Young Irish legal eagles swoop to score US success
A GROUP of 10 secondary school students have shown they may be the wigs of the future after winning a major international legal competition in the United States.
The fifth-year pupils from Our Lady's College in Greenhills, Drogheda returned from New York yesterday following their victory at the 'International Mock Trials' tournament.
The students beat two other teams from the US to progress to the final of the competition, where each student on the team played a role in the courtroom trial during which they had to argue both sides in the case of a kidnapping.
"We were given 85 pages of case material and we had to do both sides of the kidnapping, to say how she [the defendant] was guilty and give all of our witnesses to show she was guilty.
"And then we had to switch it completely and show how she was completely innocent," student Emily Walker said. The full team comprised Ms Walker, Aoife Downes, Katie Casey, Niamhin O'Dowd, Theresa McKenna, Tara Gallagher, Aine Carolan, Jessica Taggart, Jessica Reilly and Derbhla Kerr.
Last night, the principal of Our Lady's College, Padraig O' Broin paid tribute to the team, saying all of the staff were "very impressed" at their pupils becoming the first Irish winners.
- Shane Hickey
Irish Independent
