'This disaster may be as bad as the tsunami'

TY TALK:St. Fergal's College, Rathdowney, Co. Laois Sinead Aherne (15), Niall Delaney (16) Aisling Comerford (15)

ON THE DISASTER IN HAITI

Sinead Aherne:"I didn't know a lot about Haiti before the earthquake, but it seems this disaster may be as bad as the massive tsunami [in 2004] in the Indian Ocean."

Niall Delaney: "Our local community has been collecting money for it; I imagine there will be more fundraisers at both school and community level."

ON THE CSI EXPERIENCE

ND:"We've gone on a few school tours in Transition Year, but one of the most interesting was the CSI Experience at the Ambassador in Dublin. We learned how the detectives in police dramas use forensic science to investigate crimes. The exhibit itself was interactive and really engaging."

ON MOCKS.IE

ND:"Mocks.ie is an online exam and correction service for Junior and Leaving Cert students. You can do sample papers over the internet and it's a useful service. We entered a competition, run by the site, to develop a marketing plan. We didn't get too far but we did win a voucher."

ON LE CRUNCH

Aisling Comerford:"Another competition! This time we're entering a Today FM radio competition to come up with a slogan for the Le Crunch apple. The prize is €5,000 worth of Kodak equipment for the school."

ON TY MINI-COMPANY

AC:"There are only 10 of us in TY here, so we're all working on the same mini-company. Pigs Do Fly is a children's entertainment business, and we organise face painting, balloon-making and party games for children's parties. We started off with face painting and then took part in Trick 'R Street, a local Halloween festival mini-company in TY, and it's grown from there."

ON WESTLIFE

AC:"They're back! Westlife have a new album out and there are concerts planned for later in the year. They're probably a little older than most boybands now but they're still very popular with teenagers; at least two girls in our year are big fans."

ON LOG ON, LEARN

SA:"Log On, Learn is an initiative from Intel where transition year students teach people over 65 how to use computers. We've been learning about this for a while and our first meeting with the over-65s is coming. I think it will be fun to meet older people and hopefully we can learn from them too."

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