Eureka students to be 'great ambassadors' for Ireland at New York competition

The Eureka Secondary School's mock trial team, who will travel to New York in October to represent Ireland in an international competition, came in for high praise at last week's meeting of Kells Town Council. The council agreed to see what funds it has available for a grant for the team, who won the All Ireland competition last April. Cllr Bryan Reilly said the performance of the local team was extraordinary. "They are going to New York to represent Ireland, the county and Kells. They will be great ambassadors for the county," he said. Cllr Sarah Reilly said that Anne Dolan, the solicitor who prepared them for the competition had done fantastic work. "She was there when I was at school and it was because of her that I went into the law," she said. Cllr Reilly said they should celebrate their win as a town. Cllr Brian Curran said it was a wonderful achievement. Cllr Conor Ferguson congratulated the girls and their teachers and said the council should support to them. The Eureka students will be competing against 35 teams from around the world in a competition where the students act as barristers, solicitors, witnesses court reporters, ushers and jurors The case is argued before juries from other schools. The students who will represent Ireland are Aoife Cosgrove, Sophie Tevlin, Ruth O'Reilly, Niamh Flattery, Judith Burke, Nicole Lam, Claire McGinty, Aileen Flood, Katie Meegan, Rachel Tobin, Aine Bennett, Deirdre Lynch, Niamh Lindsay and Lisa Conroy. Some of the top legal minds in the country were extremely impressed by the performance of the Kells students when they took the top prize in the National Mock Trial Competition last May. The Kells students emerged victorious at the finals, which took place in the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin. Mr Justice Peter Kelly and two of his colleagues acted as judges for the final. The Kells students had been prepared for the competition by Anne Dolan, a solicitor with AB O'Reilly Dolan & Co, Solicitors, Cootehill, Co Cavan, and were sponsored by the Meath Solicitors' Bar Association. The Kells girls were all transition year students at Eureka and they won their way through to the finals against tough competition from all around the country, beating Alexandra College, Milltown, Dublin, to win the final. As well as the team award, two of the Eureka students won the joint top prize for best performance. The Harry Hill prize is usually presented to the best overall performance each year, but the judges could not decide between Ruth O'Reilly and Aoife Cosgrave and awarded them the prize jointly. Kells team member, Katey Cosgrove, took second place in the country in the associated TV reporter competition. The Kells team consists of two 'barristers', a 'solicitor' and four 'witnesses', a court official as well as TV reporter, television reporter, photographer and court artist.