The Parents Association wish, the teachers, staff, pupils and parents a very happy Easter. We would also like to thank all parents for their support, but more especially to thank all of the boys who worked so hard for their school in helping out on bag packing duties, fund raising through sponsorship, continually harassing your parents into bringing you here and there and buying a line for one cause or another. As a token of our appreciation we are holding a free raffle for an Easter egg for each class and also giving each boy a thank you gift of a small egg. A special thank you also to Amanda, the school secretary, for all of her help during the year.

Parents association Activities
Committee members Noel Cunningham, Mary Burford, Paula Neary, Helena Perry and AdrienneWalsh organised two very successful bag packs in Dunne's Stores. The first, on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of Dec.2001 raised a total of €1,390.The second on the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th of Mar.2002 raised €1,500 to give a total of almost €2,900.Well done to the organising members, parents and especially the boys who did so much to make the two bag packs such a success.

The sale of Christmas cards through the school turned out to be an important source of new funds for the school and raised €1982.47 gross. Thanks to all of you who bought cards and special thanks to committee member Michael Scriney for organising printing and delivery of the cards to the school and also Triona McGregor, Denise Barry, Mary Burford, Sheila Mulligan, Lorraine Styles, Martina Devlin, Helena Perry and Adrienne Walsh for their work in collecting and accounting of monies raised.

David's Parents Association
David's Parents Association recently organised delivery of. Coolock/Artane Credit Union newsletters. This was our first time to do this and unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances it was not organised as well as we would have wished. We would like to assure parents it was not our intention that your sons would be responsible for this work and at our meeting on Wed.27th Feb. strong opinions were expressed by members on behalf of themselves as parents and on behalf of other parents who had contacted them. Steps are already being taken to ensure this doesn't happen again. This is an important fund raiser, worth circa €9,500 and we would firstly like to thank the boys and parents who worked so hard and secondly apologise for the lack of organisation, which will not be repeated

Easter traditions
The name Easter comes from Eostre, an ancient Anglo Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honour. Some Easter customs have been taken from this and other pre-Christian spring. Festivals. The egg a symbol of new life has been associated with Easter for centuries, as have chicks and rabbits as they all symbolised the re-birth of life in Spring. A lot of traditions have grown up around Easter, as shown below. In Italy, Palm Sunday is regarded as a day to patch up quarrels. In Lebanon, Christians like to wear new clothes on Palm Sunday. In Wales it is known as Sul y Blodau or flowering Sunday. Easter bells are rung world wide to remind us of Christ's coming back to life. We cut branches of palm to remind us of how people spread palm fronds in front of Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem.

Completed Projects
St. David's computer network is now up and running. The School is indebted to committee member Paula Neary and her husband David, who put so much time and effort into this very important school resource. Their knowledge and contacts saved the school a considerable amount of money and because of this the school now has, not only a dedicated computer room, but also a networked computer in each classroom. This is resource that is not available in as many primary schools as you might think. It gives St David's boys a big advantage. in the area of computer skills which are becoming an absolute necessity in today's societyThe Archives, a complete history of the school, including every boy who ever attended St. David's, is now completed. This was a huge task and one for which Principal, John McGarry can take a lot of credit It is, yet again, a resource very few schools would have and one which will have many varied uses in the future, even if it is just to see what you looked like all those years ago or try and remember why you called that guy in the middle of the front row Brillo. An open day or evening is being planned to celebrate these and other achievements hopefully before the end of the school year.

School Web Page
The updated school web page is nearing completion and will be available at, http://www.stdavidsbns.com

St. David's Annual Race Night was held in The Sheaf O' Wheat on Tuesday 12th of March. As yet all of the money has not been accounted for, but once again it looks like being a major success. We will have details of the amount raised in our summer newsletter. Our thanks to Principal John McGarry and committee member Theresa Cox for their work in putting it all together, the committee members who worked on the night (too numerous to name, but you know who you are) and the parents and companies who bought advertisements, horses, jockeys and stables, the owners and staff of The Sheaf O' Wheat for the venue and sponsorship, and, of course, all of you who turned up on the night. If you lost your shirt on the races we feel for you but we need the money. Rumours of insider dealing surrounding the winnings of Chairman Stephen Smith and Principal John McGarry are strenuously denied. The committee has also decided it cannot reinburse committee member Helena Perry for medical attention received for a sore throat caused by supporting hopeless nags!

Coolock/Artaine Credit Union, St. David's Branch
The credit union is very active in the school at present and it is thanks to the co-operation of the parents, teachers and pupils that it is such an ongoing success. Boys are encouraged to save regularly and it helps to build good financial habits by saving each week. Christmas, holidays and back to school expenses will seem a lot less with a few euro put by each week. We had a draw for the euro conversion and each class had a winner among the boys who had returned their cards. On behalf of the credit union we thank you for your support and we look forward to welcoming many additional members in the new school year. By Paula Neary

Tony sprints for the line
Once again the Dublin City Marathon, held last October, proved a great fundraiser for the school. The amount raised was €8,725.00. Many thanks to Tony Confrey for running the marathon in aid of the school, to all the boys who collected so much sponsorship money and to Denise Barry, Mary Burford and Adrienne Walsh for the huge task of counting and recording the pennies and 2p, 5p, 10p and on and on. Congratulations to Carl Butterly for collecting the most amount of sponsorship, a whopping €287.02. Other overall awards went to Adam McGuirk and Gary Keegan. There were also prizes given to the top three fundraisers in each class group. 1st classes Craig O'Neill Forbes, Michael Furlong and Keith McCormack, 2nd classes Marq Ancajas, Adam McQuirk and Darragh Clarke, 3rd classes Paul Graydon, James Murray and Jordan Balbirnie, 4th classes Karl Butterly, Conor Harvey and Patrick Ivory, 5th classes Jason Reid, Damien Dunne and Adam Histon and 6th classes Neil Keenan, Brian Murphy and Anthony Ormond. Well done to all of you.

St. David's Confirmation Day
The confirmation of St. David's boys from 6th class took place on Tuesday 6th of March in The Church of St. John Vianney, Ardlea Road. The mass was celebrated by Bishop Jim Moriarty assisted by Fr. Andrew Ryder P.P., Fr. Stephen Matroni C.C. and Deacon David Marsden. Altogether 63 boys were confirmed, 30 from Mr. Moore's class in room 15 and 33 from Mr.Eviston's class in room 16.The following boys were confirmed.

First Confession
First confession took place on the 19th of March at 7pm in St. John Vianney Church for both Mr. Elliffe's boys in room 17 and Ms. Quinn's boys in room 18.