Scoil Naomh Bríde in Blackwater marks a milestone 50 years
ALTHOUGH it may look unrecognisable from then, just over 50 years ago on January 7 of 1970, the roll was first called at Scoil Naomh Bríde Blackwater. Excited children sat at their desks for the first time following an amalgamation of Killahard, Ballyvaldon and Blackwater national schools.
In the intervening years, the school has undergone massive change. Clocking up over 40 years there, Principal Kathleen
O’Brien has seen quite a bit of this change first hand and she was delighted to welcome past and present members of staff, pupils and the larger community to a special concert at the parish hall to mark the milestone.
‘It went so well,’ a proud Ms O’Brien said. ‘It was a real community event and there was real feel good factor about the whole thing.’
It was a real musical celebration of the school’s history will all of the 208 pupils playing their part and joining together for stirring renditions of the likes of ‘The Purple and Gold’ and ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’. A particularly interesting aspect saw former students of the old national schools Martha Torpey, Kathleen O’Reilly Hyland and Jimmy and Brigid Whelan interviewed about their experiences of going to school in those days.
Among the current crop of students, there’s no shortage of musical talent and there were wonderful musical performances as well as Irish dancing which went down extremely well with the capacity crowd, who had piled in for what was the first concert in the refurbished hall since it opened its doors back in December.
Local historian Rita Carroll spoke about the history of Scoil Naomh Bríde and the schools that went before it while teacher Peadar Moran gave an outline of some of the sporting achievements the school had enjoyed. Fr Nolan said a special mass the following day and an Oak tree was planted to mark what is a major milestone in both the lives of the school and the local community.