Running for Ireland

Jake Byrne from Rochfortbridge has been selected for the Irish team to compete in the World Youth Championships in Bressanone, Italy, which will take place from July 8 to July 12.Jake achieved the qualification standard at an Irish Milers Club meeting in May when he ran his fastest ever 3,000m knocking a whopping 19 seconds off his previous best with a time of 8 minutes 30 seconds.Jake joins Claire Mageean of Lisburn, Liam Markham of Ennis Track, Killian Barry of Crusaders AC and Andrew Doyle of Mid Ulster AC on the Irish team.Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner this week, Jake said he is delighted all the training has paid off: 'All the pressure is off, I"m just looking forward to the championship now.'Jake who only took up running two years ago said he expects the competition to be fierce: 'It"s going to be tough but my goal is to stay as high up as I can in the Europeans.'But he has put in plenty of hard work over the last number of months in preparation for the race: 'I train about six days a week for a couple of hours a day, so it takes a lot of dedication but I enjoy it,' he said.All of Jake"s family are thrilled he has made it through to the World Championships, particularly his mum and dad, Ann and Gerry, who will travel to Bressanone to cheer Jake on.Jake would like to thank his club, Mullingar Harriers for all their support, as well as Rochfortbridge GAA, and of course the Ryan and Byrne families.He will run on Wednesday, July 8, and if he makes it to the finals, which is a huge ask, he will run again on Sundayy, July 11.Local drummer to play OxegenIn another piece of good news for the Byrne family, Jake"s older brother Ricky Byrne and his band Seven Days have been asked to perform at Oxegen musical festival this July.This is a huge achievement for the band who just recently formed.Ricky who previously played with local band Triega, studied in the Ballyfermot Rock School, where he met up with his fellow band members.Seven Days will play The Hotpress New Bands Stage on Saturday, July 11 at 2.00pm and promise to put on a great show. The lads would gladly appreciate any local support, so please get behind them!Bannon gets behind Convent Primary School"s plightFine Gael Deputy James Bannon accused the Department of Education of placing the children and teachers of the Convent Primary School in Rochfortbridge in an untenable position with the proposed removal of an eigthh teacher from the school.'The Minister for Education has cruelly deprived the school of an 8th mainstream, teacher, despite increased enrolment. This cost cutting measure comes at the expense of children"s primary education,' said Deputy Bannon.'Education is the key to our future economic growth, but the Minister for Education saves cents to waste future Euro and jeopardise educational advancement,' he said.'In depriving the school of this much needed teacher, the Minister is effectively forcing the school to put the 42 pupils enrolled for junior infants next September into multi grade groupings of up to 31 per class,' he continued.Deputy Bannon went on to speak about how Rochfortbridge as a village has an active inclusion policy but that children will be the ones to suffer educationally from the rising population if teaching personnell are taken away.'Rochfortbridge has an active inclusion policy, accepting special needs pupils who through no fault of their own, will suffer educationally from large classes in their most formative years,' said Bannon.'Schools such as that at Rochfortbridge were not built to accommodate the number of pupils seeking places, due to the rising population figures that pertain today.'This presents the school with a valid concern for health and safety, as its classrooms are smaller than average and incapable of holding the increased numbers of amalgamated groupings.'As I have said before in relation to other schools in the Longford/Westmeath constituency, the buck stops with the Minister and his department and accidents caused by overcrowding and substandard buildings are directly their responsibility.'I have asked the Minister to reconsider his decision and to allow the Convent Primary School in Rochfortbridge to retain this much needed teacher,' he finished.