Pupils leave cramped school behind
November 7, 2012
Schoolchildren waved goodbye to cramped classrooms yesterday before a triumphant march into a spacious new state-of-the-art school.
Years of campaigning for the building finally came to end as hundreds of pupils of Gaelscoil Uí Ríordáin in Ballincollig, Co Cork, walked 3km from the old school in Coolroe, founded above a shop almost 30 years ago, for their first day of classes in the €4.5m purpose-built, 24-classroom, three-storey building in Carriganarra.
Education Minister Ruairí Quinn said he was delighted the school was now open to classes. There were emotional scenes as founding principal Gabriel Ó Cathasaigh led cheering pupils and their parents through the front door.
“We have a fantastic facility here — or Áras na Gaeilge as I like to call it,” he said.
“We have a special location where the Irish language can blossom. There is a huge demand for Irish here, and there is a huge amount of Irish to be heard in Ballincollig and this school will help in a big way.”
Vice-principal Bríd Ní Chonchubhair said that the space in the new school is “just unbelievable”. “It was very cramped in the old building,” she explained.
“But we have loads of space here now. Even in the corridors — you could have drama, ceoil, and craic outside there.”
Gaelscoil Uí Riordáin was founded in 1983 in a room above a small supermarket in Coolroe close to the former home of poet Seán Ó Ríordáin — for whom the school is named.
Mr Ó Cathasaigh was its first and only teacher, with 15 children in junior infants class. As Ballincollig grew and pupil numbers soared, the building was adapted to accommodate more classrooms, and several prefabs were added in recent years.
Today, the school has some 530 pupils and more than 26 teachers. The department of education was paying some €250,000 in rent for the Coolroe site. The need for a new building was recognised more than a decade ago. But despite three public calls by the government during the height of the building boom for potential sites for a new school, a suitable site failed to emerge.
The 1.2-hectare site in Carriganarra site was eventually deemed suitable by the Office of Public Works, but a deal to buy it wasn’t completed until 2009, with planning permission granted in 2010. Glenman Corporation was appointed the main contractors, with Healy Kelly Turner and Townsend as project managers to deliver the school under the department’s Rapid Build School Programme.
It has been designed to accommodate 750 pupils and it is expected that three new classes of up to 30 pupils will be accepted each year for the next three years. It boasts a general purpose hall, a library and resource rooms, three ball courts, and a junior play space.
The completion date of July was missed and minor snag delayed a September handover.
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