St Paul’s High School welcomed the Class of 2026, their parents and carers, and a distinguished company of guests to the school hall on Thursday 10 September 2026 for Senior Prizegiving, the first great occasion of the school’s Diamond Jubilee year.
Chair of Governors, Mrs Eileen Fearon, Guest Speaker, Bishop Michael Router, Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh and Bishop-elect of Derry, Principal, Mr Dáithí Murray and V Rev Séamus White, PP, Chaplain to St Paul’s.
St Paul’s High School welcomed the Class of 2026, their parents and carers, and a distinguished company of guests to the school Assembly Hall on Thursday 10 September 2026 for Senior Prizegiving, the first great occasion of the school’s Diamond Jubilee year.
St Paul’s opened its doors in September 1966. Sixty years later, 112 pupils came to the platform to receive more than two hundred awards recognising outstanding achievement and steadfast endeavour at GCSE, at A Level and across Level 2 and Level 3 courses, alongside Year 14 form class awards and the special awards that close the evening.
Principal, Mr Dáithí Murray, opened his address by looking back to the school’s founding Principal.
A school does not reach sixty years on bricks and mortar. It reaches sixty years on people. And the first name on that roll of people is Michael Warde.
Mr Murray spoke about the two roads St Paul’s pupils take after school, degrees and apprenticeships, trades and training, and made clear the school honours both equally. He then turned to the question facing every family in the age of artificial intelligence, drawing on Pope Leo’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, and on the meeting held in Armagh this summer between Archbishop Eamon Martin and senior leaders of OpenAI.
The more the machines can do, the more it matters what only you can do.
The Guest of Honour was Bishop Michael Router, Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh and Bishop-elect of Derry, who addressed pupils and parents and presented the evening’s awards. A former teacher and school chaplain, Bishop Michael has been a familiar and welcome presence in St Paul’s, and the school was touched that one of his final engagements before taking up his new appointment in Derry was with the pupils and families of Bessbrook.
The evening carried three moments of particular significance.
The school inaugurated the Gary Crossan Caritas Award, in memory of our school photographer of more than twenty years and a friend to everyone in the building. Gary’s wife Julie, his mother Sally, his sister Maelisa and his children joined us to present the first award to Peter Brennan.
Mrs Maria Reidy and Miss Ciara Reidy, wife and daughter of our late colleague Tommy Reidy of the Science department, returned to present the Tommy Reidy Spirit of Science Award to Alanna O’Neill, who also received the Shauna McCann Award for Senior Ladies Footballer of the Year from Mr Kevin McCann.
Mr Ciarán Conlon presented the Brian Conlon Foundation Academic Scholarship and Bursary to Jessica Shields, continuing a partnership that supports a St Paul’s pupil at the point of moving from school to third level.
Among the evening’s other major awards, Kayla Callaghan received the Award for Overall Academic Achievement at A Level; Conor Sands and Sarah McCauley were joint recipients of the Michael Warde Spirit of St Paul’s Award, named this year for the school’s founding Principal; Aodhan Coulter and Shona Meagher received the Awards for Overall Endeavour at GCE; and Micheal Kane, Meabh Watters and Daithi Murphy received the Peter Hughes Ambassador Award for Leadership. Major prize winners and Victors Ludorum from Junior Prize Giving and Sports Day 2026 were invited to join the senior evening and were presented to the audience.
Mr Murray closed with the school’s motto.
Our motto is In Caritate Radicati, rooted in love, and St Paul tells us there are only three things that last: faith, hope and love. No machine has any of the three. You have all of them.
Congratulations to every member of the Class of 2026.
Leave your comment