Principal's Message

Edmund Rice Day

This week, our College was able to celebrate Blessed Edmund Rice Day. Beginning with a very special Eucharistic Celebration, students also heard various presentations from respective Service Agencies. After recess, our annual Fun Run for India was held. Students and Staff completed courses set around our river location, raising important funds to continue our support of our various partner schools and centres in India. Following the Fun Run, everyone enjoyed food and festivities as part of the stalls and activities organised for lunchtime and the afternoon. 

Edmund Rice Day celebrates the rich history of Edmund Rice Education and its ongoing place across the world. At Trinity College, it provides a focus on our context as a Catholic School in the Edmund Rice tradition and challenges us to reflect on the values upon which an Edmund Rice education is built.

The first Edmund Rice school, Mount Sion in Waterford City, located in the Southeast of Ireland, was founded in 1802 and was driven by the values of Blessed Edmund Rice to provide education and learning for the city’s poorest and most underprivileged children. Edmund believed that education was capable of liberating individuals to seek a more joyous and productive life. Today, Mount Sion School is an amazing, flourishing, diverse and hugely creative school that continues to articulate the Edmund Rice message about equality, tolerance and oneness in community. As part of my Sabbatical Leave last year, I had the great privilege of spending several days in Waterford and certainly enjoyed being immersed in ‘all things Edmund’. Across the world, in very different and diverse contexts, Edmund Rice schools, care centres and charity groups continue to provide formation opportunities, educational pathways, support and guidance to many students and families.

While many within our College community would be familiar with the historical story of Blessed Edmund Rice, what we seek to do as a school is to continue to honour the legacy and mission of his ongoing work. Our strong Christian Service program and mantra of being ‘Men for Others’ is a reminder of these values. At a time when our world is witness to ongoing conflicts, and closer to home we grapple with a rising trend of violence towards women, we must continually examine ways in which we educate and encourage our young men to challenge such matters and develop respectful relationships.

Furthermore, we must examine how we might help form our boys, so they continue to be selfless in their outlook and compassionate in their care for everyone. 

This sense of relationship, authenticity, compassion and community is at the heart of an Edmund Rice education. It would seem that the values of care, courage, faith and stewardship so wonderfully demonstrated by Blessed Edmund Rice so many years ago, remain just as important today. As a community we must continue to instil in our boys, the ability to see injustice, the courage to challenge this appropriately, and the wisdom to do things differently and positively for their future. This is what a ‘liberating education’ seeks to do.

Edmund Rice challenged the ailing system of his time. He could not disregard those in need despite his own life being disturbed. The values so wonderfully displayed by Edmund Rice remain as important today as they did some 200 years ago. This, in fact, may be the most appropriate way to celebrate the feast of Blessed Edmund, in keeping his vision alive, within the context of our world today.

Live Jesus in our hearts

Mr Darren O’Neill 

Principal