News
Time for Tamika to showcase her talents at national level

Tamika Heaphy's thoughts on health and prosperity helped her to secure a place in a national final.
On Saturday, the Fifth Year student from Killarney Community College, earned herself a place in the national final of the Soroptimist International Girl’s Public Speaking Competition in Cork.
Soroptimist International is a global volunteer movement working together to transform the lives of women and girls with nearly 72,000 members in 121 countries. In Ireland, there are 15 clubs that work at a local, national and international level to educate, empower and enable women and girls to reach their potential.
The Soroptimist Ireland Girls’ Public Speaking Competition has been running for over 40 years. The competition is a three-stage event with local and regional competitions leading to a national final.
The competition encourages girls to develop the skills to speak effectively and articulately with clarity and conviction. This enables them to improve their self-confidence and personality which in turn will enhance their career opportunities.
“This has been an amazing experience, public speaking skills are so important," teacher Tara O’Shea said.
"We have always encouraged our students to enter public speaking competitions. As a result of this, our students are well versed and have very strong opinions on many global and social issues so this was the perfect opportunity for students like Tamika to showcase her talents at a national level."
The regional final showcased an array of wonderful speakers who spoke on a variety of topics such as democracy, health, people, human rights, environment and peace. Tamika chose to speak about the topic of health and prosperity where she wowed the adjudicators with her eloquent speech and her fantastic public speaking skills. She competed against five other students and secured first place and an opportunity to compete in the national final.
Teresa Irwin and Sheila Casey from Soroptimist Ireland Killarney added that they "are so proud" of Tamika.
"Her ability to deliver her speech was engaging and educational. It has been great to see a local girl get so far in the competition and to be given an opportunity that empowers women and girls to use their voices and showcase their skills."
The national final will be held in Wexford on March 4 where Tamika will be up against seven other speakers from around Ireland.
If successful she will be invited to speak at the International Conference which will be held in the conference centre in Dublin this year.
"‘This has been a wonderful opportunity for the students in our school," Deputy Principal Eilish O’Leary said.
"The mission of the Soroptimists is to transform the lives and status of women and girls through education, empowerment and enabling opportunities. This competition has already provided Tamika with excellent opportunities to work towards her future career. We wish her all the best in the national final in March."
News
Fossa School says ‘bonjour’ to French classes

Fossa National School is giving its pupils a headstart in learning a new language.
The school signed up to Language Sampler scheme as part of the ‘Say Yes to Languages’ initiative in primary schools organised by Post Primary languages Ireland in 2021. This is the school’s third year running the module.
Hélène Olivier-Courtney, the school’s French teacher and director of French For All Killarney School of French, covers ten schools in Kerry over the three terms.
The success of the initiative relies on an all-school approach and the active involvement of class teachers and management.
“The whole staff in Fossa certainly helped make this new journey a special and enjoyable experience for the children as we learnt French through art, songs, games and food tasting! This year, we also organised a catwalk on our last day. Our sixth-class students will have such a head start before secondary school and most importantly will have develop curiosity interest and love for the language,” said Hélène.
News
Opinion: Silent majority needs to stand up and call out far-right hate

By Chris Davies
Last Friday’s Dublin Riots should not have come as a surprise to anyone. It has been bubbling under the surface of Irish society for a good number of years now. The actions of a small minority last week was a culmination of years of racism, hatred and misinformation shared online by far-right groups.
Late on Friday night a disturbing WhatsApp voice note was doing the rounds on social media where a far-right actor could clearly be heard encouraging violence on the streets of Dublin.
“’Seven o’clock, be in town. Everyone bally up, tool up…Any foreigner, just kill them”
Watching the Riots unfold on social media brought me back to when I was working in Dublin a number of years back. My morning commute from Skerries to the city centre involved a dart to Connolly Station followed by a short trip on the Luas to the Jervis. Every week, without fail, I would witness at least one racial slur or attack on someone who didn’t fit the narrow minded view of what an Irish person should look, dress or talk like. I don’t know if it is the eerie silence of public transport that seems to amplify the situation, but that’s where I found it to be most common. The abuse was usually perpetrated by a group of youths or someone who was clearly under the influence of drink or drugs. The victims were always of colour, often dressed smartly enough to presume they were on their way, or coming from work. A far cry from the perpetrators who you could tell were roaming aimlessly around the city looking for trouble.
While shameful to admit, I would often look on and watch the abuse unfold, only to spend the rest of my work day thinking about the poor person who was told to “F*&K off back to your own country”. I would sit at my desk questioning why I didn’t step in and say something. There were one or two occasions where I did step in and call it out, but not nearly often enough.
This disgusting behaviour is much more visible in our cities. Since moving back to Killarney I wouldn’t witness as much direct abuse on the streets but working with the Killarney Advertiser I would be tuned in to local news and some of the comments I read on our social platforms are far worse than anything I witnessed during my time in Dublin.
There is a significant group of people in Ireland that I would call the ‘silent majority’. We are not as outspoken on issues we care about. We tend to observe and consume the news quietly, and only speak of our support or disgust on certain issues in close circles, too afraid we might offend someone. The problem with this is that we are leaving these far-right groups unchallenged, to become louder, more aggressive and more hostile as seen last week.
The past week Sinn Fein and the Social Democrats have been busy in the media expressing no confidence in Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris but I would suggest that there is a large percentage of the Irish population that bears some of the responsibility. We witness racism in our communities and online every day and we need to start speaking up and calling it out.
On the issue of immigration in Killarney, there is no doubt resources are being stretched and our tourism industry is suffering as a result of an influx of immigration. Locals have also raised concerns in relation to the placement of so many male international protection applicants in one setting and we only have to look back on the incident in Hotel Killarney last year where a number of men were involved in a harrowing stabbing incident to see how that played out.
However, being concerned around immigration is not the same as anti-immigration. It is important to raise these issues with local representatives and Kerry TD’s but also to separate ourselves from far-right groups who are only interested in encouraging violence.
The anarchy we witnessed last week should never be the answer and research shows it is completely unnecessary. Harvard University have looked at hundreds of protests over the last century, and found that non-violent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns and that it only takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.
Let’s continue to protest peacefully for issues we believe in, but stand up and speak out against people and movements in our community that incite hate and violence.