Celebration to mark the Completion of St. Patrick’s School Building
Friday 24th October 2014
On Friday 24th October we held a special celebration for all in our school community & in the Glencullen community to mark the fulfilment of our vision of a completed school. This was an historic event for the Glencullen community, who only 20 years ago were possibly going to lose their local school due to falling numbers. Instead, on this wonderful day, we celebrated opening our final 3 classrooms completing a 200 pupil school for the village of Glencullen.
The theme for our celebration was ‘What St. Patrick’s Means to Me’. Rather than inviting celebrities or politicians, we focused on inviting the most important people in our school community – the children, parents & local community members. This was a unique celebration for the people of Glencullen!
We began with Fr. Andrew O Sullivan blessing all present and blessing our new extension. This was followed by the pupil’s rendition of the song ‘The Lollipop Tree’, a song Mr. O Connor, our previous principal, enjoyed. Each class then made a presentation of what St. Patrick means to them through story, poetry, letter, wordwalls, painting & dance. Lucy in 5th class presented the audience with projects from 5th & 6th class which involved interviews & photos with grandparents who had attended St. Patrick’s NS as children. The children completed their presentation with a new school song ‘Count on Me’ encouraging friendship, kindness and support, key values in our school.
The children returned to their classes for parties & a magic show with the amazing Mr. Magic. Parents & guests remained in the hall to hear words of thanks from Ann Davy on behalf of our Board of Management and Philip Maguire, on behalf of our Parent’s Association. Ms. Byrne, our principal, concluded by thanking the children, staff, parents and people of Glencullen for making this dream a reality. The day finished with a delightful reception hosted by our PA committee with time to peruse the excellent photographic exhibition around the hall.
It was lovely to see so many faces from our school’s past including Fr. Eamonn Cahill & Patricia Spillane (previous Chairperson of our Board of Management) as well as those who are such wonderful supporters of our school such as Paudgie Mc Hugh (Stars of Erin Chairperson), Des Kennedy (Centra), the Glencullen Active Retirement Group, Garda Pat Cullen & Garda Mandy Lowe and many more. A special day to mark this special & unique little school at the top of the Dublin mountains!
