Thirteen proves lucky as long wait for school building ends

THE number 13 has proved lucky for children in a Co Cork school.

Their €500,000 national school will be officially opened today, Friday 13th, after a 13-year battle to replace their original building, which was condemned, many years ago, by the now defunct Southern Health Board.

The campaign for a new building for the children attending St James’s NS in Durrus started as far back as September 1995 when the school’s board of management first contacted the Department of Education.

The then principal, Olwen Anderson, wanted to renovate the school but this was rejected by the department, which said it would be too costly.

In January 1997, the health board condemned the building and, seven months later, the department finally gave approval for a new school.

Due to delays in purchasing a site adjacent to the school, the project was put on hold until in 2002, the site was eventually purchased.

It took two further years for the department to give approval to go to tender.

All seemed to be going according to plan. But the following year, 2005, all the plans were scrapped by the Department of Education.

Clara McGowan, who had assumed the principal’s post, said she was shocked at the news.

“It was very frustrating and, at that stage, I thought everything was lost. But we weren’t willing to give up the fight. The children here deserved a decent school. I wasn’t going to let it go,” she said.

Conditions in the building at the time were appalling.

“It was built with sea sand and the dampness was terrible. There was fungus coming through the walls. It was impossible to heat and a lot of the windows wouldn’t open,” she said.

But the new Church of Ireland school is a state-of-the-art building.

The 23 pupils and two teachers now enjoy two gleaming classrooms, a staff room, resource room, office and a fine playground.