Principal’s Address

Chair of Governors, ladies and gentlemen, honoured guests, parents, and most importantly, the Class of 2025.

Good evening, and welcome to the annual St Paul’s Senior Prizegiving ceremony. It is a privilege to stand before you tonight as we gather to celebrate the outstanding achievements of our pupils.

Only a few short months ago, at your Leavers’ Mass in May, I urged you to make that final, determined push towards your examinations. Tonight, we can say with pride that you did more than rise to that challenge. The results you received in August were not only exceptional – but they were also the best set of A Level results in our school’s 59-year history. That is no small achievement, and it stands as proof of your resilience, your effort, and your ambition.

Each achievement collected tonight represents much more than a grade. It tells the story of early mornings, late nights, countless drafts, and the will to persevere when the easier option might have been to give up. Those stories are yours, and they are worth celebrating.

This evening also belongs to your parents and carers. Their pride in you is written across every smile in this hall. Since the day you first walked through the doors of St Paul’s in September 2018, they have walked with you, encouraging, guiding, and supporting you. I hope we, as a school, have matched that trust and helped give you the foundation to flourish.

I am grateful to be joined tonight by our distinguished guests of honour. I extend a particular welcome to our Chair of Governors, Mrs Eileen Fearon, whose steady leadership has guided this school through more than a decade of unparalleled growth and success. Her wisdom and support are invaluable.

We are also deeply honoured to welcome Mrs Maria Reidy, with her daughter Ciara and son Conor. Maria’s late husband, Tommy, was a much-loved colleague and friend, who sadly passed away last December after illness. This evening, we inaugurate a new award in Tommy’s memory, a lasting tribute to his life, his work, and his influence in St Paul’s. We thank the Reidy family for their generosity in enabling us to mark his legacy in this way. You are all very welcome here this evening.

We also warmly welcome my colleague Mr Kevin McCann, who will present the Shauna McCann Memorial Award for Girls’ Gaelic Football, in memory of his late beloved daughter Shauna, a much-missed past pupil who died too young and who remains deeply cherished and remembered within our community.

And finally, it gives me great pleasure to welcome back to St Paul’s our esteemed Guest of Honour, Kate Fearon, a proud past pupil of this amazing school who takes her place on the St Paul’s Wall of Fame this evening. Since leaving this school, Kate has built an extraordinary career in international diplomacy and conflict resolution.

Since January 2024, Kate has served as Director of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Conflict Prevention Centre in Vienna, leading its vital work across Europe and Central Asia. She first joined the OSCE in 2022 as Deputy Director, where she oversaw the organisation’s policy support and its regional desks in South-Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Before that, Kate worked with the European Union’s missions in Kosovo and Georgia, and as Special Advisor to the Civilian Operations Commander in Brussels. In that role, she advised on missions in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa, supporting stability and the rule of law in some of the most fragile regions of the world. She has also worked on rule of law issues in Afghanistan and Sudan.

Earlier in her career, Kate held senior positions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she helped to implement the Dayton Accords, and in Kosovo, where she played a leading role in advancing the Ahtisaari Plan.

Of course, her leadership began closer to home. As a founding member of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, Kate was part of the talks that produced the Good Friday Agreement – one of the most important milestones in our shared history.

Kate studied at Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Sarajevo and Huddersfield University. She is the author of two books – Women’s Work: The Story of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition and City of Soldiers: A Year of Life and Death in Afghanistan – as well as numerous academic articles on conflict resolution, the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, and democracy building.

But first and foremost, she is a proud Armagh woman, and proud of her home parish of Killeavy. It is a source of great pride to us in St Paul’s that one of our own has gone on to such distinction on the international stage.

Kate, we are honoured to welcome you back this evening.

I mentioned earlier that the school is 59 years old this year, with our diamond jubilee celebrations planned for the 2026/27 academic year, recognising that the school opened its doors for the first time back in September 1966. Back on that first day, and over the following thirty years, a colossus in education bestrode this school and this area. I am, of course, referring to Mr Michael Warde, the first Principal of St Paul’s, and someone who dedicated so much of his life to ensuring the realisation of our vision of ‘Quality Education for All’.

I know many of you in the audience tonight will have received your education here, under Mr Warde’s tutelage, and you will all join me tonight in praying for him in hospital where he has been for the last week or so, following an accident at home. His family are with him and we send him and them all our love, thoughts and prayers this evening.

To the Class of 2025 – tonight is a celebration, but it is also a launchpad. You step forward now into a world that is full of both opportunity and challenge. My advice is simple: take with you the same determination that brought you success here and let it guide you wherever you go. You will always be part of the St Paul’s family, and we will always take pride in your achievements.

On behalf of everyone here tonight, congratulations on what you have achieved, and on what you will yet achieve. Once a St Paul’s pupil, always a St Paul’s pupil – carry that with you.

Enjoy this special evening and thank you for allowing us to share in your success.

Thank you.