Goodbye St John’s

AS principal Dympna MacKenna stated in her address at the opening of a unique community art event at St John’s school, last weekend sparked the ‘ beginning of the end’ for a building that has served the Rathmullen community well.

In the coming few weeks and months, the school will make way for a new building and ultimately it will be demolished. The rubble will then be used as the base for a new playground.

Last weekend, all those who attended the school over the last three decades were invited to come along and paint their names on the walls in a last act of remembrance.

But many took time out to recall those no longer with us, their memory too etched in history on the walls.

‘We wanted to recogmise everyone who had an influence in the school We value them all highly’, Mrs MacKenna stated.

She admitted it was a bit emotional as hundreds of old faces poured into the hallways, present pupil Selina and her mum, past pupil Olivia, having the honour of cutting the ribbon at the opening.

The new school will bring new memories for the present generation but for those walking around St John’s last weekend it was truly the end of an era.

At the St John’s art project, clockwise, Denise Sullivan, Sandra Thornton, Sharon Rock, Elaine McAleer, Ruth Leslie and Seamus Lynch, principal Dympna MacKenna, Christine Johnson who attended St. John’s school Rathmullan in 1978 with her children...