Landmark school to retain historic features

Work is under way to refurbish and extend one of Cork’s oldest secondary schools — but it will still retain many historic features remembered by generations offormer schoolgirls.

St Angela’s College and its 540 students have moved temporarily from their St Patrick’s Hill home to accommodate the €11m building works due for completion by the end of next year.

With initial site works complete, principals past and present were given the joint task of turning the sod to recognise their work that turned more than 15 years of planning into reality.

The project will provide 24 classrooms, lecture rooms, labs, a sports hall, and other facilities, but almost half the accommodation will be in the old school building.

The adjoining Ursuline Convent will be fully integrated into the school, accommodating staff facilities and a student library.

Within the old buildings, architects O’Donnell + Tuomey have retained many old heritage features such as stained-glass panels, a carved timber porch, and sash and bay windows.

Principal Pat Curran is excited about the progress, and particularly that so many old features are being retained, some uncovered for the first time.

“They have discovered old brick archways and chimneys that were hidden behind plaster and timber which will now be part of the new school, along with the old high ceilings and interior detailing. We’re an old Ursuline Convent school and if we were to knock all these old buildings we would lose all that history,” he said.

He praised the perseverance of predecessors Rosalie Moloney and Geraldine Quilter who progressed the project since an application first went to the Department of Education in 1999, but also those who went before them in their push for modern facilities.

“There were times we thought this work would never be taking place, so it’s wonderful to see it started, but also to see so many iconic parts of the old school being kept,” said Ms Quilter.

The school opened in 1888 in an early 19th-century building once owned by the Murphy family, whose brewery can be seen from the hillside site, along with other magnificent views of the south and west sides of Cork City.

Mr Curran said the plan is to occupy the new Department of Education-funded school by the end of 2015.