Assumption student Zara wins accolade for excelling in school

Assumption student Zara wins accolade for excelling in school

28 June 2023

YEAR 12 Assumption Grammar School student Zara Quinn is the inaugural winner of the Rosaleen McConn Award.

The award is given to a student who has excelled in an area of school life after overcoming adversity or challenges.

The award was set up by John Loughran, the owner of Sandymount Hotel, Dublin, in honour of his late mother, Rosaleen McConn, who attended Assumption Grammar school a year after it opened.

Mr Loughran visited the school the school last week along with his sister, Louise, to present the award.

Suffering medical issues in junior school, Zara was in and out of hospital but still managed to keep up with her studies.

During this time, Zara was also coping with their father James’s diagnosis of cancer. During the following months, Zara was a great help to her mother and her two sisters. 

Unfortunately, Mr Quinn died earlier this year and Zara had to cope with the loss of her father while trying to prepare for her GCSEs.

As well as this, she was also able to keep up with her music commitments, and is an active member of the choir and jazz band in school.  

Mrs Marcelle Orsi, Assumption vice-principal, said: “Zara is one of those students who just keeps going. She is always amicable, courteous, and such a support to the younger pupils.

“She has faced so many challenges over the last year and yet has faced them all with a strength and stoicism beyond her years. We are so proud of her and she is very deserving of this award.”

She continued: “Zara epitomises our Fully Alive ethos. What is also lovely is the fact her sisters, both Assumption girls, and her mother will benefit from the break in Dublin. The family have had such a difficult time and they are all deserving of this award.”

Rosaleen McConn was the eldest of six children, and lived on a small farm at Ballee, just outside Downpatrick.

On December 15, 1934, two days before her 11th birthday, her mother, Elizabeth, sadly passed away shortly after giving birth. As her father Richard could not manage the children alone, he subsequently married his wife’s sister. There were no further children. 

Shortly after her mother’s death, Rosaleen was sent to board at the recently opened Assumption Grammar School. She always spoke fondly of her time there, and went on to work throughout Northern Ireland as an insurance inspector in the 1940s.

In the early 1950s, she married George Gerard Loughran, from Cookstown, and moved to Dublin. In May 1955, they opened a small guesthouse near Lansdowne Road sports ground. 

The four-star Sandymount Hotel now has 187 bedrooms and is a testament to the Loughran family’s hard work.

Now run by John’s son, Gerard, the hotel is in its third generation and is the oldest family run hotel in Dublin.

In January 2004, Rosaleen had a sudden heart attack and sadly passed away. Her husband passed away three years later in August 2007. 

John said: “It occurred to me that the hotel might sponsor an annual prize in Rosaleen’s honour. The prize would be a trophy, with the winner also receiving a complimentary family trip to stay at Sandymount Hotel.”