May | 2024 | Knockanore National School

A week has passed but the conversations continue both in and outside of school. Our gathering last Wednesday was nothing short of epic! How privileged were we to be surrounded by the elite of horse racing Paul Townend, Davy Russell, John Kiely, Jimmy Mangan and our very own past pupil Denis O’ Regan.

photo credit Gerry O’Mahony

It all kicked off a few months ago. Paul won the Grand National, Denis announced his retirement. Both of those events was the start of the overall plan. Once we secured our guests, the next call went to Kieran O’Connor, renowned for his WLR Gaa match commentaries and his Farm View show, but also a man who knows his racing and could hold the attention of the crowd, including 101 pupils under the age of 13. Thank you Kieran for the wonderful job you did as MC on the day.

photo credit Gerry O’Mahony

Everything we do in Knockanore school is centred around our pupils. Our next step was to educate them about one of the oldest sports in the world. We needed to open their eyes to the world of horses and horse racing and appreciate the popularity of the sport amongst the people of Ireland. It was then we came across the HRI education programme, The Road to Racing’, a series of educational worksheets and videos hosted by Danny Mullins. As we went from the stable to the racecourse and got deeper into the programme, we started name dropping and making connections. One of the first connections was the stayers hurdle at Cheltenham won by Danny Mullins, their new ‘onscreen acquaintance’. This race was also won by Denis O’Regan on Inglis Drever and also by Paddy Kiely (John’s brother) as a trainer of Shuil ar Aghaidh. From here, their knowledge grew and they learned about the Galway Races, Leopardstown, Punchestown, the Aintree Grand National and Cheltenham.

Then came the phonecall to HRI (Horse Racing Ireland). Within minutes Elaine had us in the diary. Last Wednesday, Niall and Sue arrived with the horse simulator; a wonderful attraction. Each of the 101 pupils got to try it out, encouraged quietly by Niall.

There was one person missing from the stage that day, that was our very own Danny Power, presently a transition year student in Lismore. It’s only a few years ago that Danny was with us in Knockanore. In March, Danny made his debut for McCreery at Dundalk finishing ninth aboard Morning Approach. 2 weeks later he had his first win on Stag Night. Danny was unable to join us on the day, but I’ve a feeling there may be occasions down the line when Danny will have good reason to return to our school.

On the day, our invited guests, parents, grandparents and pupils enjoyed the social aspect of the day with refreshments and treats. A huge thank you to the Parents Association for organising and serving teas and coffees all afternoon, for arriving at 8.30am that morning to put up the stage, decorate the yard and even more impressively, emptied the yard and tidied the staffroom within 20 minutes of the event finishing. A special thank you to PA chairperson Carmel who rounded up the troops for these duties. She also followed up on the connection with HRI and organised for all pupils to receive goodie bags.

photo credit Gerry O’Mahony

Well done to our pupils who played their part in the run up; painting fences (and themselves), weeding, tidying the yard and even baking for the day itself.

A huge thanks to our staff and organising committee who worked together to make this happen.

Thanks to sports journalist Jordan Norris of WLRfm who joined us on the day. Jordan was professional yet discreet gathering interviews. He has produced a wonderful publication of the day’s events in this weeks Dungarvan Leader.