Cork school unveils €16m plan to triple its size on North Mon campus

The 4,600sq m extension will deliver 25 new rooms, and its first library and canteen, as well as providing a dramatic new main school entrance

The proposed new €16m extension at Gaelcholaiste Mhuire AG on the historic North Mon campus, on Cork's northside.

A secondary school on a famous education campus on Cork’s northside has unveiled ambitious plans for a €16m extension to cope with rising student numbers.

Gaelcholaiste Mhuire AG on the historic North Mon campus has lodged a planning application with Cork City Council seeking permission for a striking extension to be developed to the front and east of the existing building.

The existing school measures some 2,200sq m. The 4,600sq m extension will triple the size of the school, delivering 25 new rooms, its first library and its first canteen. It will also provide a dramatic new main school entrance.

It is hoped that building work will start this time next year.

The extension has been designed to include 15 general classrooms and 10 specialist rooms, including three media and ICT rooms, two science labs, two DCG rooms, a new technology room, a new art room and a new library.

It includes an ‘aonad uathachais’ with two special education needs (SEN) rooms and associated SEN facilities including toilets, kitchens, sensory rooms and a 250-seater canteen.

The planning application also seeks permission for the construction of an all-weather pitch behind the existing school.

Vote of confidence

There have been big investments in school projects around St Patrick’s Hill and Wellington Road in recent years but príomhoide of Gaelcholáiste Mhuire AG, Dónal Ó Buachalla, said this project represents one of the single biggest investments in education in the wider northside in about 40 years.

“This is a major vote of confidence in the school, and in 'oideachas trí Gaeilge' [education through Irish] on the North Mon campus which has existed for 216 years,” he said.

“It will transform the educational experience for students here. We just have no spare capacity at the moment. If approved, the new building will greatly enhance the experience of students.

The project has been designed to wrap around the front and eastern flank of the existing school.

“We have 660 students on the roll and this building has been designed to cope with an intake of up to 740.” 

In 2001, the school went co-ed and took in two girls, Étaoin Ní hAilpín and Emma Ní Laoire. Today, Étaoin’s sister, Sarote, is deputy principal alongside Mark McGowan.

The school has taken in 125 students each year for each of the last three years and for the first time this year, it took in more girls than boys.

The project, which is being funded entirely by the Department of Education, has been designed to wrap around the front and eastern flank of the existing school, and then extend into an area of land to the northeast of the building which was signed over to the school by the Christian Brothers to facilitate the expansion.

Pat Kinsella, the chair of the school’s board of management, said the board is very grateful for the support of the Department of Education and Science, and to the Edmund Rice School Trust which successfully negotiated the signing over by the Christian Brothers of the adjoining landbank to facilitate the project.

Pending planning approval, it is hoped that building work will start this time next year and be ready for students and teachers in early 2025.