7 May 2013

 

This is a proud day for St Patrick’s College. It’s a proud day for the students and staff of the college, past and present, and for all who have been associated with the building of our new school. This blessing and official opening marks the opening of a new chapter in the long and distinguished history of St Patrick’s.That history goes back to 12 March 1874 when St Patrick’s College first opened its doors to 83 students. When Bishop Nicholas Conaty founded the College then it was the only second level school for Catholics in the diocese of Kilmore. A big increase in demand for secondary education half a century later led to the addition of an extension in 1939, what used to be called in my day, ‘The New Wing’.  The College was of course then mainly a boarding school and that extension more than doubled the number of students it could accommodate. Further extensions were added in 1962 and 1986.

 

The beautiful new building we see today is built for 600 pupils and is furnished with the latest technology and facilities to teach a comprehensive range of subjects, academic and practical. I congratulate all who were involved in the carrying out of this major project. I will leave it to others to speak about them in detail. But I do want to pay a special tribute to the Boards of Management who guided this project from start to finish. I congratulate the members of the Boards and thank them for their dedication and hard work. I thank Fr Ray Brady who was Chair when the project began more than ten years ago. I want to pay tribute to the tremendous interest and commitment of Fr Dan Sheridan, the current Chair who has given an enormous amount of time and energy to this work. I congratulate also Dr Liam McNiffe and his co-workers who have literally worked day and night to reach the point we have reached today. I wish also, on behalf of the trustees, to acknowledge the generous funding received from the Department of Education and Skills for this building.The new St Patrick’s College carries on the proud tradition of second level education that began in the 19th century, continued in the 20th, and is now firmly established in the new millennium. The College is blessed with a great cohort of gifted and enthusiastic students. This generation of students have shown that they can achieve the highest standards in every area of endeavour, in studies, in sport, in music, art and drama and in   many other spheres of learning and skills. If I might single out a recent achievement, I congratulate the team and the College on winning the Rannafast trophy this year. It shows that the great tradition of Gaelic football is still alive and well here.The success of any school depends on its staff and St Patrick’s College is blessed in having teaching staff, office and household staff who are dedicated, professional and prepared to go away beyond the call of duty in the service of their students. The key person in any school is the Principal and St Patrick’s College has had many dedicated Principals over the years, none more so than the current Principal, Dr McNiffe who has devoted all his waking hours – and many when he should have been sleeping –  to this task over the last three years. His leadership, hard work and dedication are extraordinary and his contribution to today’s achievement is simply immeasurable.

 

As we celebrate today we remember the generations of staff and students who have gone before us. The generation of lay staff who retired in recent years – any many of whom are happily here today –  would have begun teaching at a time when the majority of the staff were still priests and when they, the lay members, must often have felt somewhat left out of the loop. I would like to pay tribute to them today and acknowledge their dedication, commitment and generosity despite the limitations they sometimes worked under. We remember too the generations of priests who, for the first hundred years made up the vast majority of staff. Happily there are several of them here today too. They not only contributed their work and their skills to the school. They also gave most of their salaries to subsidize it and make the fees affordable in the days before universal second level education became available. Their contribution should not be forgotten.We now live in a world where there is a variety of school choices available for young people at second level. And that puts an onus on us to be clear about what it St Patrick’s College offers its students.  This is a Catholic school. We shouldn’t shy away from that word ‘Catholic’. If you look up the Oxford Dictionary you’ll find that the primary meaning of the word is ‘universal, all-embracing’.  The Bishops’ Conference document on Catholic schools a few years ago says, “Catholic schools aspire to create an open, happy, stimulating, and mutually respectful environment in which young people are able to develop the full range of their abilities and talents.” That’s one part of what ‘catholic’ means and that’s what we want this school to be.