By Cillian Hennessy
At twenty past five in the morning, we took the train to Mallow. At Mallow we changed trains for Dublin. Everyone was really excited. The train arrived in Heuston Station, Dublin at 915 am. A bus took us to the venue for the awards ceremony - the brand new Aviva Stadium. We met the four other schools that had won the other regional competitions. We were entertained on arrival by a balloon maker, who made swords and hats for us. We waited near the press area for thirty minutes, before being ushered in to the impressive Press Conference Auditorium for the results. Two of the judges were present in the room - Eoin Kelly, Tipperary hurler and George Hook, RTE presenter. Unfortunately, Johnathan Sexton could not make it, but he sent a video message. The tensions were rising as Aofe Clerkin of Lidl welcomed everyone to the event. We could hardly believe our luck when we were announced in third place. A loud cheer filled the auditorium and Ms O Keeffe went up to collect the cheque.
St Leonard's Primary in Kilkenny were announced as winners of the National Title, and Scoil Niall Mór from Killbegs in Donegal took second place. 
All of the schools were then taken to the Press Working Room, where we were given a lunch of sandwiches, salads and fruit. There was a great buzz of excitement in the room, as we were all really looking forward to the next part of the day. We were about to get a tour of the Aviva Stadium. We were the first ever tour to take place, as the stadium was only opened two days previously. The tour was amazing. We were taken out on to the pitch of the 51,000 seater stadium. We sat in the stand and admired the view. We were then taken to the home changing rooms, which were huge! There were ice-baths, a hydrotherapy pool, physiotherapy chairs, lcd screens and a warm-up room with an astroturf floor. It was unbelievable. We took lots of photos and recorded video.
We then got a bus back to Heuston station to board the 3.00 train home. We boarded our own personal carriage at 2.40pm. We were starting to get a bit tired, but we got a huge surprise when Mr Coleman entered the carriage with a Supermacs meal for all of us.
We had a big dinner party on the train and the food was delicious. We had lots of fun on the way home, and arrived in Tralee at 7.15pm to a heroes welcome on the platform, as all of our parents had arrived to cheer us on, and congratulate us on our success.
We had a day that we will always remember, and we are really proud of everyone who helped with the project and voted for us. We look forward to entering again next year.
