WELL DESERVED, ALICE!
TRAVEL AND farming matters are set to take up some of the new-found spare time of Alice Doyle who has retired as principal of St Kevin’s national school in Tombrack after a teaching career of 39 years.
Alice, a native of Tullow, Co. Carlow, who settled in Wexford after marrying Ballyoughter farmer Tom Doyle, was the guest of honour at a retirement function in the Courtyard in Ferns, which was hosted by the board of management of the school, chaired by Fr. Richard Redmond.
Following three years of teacher training in Carysfort College, Alice took up her first job in St Finian’s primary school in Kilquiggan, Co. Wicklow, before being appointed principal of another St Finian’s school in Garryhill, Bagenalstown, where she worked for 10 years. A total of 37 of her 39 years in the teaching profession was spent as principal.
She then became principal in River- chapel school, where she worked from 1991 to 2003 before taking up the position of principal in St Kevin’s in Tombrack, a two-teacher school where her deputy was Margaret Kelly and where Alice was in charge for 15 years up to her retirement.
Alice said she could not have asked for a better colleague or deputy principal and described Margaret as ‘a treasure of a person’, adding that the pair worked very well together as a team for the benefit of the school.
Fr Redmond paid tribute to Alice for the time and energy she devoted to the school, which had 17 pupils when she arrived and was just about hanging on to its two-teacher status. In the following years, under her stewardship, the enrolment rose to its current level of 50.
During her time as principal, the outdated building of Tombrack school was completely renovated in 2010 and transformed into a modern educational facility with the addition of a state-of-the-art astro-turf pitch in 2017.
Alice didn’t confine her interest to the school but also involved herself in many parish activities during her time as principal.
A seasoned traveller with her husband Tom, she recently returned from a trip to Dubai and is off to Prague soon with her holiday sights set on South America next year, and by then she will have visited all six continents.
Mother to grown-up children Deirdre, Caroline and Stephen, Alice is actively involved in the IFA and is chairperson of the Farm Family Committee in Co. Wexford.
Alice has been succeeded as principal by Bobby Kenny, a former teacher in Kilrane school, who attended her retirement function and wished her well in the future.