Mr Peter O’Reilly
Four years ago this Friday St. Joseph’s C.B.S mourned the passing of our much loved teacher, friend and colleague, Peter O’ Reilly after a short illness. Our pupils now will not remember Mr O’Reilly as one of their teachers but his legacy can be seen ad felt all over our school. Usually at this time of year we remember Mr. O’Reilly when the school hosts our annual soccer tournament which has been organised for the past three years in his memory. We all wish that were either getting ready to put on the school jerseys or heading up to Drogheda United to support the school team but this is not possible this year due to Covid 19 restrictions.
Mr O’ Reilly was full of energy and enthusiasm for life. He travelled all over the country and all around the world. He was very active and more often than not he came to school on his bike. Not only did he like cycling but he loved his motorbikes as well and often entertained the boys and staff alike with stories about his motor-biking adventures. Even though he loved the thrill of his motor bike and the open road Mr O’Reilly was very safety conscious and it was his job to organise the fire drills and teach all the boys how to stay safe and out of danger during the holidays.
He was passionate about all sports but especially soccer and was a devoted follower of Drogheda United but he was also passionate about the town of Drogheda, his hometown and ours. He used his talent for drawing and painting to show us how he saw the world around us. He showed us scenes full of life, colour, action and fun. Mr O’Reilly observed carefully all that he saw in the world around him. He put those observations into his artwork along with his wonderful sense of humour.
He also loved to draw and paint our school. Many of you will remember last year when we unveiled the large painting of one of Mr O’Reilly’s pictures of the front gates of the school. Mr O’Reilly’s family donated the money so that local artist and former pupil, Noel Kelly, could recreate this special piece of art. That beautiful picture hangs in the front hall of our school and we get to appreciate it every day we are at school.
This year we would like to honour Mr O’ Reilly’s memory in a different way and for this week’s challenge we would like you to take out your pencils, pens and colours and try to do your own interpretation of one Mr O’Reilly’s works. It doesn’t have to be a copy, just use the examples on the website for inspiration and put a bit of your own ideas and style into the picture. If that is not really your kind of thing there are pages of his work you can download print and colour.
Mr O’Reilly would really have enjoyed seeing your creations. He would have been able to see something special in all of them. We would love to see your imaginations go wild and we can’t wait to see our website lit up with beautiful art inspired by the work of our dear friend.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
The staff of St. Joseph’s C.B.S
Here are just some of Mr. O’Reilly’s wonderful works: