THE SECOND ROUND of the Wicklow County Public Speaking Project saw Wicklow’s De La Salle facing off against St. Mary’s College from Arklow and Colaiste Bhride College of Carnew in the Grand Hotel.

Once again Wicklow Mental Health Association hosted the event.

The Colaiste Bhride team of Mary Kenny, Emma Byrne and Sarah O’Neill spoke about the serious issue of bullying, which can damage a person’s confidence to such a degree they are left feeling powerless and undesirable. Amy Synott, Zoe Jones and Tanya Swayne spoke about the emotional scars that we might inflict on others.

Making up the De La Salle team were Sean Murray, James Kneale and William O’Reilly and they explained how our treatment of minorities is the yardstick of our society, mentioning people with schizophrenia can be mistreated and misunderstood. De La Salle now head forward to the county final on January 14 2010.

In Friday’s quarter-final in Bray they had a comfortable win over St Brendan’s College.

They built up a good early lead and never looked back. St Brendan’s, on the other hand, showed some good approach work but missed many good chances.

They also lacked a little luck when they had good shots come back off the crossbar in quick succession just before half-time.

De La Salle showed good teamwork and had an excellent finisher in full-forward Eamon Wolfe who ended with a total of 3-3. Others to impress for the winners included Niall Devereux and Kevin Wiley in defence, Dean Healy in midfield and Mikey Dunne in attack.