Love is in the air…

We hope you are keeping well this week! Some of you are doing your mock exams – we hope these are going well! You got this! Other students are in the middle of work placements which is a fun and enriching experience.

Thank you to all of you who have signed up for our midterm trip! If you have not let us know by now, please do so as soon as possible as we must have final numbers confirmed before the midterm week. It’s going to be a really fun trip!

Love is in the air this week as we approach St. Valentine’s Day. Wooooo! Does anyone know the origins of this holiday? One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realising the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Still others insist that it was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop, who was the true namesake of the holiday. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside Rome. Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and—most importantly—romantic figure.

Will you guys be sending your valentine a card this year?

As usual, thanks for sharing all of your lovely photos with us this week! Here’s what you guys have been getting up to…

Sarah, Melissa, Michelle, Maebh and Manlio