Pictures: Cork Gaelscoil celebrates 30th anniversary

“THE success of this school is down to the staff , the pupils, and the parents all pulling together.”

So said the principal of Gaelscoil an Ghoirt Álainn, Deaglán Ó Deargáin, speaking as the school celebrated 30 years in operation.

A special celebratory event was held in the Montenotte-based school on Thursday.

Speaking to The Echo, Mr Ó Deargáin said the school was particularly keen to mark the milestone, as an event to celebrate the school moving into its new building in 2020 was scuppered by the pandemic.

Reflecting on the school’s fascinating history and how far it has come over the decades was a centrepoint of Thursday’s celebrations.

Gaelscoil an Ghoirt Álainn was founded in 1993, as Ireland’s first-ever multidenominational gaelscoil.

Because no patron body could oversee the school, An Foras Pátrúnachta was set up to facilitate gaelscoileanna that were not under Catholic patronage.

“Gaelscoil an Ghoirt Álainn opened its doors on September 1, 1993, but it actually only received recognition from the Department of Education two or three weeks later — which meant that the teacher who was working at that particular time worked without pay for those two or three weeks,” Mr Ó Deargáin explained.

Those involved in setting up the school were invited to recount their experiences of those early days.

“We invited guests down from An Foras Pátrúnachta,” he added.

“We had guests from 1993, we had them down speaking about how the school was set up, how it was put together, where the ideas came from, and what they had to do to get it over the line.”

The first intake of pupils was also invited back to the school for the anniversary event.

“They were down in the Middle Glanmire Rd,” said Mr Ó Deargáin.

“There’s a nursing home and they had taken a room in there just to start it [the school] off.

“One of the children who started off in 1993, she spoke about how they used to go into school and the older people in the nursing home would say hello to them in the morning.

“And then they [the pupils] would go into their classroom and do their work.

“At lunchtime, they’d come out and they’d be playing and the older people would be in the general vicinity as well.

“Obviously it’s not the norm and it’s not something you’d associate with a primary school.

“For them, she said, it was something they grew very accustomed to, and it was quite an enjoyable experience for them as children growing up.”

In 1998, Gaelscoil an Ghoirt Álainn moved into prefabs in the Tank Field — where it was located until 2020, when a new school building was developed on an adjacent site.

“In the early noughties, there would have been a lot of staff here who would have been considered quite young and we’ve all sort of grown up together through the whole thing,” said Mr Ó Deargáin.

“An awful lot of staff would really look back on moving into the new school building as a momentous occasion for them in their own lives, because they had spent so long working in pre-fabricated buildings.”

He credited staff, parents, and students alike who “threw their shoulders to the wheel” to host such a successful anniversary event this week, at which he said there was a “fantastic atmosphere”.