Planning approved for €16m state-of-the-art extension to Cork school

Gaelcholaiste Mhuire AG lodged an application for the extension last June

A CGI of Gaelcholaiste Mhuire's new €16m extension.

Plans for a new state-of-the-art extension on the campus of a historic secondary school on Cork's Northside have been approved by Cork City Council.

Gaelcholaiste Mhuire AG, situated on the 216-year-old North Mon campus, lodged an application for the €16m extension last June.

The new 4,600sq m extension, which is being funded by the Department of Education, is set to triple the size of the existing 2,200sq m school, and provide it with a new main school entrance. 

The building will house 10 specialist rooms - two science labs, two design and communication graphic (DCG) rooms, three media and ICT rooms, a technology room, a new library, and an art room, as well as 15 general classrooms. 

The new extension will triple the size of the school. 

It will also house a 250-seater canteen and an aonad uathachais - a unit with two special education needs (SEN) rooms and associated facilities such as toilets, kitchen and sensory rooms.

The approved plans will also see a new all-weather playing pitch constructed behind the existing school building.

School principal Dónal Ó Buachalla said the new extension represents "a major vote of confidence in both the school and the northside community," he said.

"It is the first major educational investment in over 40 years in the northside of Cork city."

Mr Ó Buachalla said that Gaelcholaiste Mhuire has grown its student population from 350 in 2010 to nearly 700 for the forthcoming school year. 

He said the new extension and specialist rooms will ensure the school can accommodate increased student numbers into the future and help the school further broaden its curriculum.

"This project will support the tremendous work of the school staff in taking care of the students on a holistic level something which we pride ourselves."

Chairperson of the school's Board of Management, Mr Pádraig Kinsella also welcomed the planning approval saying it would "ensure that the people of the Northside will have a school that they can be proud of for many generations to come."

Mr Kinsella also paid tribute to the Trustee's of the school, ERST (the Edmund Rice Schools Trust) for their work in securing the adjoining land needed to facilitate the extension's construction.