Road Safety Talk

Today was quite a memorable day of Ty. A man named Pat McNeely of the Road Safety Authority came in to talk to our class for the duration of the day. He started off the day with showing us videos and telling us a story about two young men, Paul and Dave, who had been involved in a car accident that changed their lives in a big way. They lost their best friend and Paul ended up in a wheelchair, paralysed from the hips down. This was a shocking story and it really showed how much people's lives can be changed by reckless driving.

Throughout the day, we watched numerous different videos and saw many graphic images of fatal car accidents and the affects they have on friends and families all over Ireland. We focused a lot on the traumatic car crash in Donegal which happened two years ago. Two cars were involved, one with a young man Declan driving with his Aunt and Uncle in the car, and another with a young man Paul driving with three teenage boys in the car, two of which were twin brothers. All were killed except Declan, who was talking in the video but it was evident the guilt he still felt as he felt that the crash was his fault. This was an upsetting video to watch as the families of the victims are traumatised by the accident and will never be the same again. All these videos that we saw and stories we were told were such an eye opener to how dangerous the road is these days, especially in light of the tragedy that happened yesterday when a sixteen year old girl was knocked down in Celbridge and later died in hospital. We should pray for her family and friends at this time and may she rest in peace.

For the second half of the day, Pat discussed driving theory tests and driving lessons with us. The subject of us learning to drive ourselves. We did a mock theory test, I did okay for my first try, despite having never attempted to drive a car before :L We were also taught what not to do at the scene of a crash such as don't move the victims incase of futher injury and things like that. All in all, this day was very informative an useful, although upsetting and graphic, we still learnt a lot and this information will stick with us for the rest of our lives.

Ciara Xxx

Geography Project - #5 Barbados (Rihanna)

Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born in Saint Michael, Barbados in 1988. She goes by the name, Rihanna now as her stage name. She had always loved singing in her youth so she moved to America at the age of sixteen to pursue her singing career, after she had been introduced to a record producer, Evan Rodgers who loved Rihanna's performing straight away. When she moved to America, she moved in with Rodgers and his wife. Here, she recorded a four song demo which made it's way to Def Jam recordings, who signed her straight away.

Her debut album, 'Music of the Sun', was released in August 2005. This included the chart toppping single 'Pon de Replay'. It went straight to number one of the UK Singles Chart. The second song released from the album was 'If It's Lovin' That You Want', but this wasn't as popular as the first single. A month after her debut album was released, she started working on her second album, titled 'A Girl Like Me'. It was released in April 2006. It included singles like 'SOS', 'Unfaithful' and 'Break It Off' featuring Sean Paul. This album sold 115,000 copies in it's first week. She then embarked on her world tour, despite only being 18 years old.

Her third album, 'Good Girl Gone Bad', was released in 2007. During the recording of this album, Rihanna decided to change her image to an edgier, rebellious one so she cut her long hair off and dyed it black. This change was heard in her music also. This album was full of songs to dance to on a night out such as 'Don't Stop The Music', 'Disturbia', and 'Umbrella'. Umbrella was the most- talked about song in a while as it stayed at number one in the charts for ten weeks, and it was said that this song was to blame for the rainy summer we had that year! This was her best selling album to date. She won Best Single and Video that year.This year she also headed off on her Good Girl Gone Bad Tour in September. In 2008 she won Favourite Female Artist of the Year.

In February 2009, Rihanna was scheduled to perform at the Grammy awards, but unfortunately this was cancelled due to a run in with her then- boyfriend, singer Chris Brown. He assaulted her leaving her with facial injuries. He was brought to court and was charged with assault and received five years probation. He was also ordered to stay fifty yards away from Rihanna at all times. Despite this hard time, Rihanna still managed to release another bestselling album, 'Rated R', including hit singles such as 'Russian Roulette' and 'Rude Boy'. To promote this album further, she set out on her Last Girl on Earth world tour. Due to her bestselling albums, Rihanna won Entertainer of the Decade in January 2010.

During 2010, Rihanna collaborated with Eminem with 'Love the Way You Lie' which was number one on the charts for weeks. She also sang with Kanye West in the hit song 'All of the Lights'. She released her fifth album, 'Loud' in November 2010. This album included hit singles such as 'Only Girl', 'What's My Name?' featuring Drake, and 'Who's That Chick?' featuring David Guetta. In December 2010, these three songs were top ten in the UK Singles Charts with 'What's My Name?' at number one. In April 2011, another song from the album Loud, 'S&M' , reached number one in the charts, giving her ten number ones in America. She is the youngest artist in the charts' history to do so, being only twenty three years of age. She is an extremely popular artist at the current time.

