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Principal's Address to the Union

20 January 2012
On Sunday, 11th December 2011, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was the main celebrant at our annual school mass in Clarendon Street church.

He spoke of the need for personal integrity at this time and urged people to move away from the feting of so called celebrities and from a culture that is about appearances and show. In terms of private schools and their alumni, he might have been saying the following: that we should be less concerned about drum beating, tribalism and back slapping. Instead we should ask ourselves again and anew: "is our school being faithful to what it was founded to be and to do at this time? Is it evoking from pupils what is best in them, so that their light is there for all to see without putting anyone else in shadow, not drawing attention to themselves, but providing illumination for others?”

As he was speaking I was struck by the Maristness of the sentiments he expressed. We are now realising in our culture that to understate is not to undersell, to be quietlyconfident is not to risk being overlooked, to go on doing our work is to be unconcernedabout whether or not anyone attributes the work to us.

Recently in CUS there was an enormous amount of activity, as there always is around Christmas. The Vincent de Paul Society has been active with our Hamper Fund, with carol singing and with a range of fund raising activities involving all years to assist the poor.

The pupils from the primary and secondary schools have been practising this morning in St Anne’s Church for our upcoming carol services. The Battle of the Bands is taking place tomorrow evening in aid of the Philippines Project. All of this is happening through the efforts of many people – staff and pupils – quietly going about their work. This is the enactment of our Maristness and gives the school its integrity.

The Mass on Sunday 11th December, the carol services, the Hamper Fund, the Philippines Project, and most of all our everyday interaction as we go about the ordinary work of the school all help create and sustain a sense of community that is particular to our school in the heart of Dublin, in many ways hidden and unknown, but more importantly producing a light that does not draw attention to itself.May we continue to enlighten each other and to become more Marist in how we do so.

Fr. Martin Daly sm
Principal

























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