This article is from page 31 of the 2010-02-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 31 JPG
, which will be launched on
the night of the dinner. Among the 37 contributors to the book is Sr Brid Hogan, a woman who
has been part of the school since it first opened. She was there in 1929 to enrol as one of its first pupils, and later returned as one of its longest serving teachers.
Sr Brid is not unique in her long- term association with the school as many of those who joined as students and teachers have found it difficult to leave it behind, and have become part of the unique history of this seaside secondary school.
Among those who have a strong identification with the school are the current principal and deputy principal Mary Crawford and Harry Hughes.
Mary remember when the school was still a girls-only day school and boarding school. When she was in second year in 1969 the first male teachers were employed at the school,
among them Harry Hughes. Eight years later in 1977 the school went coeducational and a year later board- ing at the school ceased as transport for pupils improved.
There was an influx of students again in 1985 when the vocational school in Miltown Malbay closed. Practical subjects such as woodwork ANOCOMNOloLE-VA\ LOU LoJKom NA SOMENINKOLOLEeer6! to the Spanish Point school.
The school building has also seen many changes over the years.
Initially the Sisters of Mercy began the school in Woodbank Cottage. As the school extended it moved to cur- rent building in 1959. While Wood- bank Cottage is now used for other purposes, Seaview House, which was home to generations of boarders, is still part of the school.
Today 350 students occupy the
newly-refurbished school. With pop- ulation decline a constant battle in the west, maintaining the size of the school is not easy.
As well as teaching teenagers, the 80-year-old school also _ provides Back to Education and FETAC class- es, with parents, children and even grandparents often attending the school at the same time.
Generations of past and present pu- pils are expected again to meet and celebrate the history of the school at the gala dinner, tickets for which are available at the school.