It was a great day with the boys of the Star of the Sea School piling into the school hall to await not only a day off school, not only their mothers, but the chance of winning a new Raleigh bicycle as well.

These bikes, five in all, were the prizes for poetry and poster competitions and debates and were given to the school by the Dublin City Council, represented by Ronan O’Donnell, community welfare officer.

The posters and poetry as well as the debating were based on a topic very relevant to Irish society, Sandymount and the world in general: Save Energy and keep the world for others. It was their day of action and live up to it they certainly did.

The walls were heavily adorned with artwork, posters and messages on acid rain, fossil fuels, clean air, eco friendliness, solar energy, the greenhouse effect, global warming, waste management, the industrial revolution and even the Luas. The highlight had to be the cardboard street scene, at least 10 foot in length with brightly-painted cardboard houses and plasticine people built by the third class.

It was all very graphic and detailed, as were the speeches by the children who finished off each impassioned plea for conservation of energy with chants such as: “Don’t be a walley, take your Raleigh”, “Perambulation for a better nation”, “Don’t have a fit, cycle a bit” and “Hail, Rain or snow the bus will go”.

The winners of the bicycles were Jordan Maher of third class for his magnificent poster, Jack Hevey of the fourth class for his poems, Patrick Meehan of the fifth class for his poem and illustration and debaters Alex O’Regan of the fifth class and Fiachra Maher of the sixth class.

Let’s hope they enjoy the clean air they worked so hard to inform us about and remember– turn off taps and save heat by shutting doors.