Scoil Mhuire is 60 years a growing
New science laboratory is dedicated to pioneering principal and founder
A GAELTACHT secondary school which started off in the front room of the local creamery manager is celebrating its 60th anniversary with the opening of its 13th and 14th modern classrooms.
Scoil Mhuire in the Gaeltacht village of Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh marked the 60th anniversary of its opening by local educational pioneer Fionnbarra Ó Murchú with the dedication of the school’s science laboratory to the principal who campaigned for and eventually opened the school in 1959.
To celebrate the event, the school invited the first year students back in 1959 to come back to Scoil Mhuire to attend an anniversary Mass. Also in attendance were Fionnbarra’s daughters, Máire and Caitríona, and his granddaughter, Sorcha.
At the dedication ceremony for the new laboratory – attended by the daughter and granddaughter of Fionnbarra Ó Murchú and his wife, Máire – the principal of Scoil Mhuire, Seán Óg Ó Duinnín, paid tribute to the pioneering work of his predecessor.
“We would not be here today were it not for Fionnbarra Ó Murchú and his wife Máire,” he said.
“He established this school out of nothing in spite of his own personal health difficulties and he did this to give a service to his community.”
According to An tUasal Ó Duinnín, Scoil Mhuire today owes its ethos to Fionnbarra Ó Murchú and his wife.
“Give a service to the community, have the courage to create something and do so inspite of any obstacles however unjust and don’t allow your difficulties to stop you achieving your dreams – these are the lessons we learned from an Maistir Ó Murchú,” he said.
Fionnbarra Ó Murchú was born in Bantry in 1922 and went to Farraneferris for his secondary education. An able student, Fionnbarra was also a promising hurler but had a fall the year he was doing the Leaving Certificate which left him with a limp and an illness which affected him for the next 20 or more years and radically changed the course of his life.
Between 1942 and 1956, Fionnbarra Ó Murchú taught students in Bantry where there was no secondary school for boys at the time. In 1955 he found a surgeon in England who might be able to treat his illness and underwent surgery. Fully recovered in 1958 he finished the degree he had started in UCC many years earlier and the following year, on September 8, 1959, he opened the school in Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh after efforts to establish a secondary school in Bantry proved fruitless.
Coláiste Mhuire, as it then was, started off in the sitting room of Seamus Ó Corcora, the local creamery owner, where it spent the first year. In subsequent years Scoil Mhuire overcame many challenges and, eventually in 1974, was amalgamated with the local vocational school. Scoil Mhuire was very much a family affair in those early years. Fionnbarra and Máire had married in 1960, after they met at an Irish speaking branch of the Legion of Mary, An Réált. Máire became the school manager before qualifying as a teacher herself. Fionnbarra died suddenly in 1968 but Máire ensured the school carried on.
Now 100 pupils strong, the school has gone from strength to strength. Although league table rankings can be an reliable benchmark to judge the progress of schools, it is still worth mentioning that Scoil Mhuire jumped almost 50 places in The Sunday Times survey published recently
The completion of the science lab and addition of new domestic science and woodwork rooms show how the school is progressing while keeping alive links to its educational and cultural heritage.