St Paul’s honour Young Scientist winner

THE overall winner of the 2014 BT Young Scientist & Technology award was honoured at a special ceremony at his Raheny school last week.

Earlier this year, Paul Clarke (17), a Leaving Cert student at St Paul’s College, won the prestigious national award and went on to win joint-second place at European level for his project entitled

‘Contributions to cyclic graph theory’.

Local Senator Feargal Quinn paid a special visit to St Paul’s College to pay tribute to the young student and to perform the official unveiling of the specially commissioned plaque to commemorate Paul’s major achievement.

The permanent plaque in the school bears the motto

‘Gestis Censere’ –

‘By your deeds you will be judged’.

Paul’s parents Des and Anne, his close relatives, teaching and secretarial staff, members of the Vincentian community and the school’s board of management attended the ceremony.
Speaking during the celebrations, Senator Quinn said Paul was a credit to his family, the school and the entire nation.

Business teacher at St Paul’s College, Celine McGuinness, said Paul’s achievement would never be forgotten at the college.

“This plaque will serve as an inspiration for all future pupils who grace the hallowed corridors of Paul’s alma mater,

? said Ms McGuinness.

The entire school came on board to celebrate Paul’s win with teachers and students from the school’s art and music departments kept very busy in recent weeks.

Art students created an exclusive wall mural depicting Paul with his collection of books and the music department provided the music for the occasion, with Paul’s brother Eoin on keyboard.
School Principal Michael Behan joked that the depiction of Paul in the mural bore a very close resemblance to Harry Potter!

Paul will sit his Leaving Certificate exams in 2015, after which he plans to go on to study pure mathematics at Cambridge University.

Paul has two brothers – Ronan, a past pupil of St Paul’s College and Eoin, who is currently a Transition Year student at the college.