ENNIS Educate Together National School had a winter fair at the school last Friday, looking at different countries and how they celebrate different aspects of their culture.

Speaking about it, Deputy Principal Aoiffe Lynch said, “We’re an Educate Together School, a multi denominational school, so we have lots of different cultures within our school.

“The only difference between ourselves and other schools would be that we don’t teach religion, we teach ethical education, which is teaching them about all the different religious traditions.

Hannah Szostak with her grandmother Ola from Poland at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

martin Mc Carthy with his dad Patrick and mother Sarah O Loughlin trying out some foods at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

Veronika, Sofia and Rita serving traditional Ukrainian Borscht at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

Sophie Noone and Kyle Mc Carthy with teacher Roisin Travis at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

Teacher Sarah Bradley giving out Israeli Gelts at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

Luca Huang, representing Taiwan and Nicole Maposa, representing Zimbabwe at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

SNA Sarah Cotter gets a Henna decoration done by Maureen Adnan at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

Noura Koutou with her Syrian flag at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

Jonath Nipun serving out some Indian foods at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

Brothers Michael and Tommy Keenan at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

Oksana Mukienko comforts her daughter Ana helped by Yana at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

Kairo Delarubia, representing Spain and Jonath Nipun, representing India at the Ennis Educate Together Winter Fair. Photograph by John Kelly

“With this we selected different countries to represent some of the students in our school, each class got to research a country and celebrate its cultures, religions through art, music, drama, poetry and dance.

“We had a full winter fair and all the children got a passport to go into all the different countries.

“Parents were invited in, a lot of them had cooked home made traditional dishes from their countries so there was a tasting table for each of the countries as well.”

She said it had been a great event for the school children.

“The kids loved it, they had an absolute ball, they had a great time researching on the countries they were working on. There was a great buzz around the school, the kids loved tasting the different foods and getting their passports stamped. They went around the world in 90 minutes!”

Among the countries featured were Turkey, Ireland, India, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, Taiwan, Zimbabwe, Brazil and Syria.

The students also learned about religions and festivities linked to them such as Eid, Christmas and Diwali.

Owen Ryan

Reporter | 065 686 4142 | oryan@clarechampion.ie

Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.