Last week stood as a triumphant mark of completion of 14 long schooling years for many students around the country, but for three Wicklow siblings, it marked the culmination of a family legacy.
With 18-year old Ben Kinsella finishing out his last few days of secondary school in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow he now joins his brothers Liam (20) and Patrick (22) as youngsters who can proudly say they’ve never missed a day of school.
From their time as junior infants, all the way to their final year of Secondary school, each of the boys has had perfect attendance throughout — they have accumulated an outstanding combined total of 42 years unbroken attendance between them.
At an ‘Evening of Excellence’ celebration in Avondale Community College (where the three of them attended) the trio were joined by their family, friends, parents and teachers along with Education Welfare Officer Brendan Devereux to acknowledge their amazing feat.
The brothers attributed their achievement to the support of their family and their schools; middle child Liam said it wouldn’t have been possible without their mother’s constant encouragement.
The end result of their commitment and tenacity was a place in Agricultural Science in University College Dublin for Patrick, followed by a place in Engineering in Dublin Institute of Technology for Liam.
Ben, who is doing his Leaving Cert this week, hopes to achieve a third-level place in Dublin City University or University of Limerick to study PE and Mathematics.
