Mercy School opens doors to community

Shane King

“A day that was a long time coming” were the words of principal Garret Farrell as the new €20m home for Mercy Secondary School Kilbeggan opened in time for the beginning of the current academic year.

A project that was in the pipeline for almost 20 years finally came to fruition earlier this year, and its completion was met with much delight and more than a little relief from the school and local community.

The recently developed two-storey building includes general teaching and administration rooms, a four-classroom special educational needs unit, PE hall and fitness suite, full size all-weather pitch, two construction rooms, an engineering room, high tech multimedia rooms, a library, four science labs and a general purpose area.

The community of Kilbeggan and the surrounding areas were invited to an open day in the new school on Saturday December 16, when principal Garret Farrell said he is “absolutely thrilled” to see the students getting so much enjoyment out of the new campus every day.

“It’s been a thrill of a lifetime for this to happen and I know it took quite a while, but it has been so worth it in the end to see what we have here today. We are so grateful to all the dedicated people over the years who put so much time and energy into this project. We hope that we have done them all proud.

“We have had tremendous support from the Department of Education. They have been fantastic. Everyone in the department over the years has been so helpful and could not have supported this project more. Equally so, we were lucky with our builders and all the contractors involved with the construction,” he said.

The new school was first mooted 18 years ago and since then, the number of pupils attending has almost doubled to 690. Work on the project was also held up for two years due to delays in obtaining final planning permission.

Senator Paul Daly, chairperson of the board of management, said people attending the open day were “all so impressed” with the school.

“It is great to have the new school here as it has been a long drawn out project, on the cards for the last 20-odd years, but finally we are here in situ. It’s brilliant to be involved as the chairperson of the board of management, but more so as a member of the community, to see the great facilities that our future generations will be able to avail of and benefit from.

“I’d just like to say how proud I am of principal Garret Farrell, deputy principal Bernadette Gallen, all the staff and the entire school community on how easily they made the transition from the old to the new school. As chair of the board, it was brilliant to see how everyone put their shoulder to the wheel to make the transition seamless.

“I have to praise my fellow board of management members and previous boards, who kept fighting the fight to get this from inception to where it is today. There were so many great people involved and unfortunately some of those have since passed. Each consecutive board had only one ambition, and that was to get this school built,” he said.

In 1948, The Sisters of Mercy founded the secondary school in a couple of rooms in the local national school before a standalone secondary facility was built in 1954. In 1964 the secondary school became co-educational, one of the first convent schools in Ireland to admit boys. The school continued to grow and the new school marks a new chapter in its history.

“The Sisters of Mercy must be commended for their time and energy down through the years, as without their dedication back in the late 1940s, there may never have been a secondary school in Kilbeggan,” said Senator Paul Daly. “They also provided us with this site and that was the launching pad for this whole project.”

The school building undergone major change, but the welcoming ethos remains, deputy principal Bernadette Gallen said. ‘We have moved the entire school family up the road and we have to say the warm atmosphere continues in our new campus. We are loving our new building, all the students have rowed in behind us. We are all so happy and enjoying the new facilities including the sports amenities, the meditation room, our beautiful woodwork and engineering rooms. We just have so many new facilities to enjoy that we didn’t have before.

“Today, the special thing for me is welcoming back the past pupils and getting to share this experience with them. We had beautiful times in the old campus, so being able to see those people here again today, who are thriving in their lives, is amazing,” she said.

Remarking on the successful open day, Mr Farrell said it was “a brilliant occasion” and gave the community the opportunity to view the facility. “An awful lot of people, board of managements, parents associations, staff and families have been pushing this project for a long time. Today is the day for us to celebrate their hard work and it is fantastic to see everyone back here today,” he said.