In the immediate aftermath of the Typhoon Haiyan disaster in the Philippines the Rector, Fr Michael Sheil SJ, launched an appeal for relief funds from the wider Clongowes family. Just before Christmas (on the 18th of December) Grammar students met the challenge with one of their own when they hosted a social evening with the young ladies of Mount Sackville. Social and Personal correspondent Hugo Murray takes up the tale…
After weeks of preparation courtesy of Mr. Collins and the social prep team and also several house leaders who did some last minute decorating of the sports hall and supervision, the Clongowes / Mount Sackville social was a big success. The night was Christmas themed, with ‘strictly come dancing’ entertainment. As most of us had little or no experience of dancing we were walked through though the basics by instructor, Catriona, and we are very grateful for her professionalism and patience with us.
The Mount-Sackville girls arrived at 7:30pm and were greeted by one of our number, 
Andrew Gleeson, who explained to them how the night’s events would go. As they exited their bus Sean McCrohan and I gave each visitor a nametag with half a brand name or half a famous person’s name. Meanwhile the Clongowes boys were each given a tag with the other half of the name and each pair had to find each other, which helped to break the ice.
After yours truly said a few welcoming words the dancing commenced and continued with some success until 8:45pm, when a cake was brought out, which the Mount-Sackville Captain and I cut. She said a few words of thanks after which the dancing recommenced and you may see how good we looked here… Moving and shaking
While we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves the real winner was the Typhoon Haiyan Disaster Fund as each student donated €2 raising €342 to add to the fund, which now stands at over €200,000.
Hugo Murray
