A group of south east students are setting off to the Somme today.
Pupils from St Paul's Community School in Waterford city have have been chosen by the British Council to attend ceremonies in France to mark the 100th yearanniversary of one of the bloodiest battles of World War 1.
It's the only Irish school selected to attend the ceremony on July 1st marking the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
Recently the Students and teachers from St. Paul’s travelling to the Somme were honoured as special guests by President Michael D Higgins at the Áras.
Omayma Zarar is one of the students who's been picked to go to France.. she's very excited about it:
"I got this opportunity, it's like a once in a lifetime offer and it's really exciting. Actually when I came to school myself they gave me the option to study History or Geography, so I chose History of course! It's kind of exciting to know about your past and stuff. World War One was known as a bloody spell and it's kind of shocking as well to know about different countries and it's mainly in Europe first then it like spread out into the Pacific Ocean and stuff."
St Paul's Home Liaison teacher Ger Lohan was behind the application. He had a relativewho was among the thousands who died in the Battle of the Somme:
"Between the 1st of July and the 18th of November 1916 there was massive casualties, even on the first day of the battle itself. Over 300,000 Irish soldiers died there as well including not on the first day but on the 3rd of September I lost a grand uncle in one of the battles of the Somme at Guillemont."
Ger was behind the school's application to attend the ceremony and says it's fantastic to be picked:
"We sent off the application and letter of interest and it was maybe 3-4 weeks later before we heard back that our school had been shortlisted to one of six in Ireland. You know we kept our fingers crossed after that. We were delighted then to find out about a week and a half after that, that we had been selected as the only school.
Ever since then you know it's been a roller coaster, it's the excitement and the whole honour of representing all those schools and having 25 of my students travel over to the Somme."
