Rossa McDermott was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil and lived in Nigeria, UK snd Spain before doing the entrance exam to Clongowes in 1972. Aside from holidays in Ireland, Rudiments was the first extended stay of six years in Ireland. Rossa graduated from UCD and despite a fascination for Spanish politics never completed his MA. An aspiring interest in sports journalism ended with a career came in sales & marketing at GEMA SA, FORD Spain, Ryanair, Hewlett-Packard and Cybex International. This work took him to Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and USA. In Clongowes he was president of Academy, Member of School Council, and SRPA and active with soccer, athletics, swimming & rugby. In Rudiments he was awarded Third Line debating silver medal and never debated again! He set up Optimum Sports Marketing and represented WRC, F1 and a number of soccer pundits. Over the years been a contributor to RTE Radio Sport and The Last Word on TodayFM. He was recently Portraited by classmate, Rory Gray OC’78.
