PPU President, Brian Duncan, presented the P V Doyle Trophy to Row Person of the Year 2017 Fr. Myles Kavanagh CP (see NEWS BLOG December 15th 2016) at the PPU annual dinner on Saturday January 28th. at the Westbury hotel. In his acceptance speech Fr. Myles started by quoting the words of James Connolly “the weakest link is ignorance” and he proceeded, in a riveting address, to remind his audience of the important contributions made by people like Nano Nagle, Catherine McAuley, Mother Mary Aikenhead and Blessed Edmund Rice in breaking the chain of ignorance, which made slaves of the people of Ireland, in their times and later. Fr. Myles said that attending a Christian Brothers School like Westland Row inspired him to become a priest.
Fr. Myles concluded by presenting a cheque for €10,000 from the Flax Trust America to school Principal Kate Byrne. President ,Brian Duncan, congratulated Fr. Myles thanked him for his extremely generous contribution.
Many thanks to Patrick Dowling of Rock Photography who, as usual, took many excellent photos on the night. A few are included below and more will follow in later News Blogs.

Paddy Coyle, O’Connells, Sean O’Connell,St. Josephs and Damian Byrne line up with Row President Brian Duncan.

Director of Finance, Michael O’Sullivan, Merchandising Director, John Cullen work their magic on Brian Whelan

Mary O’Callaghan (sister of Fr. Myles) watches admiringly as President Brian Duncan presents the P V Doyle Trophy)