Pupils leave cramped school behind

Schoolchildren waved goodbye to cramped classrooms yesterday before a triumphant march into a spacious new state-of-the-art school.

Years of campaigning for the building finally came to end as hundreds of pupils of Gaelscoil Uí Ríordáin in Ballincollig, Co Cork, walked 3km from the old school in Coolroe, founded above a shop almost 30 years ago, for their first day of classes in the €4.5m purpose-built, 24-classroom, three-storey building in Carriganarra.

Education Minister Ruairí Quinn said he was delighted the school was now open to classes.