The connection between her in Barbados and Justin Bieber in Canada, is that they were both signed to the same record label, Def Jam Recordings.

Ciara Xxx

Geography Project - #4 Ontario,Canada (Justin Bieber)

Justin Bieber was born in Ontario, Canada on March 1, 1994. As a child, Justin taught himself to play guitar, piano, drums and trumpet, as he always had a big love of music. When he was 12, he entered a competition at which he sang 'So Sick' by Ne-Yo and he was placed in second. Justin's mum decided to set up a YouTube account for him to upload videos of him singing covers of various songs. Overtime, his popularity on the site grew. He was discovered on YouTube by music producer, Scooter Braun, in 2007. He tracked Justin down as he was very interested in his talents. At this time Justin was only 13, but Scooter wanted to fly him to Atlanta, Georgia, to sing for him and Usher. After her sang for them ,he was signed to Scooter's company, RBMG, by both Scooter and Usher, Usher also arranged an audition for Justin with Antonio L.A Reid of Def Jam Recordings. Justin was also signed to Def Jam after his audition. Scooter Braun became Justin's manager.

Justin Bieber released his debut album, My World, in late 2009. This album contained chart toppers such as 'One Time', 'One Less Lonely Girl' and 'Favourite Girl'. This album went double platnium in Canada and the UK. At just seventeen, he is an extremely successful teenager. His second album, titled 'My World 2.0', was released in early 2010. The lead tracks from this album are 'Baby', 'Somebody to Love' and 'U Smile'. Justin has become extremely popular among teenage girls all over the world. Wherever he goes, millions of girls follow. There has been some safety issues around this though, Justin's public appearances have been cancelled numerous times due to crowd control problems regarding the safety of the crowds and Justin himself. He was due to do a public performance in Australia which had to be cancelled after several girl were injured in the crowd crush. This shows just how popular Justin has become over a short space of time.

He has been nominated for and won a huge number of awards during his short career. In 2010 alone he won Best Artist, five different times, his songs such as 'Baby' and 'One Time' have won awards such as Best Song, Best Music Video and Best Album of the Year. Despite being only seventeen, he has already had a world tour during which every concert has been sold out. He is an extremely successful teenager and will go on to be successful for many years.

For my next map point, I will go to Barbados where Rihanna is from as she is also signed to Def Jam Record company, this is why she is connected with Justin Bieber.

Ciara Xxx

Geography Project - #3 California (Katy Perry)

Katy Perry, born Katherine Hudson, was born in Santa Barabara, California, in 1984. As a child, Katy sang in the gospel choir in her church and grew up listening to gospel music. Her parents were pastors so Katy went to Catholic schools and camps. She reached a point in her childhood when she was copying everything her older sister was doing, so Katy always borrow her sister's tapes to sing along to. She would perform for her parents who decided to enroll her for vocal training. She took these lessons from the age of nine until she was sixteen. She later attended the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

When Katy decided to pursue her singing career, she changed her name to Perry, which is her mother's maiden name, as Katy Hudson would be too close to the name of the actress Kate Hudson.She was originally signed to the record label, Def Jam, but was later dropped after her first album with that label was not successful. She was then signed to Columbia Records in 2004, but she wasn't too happy with this label as she lost a lot of control over her music. After a while of not getting anywhere with this label, even though she was named as the 'Next Big Thing' , Katy decided to start recording on her own.


Katy was dropped by Columbia Records in 2006, but she was highly recommended to Virgin Records. With this label, she began recording her first mainstream album titled 'One of the Boys'. Katy wanted to establish her image so she released singles titled 'I Kissed a Girl' and 'Hot and Cold'. These songs caused plenty of controversy as they were suggestive and offended some listeners of the songs. However, this didn't bother Katy as she was trying to set a quirky, unique image as a pop star. She had a bright, strange style of clothes but this really works for her as a performer because she really stands out.


Katy has been nominated for and won plenty of awards during her music career. Her single 'I Kissed a Girl' earned her a nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal at the 2009 Grammy Awards. She won Best Breakthrough Artist in 2009 on the MTV Australia Awards. Her songs, 'Hot and Cold', 'Waking Up in Vegas', 'California Gurls' and 'Teenage Dream' have all won most performed songs. She has also won Best Act and 'California Gurls' won Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Also popular with the younger generation, Katy won Favourite Female Singer, and 'California Gurls' won Fave Song at the Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards.

