Each year there are Composition workshops for Secondary school students, run by the National Chamber Choir.  In 1998, fourteen songs were written by the 5th year Music class in Manor House and recorded by the choir at the workshops in DCU.

The seventeen songs which made it to the final that year were performed at a gala concert in Dublin Castle by the choir (conductor: Colin Mawby).

These were the Manor House finalists:

  • Marian Troy wrote"Peter Piper", a tongue-twister.  
  • Aoife Colgan wrote "Weather's  Ingredients", where the choir had to make storm, rain and similar sounds. Aoife played the oboe during the piece. 
  • In "I, too" Aoife Ni Sheaghdha set the words of a Negro slave before the American  civil war.
  • Ruth Hopkins and Nicola Quaid wrote a Country and Western-style love song called "My Dream Boy"  and insisted that the choir perform it with culchie accents.

 

 

 

composing finalists 1998

The  Manor House   finalists are pictured with the then Minister for Education, Micheál Martin, 
after the Concert and award ceremony in Dublin Castle.


 

champions 1998


Emma, Niamh,  Jennifer (the captain) and  Deirdre

 

There is  a long series of French debates - Joutes Oratoires' - each year in the  Alliance  Francaise  in Dublin.

34 teams took part in 1998 and we beat Gonzaga College in the Final. This was the third time that Manor House won the competition.

If you have some knowledge of French you might like to translate the motions we debated:

1. L'Irlande actuelle est un pays pour les jeunes
2. La Presse est l'amie du peuple
3. Les  jeunes Irlandais sont trop influencés par la vie     americaine
4. Les écoles mixtes doivent être obligatoires
5. L'argent est la mère de tous les vices