my background in fashion and my realisation that we all buy and consume too much fashion, and my work on this land. 'The farm-to-table conversations happened, but fashion has not been discussed as broadly as it should be. It's one of the world's greatest pollutants and it really needs to be addressed, particularly fast fashion and the disposal of fashion — it's shocking what it's doing to the environment. 'It was a massive success, and we have received a fantastic response from our audience and speakers — many have said they want to come back next year.' Fashion & Farming Festival returns to Kinsale May 9-10, 2026. In the meantime, be sure to seek out Kinsale's sustainable makers and creators in both fashion and food on your next visit. Kinsale, for all-year-long fun You'll find something to entertain you in Kinsale throughout the year. Here is just a small sample of the festivals that await you in the coming months. Festivals Kinsale Arts Weekend, 10-13th July: This year's theme is Ninth Wave: 'Cliodhna, Queen of the Banshees, rides The Ninth Wave, crashing through from the deep, spiriting mortal souls along the seabed to Hy Breasil, her island in the West Sea… Kinsale Arts Weekend has the power to take you into the unknown. To experience the excitement and terror of The Ninth Wave.' Now in its ninth year, and with another wonderfully curated programme, events span music and poetry to film and documentary, dance and theatre, sculpture and painting, comedy and writing. Kinsale Regatta, 1st-5th August: The oldest running regatta in Ireland, Kinsale Regatta celebrates the maritime culture and heritage of the town. Watch vessels racing in open water from ocean yachts to dinghies, and a thrilling long-distance swim around Sandycove Island. Plenty of action on land too, plus all Kinsale food and drink to delight in when the boats are resting. Heritage Week, 16 - 24 August 2025: Long before it became world famous for food and sailing, Kinsale was an important trading and fishing port and it also held strategic military importance. Much of that built heritage is preserved in the town and Heritage Week connects people, places and history through events as diverse as historical walks, talks and tours, poetry, music, art and architecture. Joachim Beug, author, who features at Words by Water: Kinsale Literary Festival 2025. Words by Water: Kinsale Literary Festival, 2nd—5th October: A weekend devoted to celebrating good writing, the festival programme appeals to readers of all ages and interests with events showcasing literary fiction to sport, poetry to the short story and much more in between. Full programme and tickets available online. The Mad Hatter's Taste of Kinsale, 11th October (TBC): One of the most anticipated events in the Kinsale calendar! Gather in your finery and follow Alice, the Queen of Hearts, March Hare and the infamous Mad Hatter on a walking food tour with delicious fayre. Tickets sell fast, so don't be late!
Irish Examiner
20-05-2025
- Irish Examiner
'A really good news story': Cork students repaired laptops to send to school in Tanzania
For a class of Tanzanian pupils, it was the first time they had seen, let alone held or used, a computer in their entire lives. However, this has all changed thanks to innovative students of Kinsale Community School, who undertook a project repairing 18 "end-of-life" laptops at their school. Aaron Bowen, a teacher at the school, led the initiative which saw a separate group of students travel with the laptops to their partner school. Run by the Teretta Foundation, which supports communities through sustainability projects, the school is located in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. Transition-year students Matthew Coholan, Moki Sheehy, Anthony Byrne, Billy Dennehy, Cathal Murray and Eva Clarke were among those who participated in the laptop repair module. Julius Thalkofer, Lena Peters, Maria Louisa Vogt, and Philip Murphy were also part of the team. The group linked in with students travelling to the Tanzanian school, who presented a teacher with the laptops. Students from a school run by the Teretta Foundation in Tanzania with their teacher who received a number of recycled laptops from students of Kinsale Community School. The Tanzanian children have now learned to use the computers, which will form an instrumental part of their learning. The project, titled Renew IT, has a scooped a number of accolades in recent months, including the senior group award at the AIB Future Sparks Awards and the 'Local to Global SDG Award' at the Young Environmentalist Awards. Most recently, it scooped a Garda Youth Award for the district of West Cork. Principal of Kinsale Community School Fergal McCarthy praised his students for their innovation. 'The excitement of the arrival of these devices for the students was really fantastic,' he said. 'There are many threads to this story. There is the compassion from the students who repaired the laptops. There were also the students who went to Tanzania to help these young children.' He explained how the project came to fruition. 'The first roll-out of devices served us really well but post covid we moved to one-to-one devices. Back then, we had a multiplicity of laptops around the school. Rather than them gathering dust, we understood the need for rebuilding the laptops. Cathal Murray, Maria Louisa Vogt, Julius Thalkofer, Billy Dennehy, Moki Sheehy, Philip Murphy, Eva Clarke and Matthew Coholan from Kinsale Community School who undertook a project upcycling old laptops to gift to students in Tanzania. "With this in mind, we put together a module in transition year around computer repairs. This project ticked a lot of boxes from an environmental perspective. What they learned also contributed positively to the development of a 21st-century skillset around the refurbishment of devices. "There are few further education courses or degree courses with a focus on the repair of computers. For our students to have an insight into the inner workings of a computer and the capacity to repair, replenish and refurbish is fantastic for them. These are skills that are very much needed globally.' Mr McCarthy said the experience had been extremely rewarding for his students. I've seen videos of the children receiving these devices. It was their first time ever seeing a computer so they were so excited. "Before that, their teacher has been teaching them about how to use a computer and how they worked with the aid of just a blackboard. It reiterated just how important these repair modules are. This is a really good news story.' Read More Deis plan to emphasise retention of students up to Leaving Cert and beyond
RTÉ News
16-05-2025
- General
- RTÉ News
New Leaving Cert course aims to encourage climate activism
A new Leaving Certificate subject aims to encourage students to become activists on issues related to climate change, developing "a realistic and hopeful perspective on the nature of action", according to the course designers. Fifth year students across an initial 43 schools will become the first to study Climate Change and Sustainable Development when it is introduced in their schools in September. A national rollout of the subject will begin in 2027. The subject aims to develop students' capacity for "informed and meaningful action for a just and sustainable world" as they engage with key sustainability challenges, including the climate crisis, according to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). The subject will be multi-disciplinary, encompassing areas of science, geography and other disciplines. It will be grounded, the NCCA said, in scientific evidence and in human rights principles. A key attraction for many students will be the fact that 40% of marks will be awarded for an "action project" based on a brief that will be set out annually by the State Examinations Commission. According to the NCCA, the action project provides students with an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the concepts and principles they have learned throughout the course, while also employing the practical strategies and thinking they have developed to learn to take action in the area of climate action and sustainable development. Kinsale Community School is among the 43 schools that will pilot the new subject from September. Education around sustainability has been a key extracurricular activity at the school for a number of years, prompted by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. "When we came out of Covid we found that the students were really quiet, they were really withdrawn. They weren't inclined to talk in class and that really concerned us," Deputy Principal Kathleen O'Brien said. Having watched students prior to the pandemic become involved in the international student protest movement led by Greta Thunberg, Kinsale Community School decided to capitalise on this. "We had these amazing students protesting outside City Hall [in Cork city] about climate issues and I felt that our students should have the opportunity within our school to learn about this stuff, to become more informed and empowered," Ms O'Brien said. "I felt we should develop activists within our walls, so we decided to focus on sustainability, and it's been huge for students' self-efficacy and personal development. They have come out of themselves." Ms O'Brien has been centrally involved with the NCCA in designing the new course. The most unusual feature of the new subject is its focus on activism. For a formal school subject this is a new departure, and it is one that Ms O'Brien welcomes. "The fact that students can now study this subject is absolutely amazing and it's going to change lives. We need students who will become activists. "Through doing this course they are going to become really informed and learn that by taking small actions they can make a difference," she said. Ms O'Brien refers too to what she calls a "huge amount of eco-anxiety" among students. This is evident when speaking to students at the school. We met Transition Year and other students who were working in the school's greenhouse, potting up tomato and basil seedlings. In the sunlit central courtyard by the greenhouse, the mood was relaxed and it didn't feel remotely like school. However, when it came to climate change these students were serious. "I'm really pretty worried about climate change," student Skye Sheedy said. "I get a lot of eco-anxiety when I hear stuff all over the media about our environment and the future." "It's the factories, the fossil fuels, I'm scared for our future and the future for our grandchildren, that the world will be destroyed for them," TY student Caoimhe Finnegan said. Caoimhe intends to take up the new subject when she goes into fifth year in September, so do Lia Darcy and Matthew Colohan. "I'm really excited about the activism side, about making my voice heard, making people listen, making politicians listen to the young people about our future," Lia Darcy said. She added: "It's our duty to change. If we don't change in this generation, it's going to start deteriorating." Matthew agreed, saying: "The project work really attracts me, but also making a difference." To Skye's regret the new subject has come too late for her as she already in fifth year. "I really wish I could do this subject," she said. "I love the projects and reaching out to people. I feel like when I'm doing practical things it helps me de-stress." Ms O'Brien feels this is one aim of the course, channelling student anxiety into positive action will empower them and give them hope. The NCCA specification for the subject talks about enabling students "to recognise their own agency, grow in confidence to influence change and increase their capacity to act". But what about academic standards? Is the subject going to be academically rigorous? Both the action project, worth 40%, and the written exam, worth the remaining 60%, will - like all other Leaving Certificate subjects - be assessed by the State Examinations Commission.