Katy met Russell Brand on set of his movie 'Get Him to the Greek' in 2008. They became a couple about a year later and since then have got married in India on October 23, 2010.


My next point on the map is in Ontario, Canada, the home of teenage sensation, Justin Bieber. The connection between Katy Perry and Justin is that Katy was signed with Justin's current record label Def Jam Recordings.

Ciara Xxx

Geography Project - #2 London (Adele)

Adele Jenkins was born in Tottenham,England in May 1988, making her just 22 years old. She graduated from the Brit School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon in May 2006, where she had been classmates with Leona Lewis and Jessie J. She is a very talented singer/songwriter who also plays piano, guitar, bass, celeste and percussion. She is signed to a record label called XL Recordings after they saw a three-song demo that she had posted on MySpace. Her debut album, 19, was released in January, 2008. This album included songs such as 'Chasing Pavements' and a brilliant cover of Bod Dylan's 'Make You Feel My Love'.This album, despite being her first, went straight to number one and has been certified as platinum four times.

She is also very popular in America which is quite rare nowadays as it is quite tough to 'break' America. Her new album, 21, was released in January, 2011. It was extremely popular and sold 208,000 copies in it's first week. The album was number one on the charts in seventeen countries and in the US. She preformed her new single 'Someone Like You' at the 2011 Brit Awards and it went straight to number one in the charts. This single is from Adele's new album, titled 21. This album has also remained number one on the charts for a number of consecutive weeks. The Official Charts Company announced that Adele is the firs tliving artist to achieve two top five hits in both the Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart simultaneously since The Beatles in 1964.

She has become extremely popular all over the world in the past year. She has been asked to perform at many events and was on the Graham Norton show two weeks ago where she sang her new single from her album 21, 'Set Fire To The Rain'. In December, she performed at John Mayer's 2nd Annual Holiday Charity Revue, where she opened with a forty minute set.

This was held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California, which is why i'm off to California for my next map point where I will write about Katy Perry.

Ciara Xxx

Geography Project - #1 Dublin (The Script)

To start off my geography world map project, I went to Dublin to write about The Script. They are a pop/rock band from Dublin who have become extemely famous all over the world in the past few years. The members of the band are Danny O'Donoghue, Mark Sheehan and Glen Power. Danny O'Donoghue is the lead singer-songwriter of the band, he also plays guitar and keyboard. Mark Sheehan is the band's guitarist, he his also a singer-songwriter. Danny and Mark started off as a band called Mytown in 1996. They were signed to Universal Records up until 2001 when they met The Script's current drummer, Glen Power.

The band's first single ' We Cry' was written after some hard times that the band went through. During the band's early years, Mark Sheehan's mum fell terminally ill and died 10 months after she was diagnosed and Danny's dad died of a heart attack four months later. Danny said that 'the song is not about hope because not everyone's life is full of hope'. 'We Cry' was released on 14 April, 2008. The band performed 'We Cry' for the first time on BalconyTv in Dublin on 13 September 2007. 'We Cry' was released on 14 April, 2008. The single peaked at 15 on the UK Singles Chart, giving them their first top 20 single. It also performed well in the Irish charts giving the band their first top ten single in their home country. They then won Best Band at the Danish Music Awards in 2009.

Their second single, 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved', was released on 15 September 2008. The single reached number 2 in Ireland, Denmark, and the UK. The band released their debut album, The Script, on 11 August 2008. Following the success of "The Man Who Can't Be Moved", the album entered the UK Album Chart at number one with sales of 20,240 copies where it stayed for eleven weeks. The album spent three weeks in the top ten and was the eighteenth best selling album in the UK of 2008. The album also entered the Irish Album Chart at number one, holding the top spot for five weeks. It had, as of January 2009, spent 2 wks. in the top 10. The Irish office of Sony BMG music presented the group with their first multi-platinum disc for over 600,000 sales of their debut album, 'The Script'.

The band have done extremely well over the past few years. The Script's new album, Science & Faith, was released in September of 2010. The first single that was released from this album was 'For the First Time'. The band have been so successful that they had seven sold out concert dates for their Science & Faith tour in 2011. I went to their concert on the 12 March 2011, they put on an amazing show and made me very proud to be Irish :)

The Script's record label are based in London, so my next point on my map will be in London where I will write about Adele.

