During the past five years, the school has won the competition once and had several placings.
The latest is Jamie Adams (17) who was runner-up in the competition this year, with her essay which compares New Zealand's struggle to keep Maori language and culture alive with Ireland's struggle to keep Gaelic language and culture alive.
Jamie said she could not claim the luck of the Irish helping her to win the award because she was only one-sixteenth part-Irish.
Rather, it was good old fashioned hard work that did the trick, she said.
"I had a lot of fun writing and researching the essay. I was really surprised," she said.
Jamie was presented with a Waterford Crystal clock during school assembly this week by Mr Walshe himself - the honorary consul-general of Ireland.
Mr Walshe said the annual national essay competition was won by Kerrianne Fanning, of James Hargest College, in Invercargill, and the quality of writing had made choosing the winner very difficult.
He said the competition was established in 1990 and was open to New Zealand secondary school pupils.
Participants had to write an essay of up to 1000 words on an Ireland-related topic.
The first-prize winner received a trip to Ireland.
