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St Brigid’s win award for promoting Irish on Social Media

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Students from St Brigid’s Secondary School have won a national award for their efforts to promote the Irish language on social media.

They received the award at a special ceremony hosted by Gael Linn in Mary Immaculate College this week. The students are part of ‘An Coiste Gaeilge’ – the Irish Committee – which was set up in September 2023. Since then, the group has worked hard on new ideas to promote Irish in the school, with help from Transition Year students and guidance from their teacher, Sinéad Collins.

The school is taking part in the Gaelbhratach scheme, which is supported by Gael Linn and involves 130 schools across the country. St. Brigid’s was awarded its first Irish flag last year and received its second this year. They are now one of only five Kerry schools to hold a Gaelbhratach in 2025.

In addition to receiving the Irish flag, the school was named Overall Winner for the Promotion of the Irish Language on Social Media – or Mórdhuais don Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn ar na Meáin shóisialta.

Over the past two years, the students have run monthly events like Irish bingo (Réamhfhocail Biongó), day trips to the Gaeltacht, Irish sports competitions like An Poc Fada, guest speakers, and art displays around the school. They’ve also taken part in workshops, including a visit to TikTok HQ for a technology day earlier this year.

New initiatives this year include Aoi na hAoine (Friday’s Guest), where committee members interview teachers, past pupils, and parents in Irish, showing how the language is used in daily life. Daily school announcements are now made in Irish too.

Irish teacher Ms Sinéad Collins said: “I am immensely proud of the effort that has been made across the school community – from the members of the Coiste Gaeilge to the rest of the student body; from my colleagues to management. Everyone has got on board to ensure we are successful year on year. It takes a village and this was a collective effort and richly deserved.”

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How will our Kerry TDs vote tomorrow?

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Tomorrow, Sinn Féin will be tabling a motion of no confidence against the Government after the protests that took place nationwide during the week.

Earlier today we asked our readers how would they vote in a no confidence motion against the Government?

Most of our readers said they would vote no confidence, while some said, yes they do have confidence in the Government.

One reader said: “Vote confidence. The only proper leadership over the last few days came from government. Courage came when needed despite how unpopular it looked in the moment. By contrast, opposition politicians wanted the country to burn to suit themselves”.

Another reader stated: “No confidence. Shambolic and heavy handed handling of protests this past week”.

However, some people didn’t have any confidence in either side with a reader saying: “No confidence in the no confidence! Different wings of the same bird! We need a complete overhaul of the political system”.

We asked the question to our 5 Kerry TDs before lunch-time today, asking them what their vote will be tomorrow.

We received one reply from Sinn Féin’s Kerry TD Pa Daly.

He will be voting no confidence in the Government tomorrow along with his party.

Other media outlets are reporting that Independent TD Danny Healy-Rae is undecided at the moment.

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Town centre-based software firm marks two years in business

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A Killarney-based software company is celebrating two years in business since expanding into the European market.

QT9 Software Ltd, which is located on Bohereencaol was established in 2024 as part of the company’s move to better serve customers across Europe.

The business is part of a US-based company founded 20 years ago in Chicago by Brant Engelhart.

Its Irish office is headed by Killarney resident Angela O’Sullivan, who serves as Operations Director.

QT9 Software currently employs four full-time staff members in Killarney and plans to increase that number by an additional two this year.

The company provides quality management software to businesses worldwide, with the Irish office helping to support European customers within their own time zones.

As part of its continued European expansion, the software company also opened a new data center in Amsterdam in 2025 to meet data storage and compliance requirements.

QT9 Software works with businesses that must meet quality standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 13485, as well as industry-specific regulations across sectors, such as automotive, aerospace, food and life sciences.

Speaking about the milestone, Angela O’Sullivan said: “We’re very proud to have grown QT9 Software here in Killarney over the past two years. It has been a really positive journey so far, and we’re looking forward to continuing to build our team and support more customers across Europe.”

The company is also currently recruiting for an IT Systems Administrator, with details available in the appointments section on page 46.

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