Ciara Xxx

English Summer Assesment - My Sister's Keeper

For the Transition year Summer English assessment, we were told to choose a book from a very varied list, read it, and write a review on it, I chose 'My Sister's Keeper' by Jodi Picoult. My Sister's Keeper is a very moving book about a thirteen year old girl who requests a court case in order to sue her parents for medical emancipation. This girl, Anna Fitzgerald, is requesting the court case for a good reason as her teenage sister, Kate has Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia and Anna was conceived especially to be a perfect genetic match with Kate and has spent her whole young life in the hospital donating blood, marrow and whatever else her sister needs to survive her battle with leukaemia. Now after being asked to donate one of her kidneys to Kate, Anna decides this is the last straw which is why she files for rights to her own body.

This book tells the story of the Fitzgerald family during the trial, both the trial that is the court case, and the trial that is Kate's long sickness. The book is written in an unusual way, each chapter is from a different character's viewpoint. The characters in the book who talk from their personal viewpoint in each chapter are, Sara and Brian Fitzgerald who are Kate and Anna's parents, Kate and Anna's brother Jesse, Anna and Kate themselves, Campbell Anna's lawyer and Julia Romano, a woman who is advising Anna during the trial and who was a love interest of Campbell's.

The author evokes the physical and emotional toll a desperately sick child imposes on a family, even a close and loving one like the Fitzgeralds. Anna decided to move out of the family home to be apart from her mother as Sara tries on many occasions to make Anna drop the trial. She moves in with her dad, Brian, at the fire station where he works as a fireman. Brian decides to take Anna’s side of the trial, as he never wanted to put Anna through the hardship of the donations in the first place. Sara is shocked by Brian’s decision, but Brian refuses to change his mind. During the long, tiresome trial, during which the Fitzgerald family were falling apart, during the trial, it is revealed that Kate asked Anna to sue for emancipation because she did not want Anna to have to transplant, and because she believes that she will die anyway.

One of the main points of the book is when Kate meets a boy, Taylor, in the hospital while she is having chemo. He is two years her senior but they hit it off straight away. They become inseparable, helping each other through their treatments. Taylor invites Kate to the hospital dance. This is Kate's time to shine and finally feel beautiful during her tough illness. She finds a perfect dress and goes to the dance with Taylor feeling euphoric. After having an amazing night with Taylor, who appears to be the love of her life, Kate tries to contact him numerous times but she has no luck. She is extremely upset as she thinks she has done something to upset him, but when she goes back to hospital a few days later for more chemo, Sara asks a nurse has she heard from Taylor, and the nurse breaks the hard news that Taylor had passed away the day after the dance. Kate is heartbroken.

Used to being ignored by his troubled parents, Jesse has become a delinquent, taking drugs, committing arson and forever in trouble. In the middle of the book, Jesse starts a fire in a school and his father Brian, is called to distinguish it. He discovers a cigarette butt at the scene and realises it's the same brand that Jesse smokes. He confronts Jesse expecting him to lash out, but Jesse finally breaks down in his father's arms, showing his bottled emotions for the first time in the book. Fortunately for Jesse, his father forgives his difficult behaviour and by the end of the book, he's changed his ways and is a graduated guard.
We discover throughout the book that Campbell and Julia were young lovers but when Campbell is diagnosed with epilepsy, he left her and broke her heart because he thought she deserves better. Their fate is also happy, at the end of the book, all is forgiven and they get back together.

Not everything can be a happy ending though, which is evident by the end of the book. After successfully winning the court case and being granted medical emancipation, Anna is on her way home in the car with Campbell, when they are hit head-on by an oncoming truck. Anna, who is unconscious, is retrieved by Brian while Campbell is brought to the hospital with an arm injury. The doctors tell Anna's parents that she is brain dead and is only being kept alive by a machine. The doctor gives her parents the option to turn off the machine in order to donate one of Anna's kidney's to Kate, even though Kate had asked Anna to request medical emancipation so she can die. Campbell decides to make the decision for them as he now has power of attorney. Anna's machine is switched off and her kidney is successfully donated to Kate.

My Sister’s Keeper is an extremely touching book which stirs every emotion in it’s readers. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was quite a tear-jerker at times! I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good book which is also an emotional rollercoaster. The plot is very well planned and there are a number of shocking twists throughout. There is a movie of this book also, which is also very moving, but it has a completely different ending to the book. In my opinion the book is more enjoyable as it is deeper and the ending is a huge shock!

Ciara Xxx