Four students from Loreto Community School Milford have recently won 1st place in the 1913 Strike and Lockout All Ireland Labour Centenary Essay Competition. This competition was commissioned by The Labour Party as part of their commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1913 Strike and Lockout and beginning of the Irish Labour Party.
There were over fifty schools from all over the country that participated. The prize was a trip to Brussels for 20 pupils and 4 teachers to see the workings of the European Parliament. Senator Jimmy Harte and Mayor Mc Brearty visited the school on the 18th February to present the students with the prize. 
The fourth year history students, Margaret Ann-Gallagher (Rathmullan), Chloe Borland (Downings), Ciara Haley and Kate Haley (Milford) are delighted with the win. The girls worked hard together steadily on the project, and in total, produced a 40 page booklet containing essays, case studies, a newspaper article, poetry, artwork and also a re-enactment on the 1913 Lock out, which can be viewed on YouTube. All four students study History, Art, and Drama, and also enjoy English which helped them in this project. They showed strong team work and dedication throughout the competition.
The girls said that when “we first heard about the competition in history class from our teacher Mr. Mc Taggart, we instantly decided to take part, and within ten minutes, planned out the whole project”. The students had great fun taking part and learned about vital historical information and heritage that is an important part of the Leaving Cert History course. They also developed a greater understanding of the battle that our ancestors fought for and for workers rights during the 1913 Lock out. The students enjoyed coming up with unique ideas on how to make the project a little bit more abstract and believe that the movie helped with this. They said “We were so shocked when we found out that we won, we actually couldn’t believe it! All four of us were totally speechless!”
Both the school and the girls are thrilled with their achievement and eagerly await the trip to Brussels in May.