It may have been a day off but that didn’t stop the Joey’s hurlers answering the call from the G.A.A. to go to Croke Park and launch the Leinster Championship. Stars like Dublin Captain Johnny McCaffrey and Wexford full-back Keith Rossiter got a chance to rub shoulders with the stars of tomorrow from Joey’s! The Joey’s lads played an exhibition game and were most impressive. They then posed – and I mean posed! – for photographs with the magnificent Bob O’Keeffe Cup  and had a chance to chat with the players. I don’t know if the Wexford number 3 was all that happy when Eoin McNeill asked why Wexford were brutal!

Anyway, a great day out for the lads on their day off!

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Just a reminder: Beidh an scoil dúnta ar an Luan agus freisin Dé Máirt seo chugainn: public holiday weekend – school will be closed Monday and Tuesday.

[Show as slideshow] The lads in Room 9a took themselves off for a great day out in Dublin Zoo. The weather wasn’t very kind but it takes more than a little rain to stop the Joey’s boys!

#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } We should all know a little bit about our locality so every so often we will do a feature of some aspect of the history of Fairview / Ballybough / Marino. PART 1: – The Jewish Graveyard. Not too many people know that only a couple of hundred metres from the school there is a little graveyard. Many of us pass it every day but and don’t even know it’s there. Next time you’re walking between Fairview church and Richmond Road look up and you’ll see a plaque saying that the building was built in the year 5618; this isn’t something from the future – it’s a date in the Jewish calendar and to the right of the building is the first Jewish cemetery in Ireland. 205 people have been buried here since it was opened in 1777.

Recently Sixth Class have been thinking and learning about World War 2 and the Battle of Stalingrad in particular . . .

One of our resident history experts James Martin writes about that violent and important period of history. . .

Stalingrad

In 1942 the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Soviet Russia. The Germans used the Bliztkrieg tactic to break through enemy defences.This tactic means using fast moving troops tanks and planes to quickly crush enemy defences in a lightning strike!

The leader of the German forces was Friedrich Von Paulus while leader of the Russian forces defending the city of Stalingrad was Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov.

The Germans wanted Stalingrad for the factories and oil behind the Ural mountains. Hitler’s obsession with Stalingrad led to his downfall. The Germans force held 90% of Stalingrad while the Russian forces held their 10% at the River Volga. When the Volga froze at night the Russians could sneak supplies to their allies in Stalingrad. The German Wehrmacht was ill equipped for the harsh Russian winter while the Russian soldiers had wolf and reindeer fur. In the freezing climate the Germans’ oil in their tanks froze so the first part of bliztkrieg was useless. When the Germans ran out of supplies the Luftwaffe air supplied their troops . . . It was hard to guide the supplies so the Russians might get food instead.

The Russians were fierce fighters and defended their city to the death , they were under orders not to retreat or to back down. If a Russian soldier had no gun, he waited until a fallen comrade would drop a rifle, then he would pick it up and continue to defend Stalingrad. . . Tanks were driven straight from the factory to the front line. . .

The Soviets managed to finally to turn the tide and trap the Germans after they encircled the German Sixth Army. The fighting that took place was called Rattenkreig – which means fighting like rats because this is how fierce and deadly the combat was!

Stalingrad was a turning point in the war because it led to the fall of Berlin. Stalingrad had seen such fierce fighting that the city was barley standing by the end of the battle, both sides had lost many many thousands of men.