What's the craic in Crana College

Erin McLaughlin

Love is in the Air
Last Friday, Siobhán McLaughlin came into TY Misneach’s class and did a creative writing workshop. Siobhán is an esteemed writer from Buncrana; she has a Masters degree in Creative Writing.

The theme of this workshop was love / Valentine’s Day. We did a few different activities which were all about poetry. First, we wrote about love in relation to all the senses.

Next, Siobhán gave us each a sticky note that had a different word on it. We had to describe that word and write it down. We then changed our word from the sticky note to love. We then made a collaborative poem that included one sentence from each of our descriptions of love.

It was cool to see how these techniques worked. Many students got very stuck into this activity and poured their hearts out; it was interesting to hear our peers' inner thoughts on love. Everyone really enjoyed this workshop.

Tough at the Top
A couple of weeks ago, both TY classes went on a hike in Stroove, Greencastle. It was quite a cold and rainy day but we somehow managed to complete the walk. The start of the walk was uphill, it was the toughest part. We mostly were walking on a flat, rocky and mucky path.

Some students took the liberty in submerging their feet in a deep puddle about halfway up the hill. This was met by a photoshoot of said students and many laughs of course.

There were a few slips and falls but I have to say, mine (Méabh) was the muckiest, and probably the funniest too. As we were walking I slipped and fell into a really mucky patch and, sadly, my gloves were ruined. Luckily there was a kind gentleman along with us on the walk and he offered me his gloves. Shout out to you.

Fighting Frenemies
For our activities module, we are doing a six week course in self defence. We have been learning how to block and throw punches, manoeuvre our way out of headlocks and much more.

One of the first things we learned was how to block a punch and then lock the ‘attackers’ arm.
This was kind of confusing to do at first but once you did it a few times you got the hang of it. You had to twist the person's arm around in an attempt to make them fall on the ground.

We also learned how to do a throw from an ‘attackers’ punch. Everyone was scared to flip their friends over at first but sooner rather than later, people were being thrown all over the floor. We are careful of course to not actually hurt anyone.

Méabh McConalogue