MEMORABLE DAY AS BUSH POST PRIMARY OPEN NEW EXTENSION
12-CLASSROOMS BUILT AT A COST OF £1.3 MILLION FOR SCHOOL’S 486 STUDENTS
October 1987
IT’S a big day in Cooley as a 12-classroom extension, built at a cost of £1.3 million, is officially opened at Bush post-primary school.
Minister of State, Séamus Kirk TD, does the honours, and Bishop James Lennon blesses the new building in front of parents, teachers and pupils.
Fourth-year student, Sharon Phillips, recalls to invited guests the draughty pre-fabs, and having to don scarves and wellies to move from class-to-class during bitterly cold winters.
Now, they have well-equipped rooms, making life a lot easier for everyone.
Sharon, one of 486 pupils at the school, lists the excellent facilities, for which they are all grateful, from a language laboratory to one of the beststocked libraries in the county.
Past-pupil, Liam Nelson, remembers how the school started in a grain store owned by Kearneys, when lessons were shared with the mice!
He speaks with affection of the early teachers, among them Larry McDonnell, whose contribution to the development of the school and its pupils was exceptional.
Minister Kirk points out the new extension will give Bush a capacity of 520, and refers to the smooth transition when staff and pupils moved from St. Michael’s College in Omeath, crediting principal Michael O’Hanlon and his staff for this development.
On the same subject, Tommy Elmore, chairman of the board of management, pays tribute to the teachers and the Rosminian fathers who had served the community so well at St. Michael’s.
He says Bush is unique, as such a large school of its type is normally found in urban areas.
Mr. O’Hanlon talks of the pride and satisfaction that the students and teachers share, and they are grateful to the tax-payers for investing so heavily in the school.
The principal remarks that whatever specific excellence is achieved, it will be noticed in three characteristics of the school: (1) their belief in good order (2) the close personal supervision of children in their work and play, for they aspire to a quality of care which leaves no student neglected and every child nurtured, and (3) in the graded and balanced programme of studies to cater for all, from the shy 12-year-old who might need special help, to very bright 18-year-olds blossoming into the full flower of intellectual life.
‘By pursuing these ideals, we believe that we will achieve great results,’ Mr. O’Hanlon continues.
‘We will discharge our side of the contract there is between us and the community, and we will make those who sit at the desks in our new classrooms as strong or stronger a force for good in the world as those who sat at the benches in Kearney’s loft 50 years ago.’
Fr. Francis Donnelly, chair of Louth VEC, speaks of his delight at the opening of an extension sought for many years, and for which a lot of credit has to go to the school’s 40 teachers who contribute so much.