Rose Orla is in a class of her own

ROSE of Tralee Orla O’Shea swapped her tiara for a mortarboard yesterday when she graduated from Mary Immaculate teacher training college in Limerick.

Orla, who was conferred with a BEd, teaches in a girls’ school in Swords, Co Dublin.

“I love teaching and I have 21 girls in sixth class. It is fitting in well with my Rose of Tralee duties as I finish mid-afternoon which gives me plenty of time and I also have the weekends,” she said.

Orla said she is enjoying the challenge of putting the new curriculum into effect in the classroom.

As she stood for pictures with class friends, Orla said: “I loved my time in Mary Immaculate and I had a great time in Limerick, which I will miss. I had great craic in college, particularly in the musical society.”

Her father, Seán, sister, Maria, and grandfather, Con O’Shea, all travelled from the family home in Kilkenny for the occasion.

Also conferred yesterday were Kerry football star Declan Quill, who was a substitute on the All-Ireland winning side, and Limerick county footballer Tommy Stack.

However, there were no celebrations last night for Tommy as today he lines out for Dromcollogher/Broadford in the Limerick senior football final replay against Newcastle West at the Gaelic Grounds.

Addressing the new graduates, the Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray, chairman of the governing body of Mary Immaculate College, told them the process of growing in wisdom should go on.

“The real object of education, as someone put it, is to leave people in the condition of continually asking questions,” said Bishop Murray.

He said we live in an age of information explosion.

Bishop Murray continued: “We are surrounded by information, even though, often enough, we may not be entirely sure whether what we are being told is true or whether we are being subjected to propaganda.”

Even more worrying, he said, we are in danger of losing sight of an overall vision. We are in danger of being battered by facts and stimuli without any clear picture of what our lives mean and where they lead.

“We may fail to see the truth for the facts. Only an overall sense of meaning can allow us to integrate all this information into wisdom,” he said.