St Catherine’s wins O’Shea Shield competition

By CathNews New Zealand

May 19th, 2026

(St Catherine’s College, Kilbirnie/Facebook)

St Catherine’s College in Kilbirnie has won the 2026 O’Shea Shield speech and drama competition for Catholic colleges in Wellington Archdiocese and Palmerston North Diocese.

The competition, hosted by Sacred Heart College in Lower Hutt from May 14-16, saw at least 290 students competing from 17 colleges.

The competition categories including impromptu and prepared speech, oratory, debating, religious questions, drama and Scripture reading (in both te reo Māori and English).

In a Facebook post, St Catherine’s College stated: “Congratulations to our amazing students and the team of coaches who worked tirelessly over the last six weeks! We are immensely proud of you!

“We would like also to congratulate all the schools who participated and thank Sacred Heart Lower Hutt for hosting this amazing event.”

The theme for the 2026 competition was “Returning to the Heart”, drawn from Pope Francis’ encyclical Dilexit Nos, On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.

The 2027 O’Shea Shield competition will be hosted by Garin College in Nelson.

FULL STORY

St Catherine’s College placed first (St Catherine’s College/Facebook)

One of the highlights of our… (St Patrick’s College, Wellington/Facebook)

Facebook (Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt)

Dilexit nos (24 October 2024) (Holy See)

O’Shea Shield (Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt)