Plans to move another school onto crowded St Mary’s Road

PLANS are being made to move yet another school onto St Mary’s Road in Dundalk, the Argus has learned.

Dun Dealgan National School is understood to be moving its 84 pupils to the Wellington Hall at the start of term next month as work on their Jocelyn Street building begins and is expected to last for all of the school year.

Wellington Hall was constructed in 1812, and was formerly the St Nicholas Male and Female National Schools, and the first public school in Dundalk.

The accommodation comprises the main hall at ground floor level, along with a number of rooms above, and a smaller building to the rear.

Dun Dealgan are the latest school to announce their move to premises on St Mary’s Road, with colaisti students from the Louth Meath Education Board (LMETB) expected to be accommodated at the old Marist School from September with former students of that school being catered for at a brand new building on St Mary’s Road which opened in April.

Cllr. John McGahon told the Argus: ‘I’m a former pupil of Dun Dealgan NS and it was an excellent school with great staff. The school needs to go somewhere while works are being complete and with an obvious lack of suitable buildings around the town, the Wellington Hall may have been the schools only choice.

‘However, the onus is now on Louth County Council and An Garda Síochána to ensure that sustainable traffic management plans are put in place on St. Mary’s Road to avoid the chaos we saw a number of months ago with the opening of the Marist School.

‘Indeed, if the current cycle lane was never constructed then we would still have 50 more car parking spaces that would ease the parking burden on residents and parents dropping children to school’.