Cork school that lost gym roof in storm planning to begin repairs in March

The cost of Storm Ophelia is still being counted by students and a local community whose sports hall lost its roof in scenes broadcast around the world.

Douglas Community School principal Jim Long hopes to get work underway by March and to have the sports hall ready to start fitting out again by June, ready for returning students in the autumn.

The lifting of the roof by the hurricane-like winds that hit Cork on the morning of October 6 was caught on camera by a neighbour in the southside suburb in a video that went viral.

Other neighbours were fortunate to avoid injury or major damage to their homes, when the roof landed across a number of gardens.

The school is one of seven that received grant approval under the Department of Education’s emergency works fund to repair damage caused during the storm that shut all 4,000 of the country’s schools for two days.

All but one of the other six — in counties Cork, Dublin, Kildare Meath, Tipperary, and Westmeath — are getting assistance for roof works. Navan Education Together National School got funding approval 10 days after Storm Ophelia to facilitate removal of trees.

The needs of four other schools were still being finalised at the end of last week, and the last two of 13 applications received by the department were under review.

The damage to electrics, floors, and equipment at the Douglas Community School hall means there is much more than the roof to replace. But the department’s speedy turnaround of its application means approval was received by the end of November to spend €550,000.

It is the single biggest outlay of the €800,000 approved so far for Ophelia-related damage to schools by the department, although many other schools may have work being covered by their own insurers.

For almost 600 students of the all-boys’ school, the loss of the hall has been a significant blow, although they have had continued use of school pitches and their nearby astro-turf facility.

But, Mr Long explained, the wider community has also been affected because of the storm damage.

“The local bowls club would normally use the sports hall a couple of times a week, and were due to have their tournament here at Halloween,” he said.

It is also accessed regularly by young people with disabilities at the nearby Lavanagh Centre, but they have been facilitated since the damage with use of another space at Douglas Community School.

The school appointed a consulting engineer in early January, with plans to engage an architect and builder to undertake the works, which could take around three months. Mr Long was pleased with the support of the Department of Education to get the project going.

“I’ve worked with them on smaller projects in the past and the process can be frustrating, but I was really impressed with how they turned this around and approved our application in six weeks,” Mr Long said.

The department approved emergency works funding of €12m for 328 schools last year.

Although that was €2m more than in each of the previous two years, the number of schools benefiting was over 120 less than in 2016, and down from nearly 500 in 2015.