New Claremorris school building is officially opened
THE Minister for Rural and Community Development, Michael Ring, has officially opened a new school building for Gaelscoil Uileog de Búrca in Loughanemon, near Claremorris.
Gaelscoil Uileog de Búrca is a co-educational primary school that operates fully through the medium of Irish.
Minister Ring said: “I was delighted to open a beautiful new building for Gaelscoil Uileog De Búrca including four new classrooms. This school represents all that is great about our rural primary schools.
Its 121 pupils are involved in Gaelic games, soccer, rugby, swimming, cross country, local and national art & craft competitions, junior achievement Ireland, the Mayo science and technology event, road safety training, Irish music and dancing, a peer 4 peer initiative with local secondary school and table quizzes. The school has received four Green Flags over the past few years and is seeking its fifth.
“I will continue working with my cabinet colleagues to ensure that rural Ireland gets its fair share from all departments. Rural Ireland can offer a wonderful quality of life to people. We need to make living in rural Ireland sustainable and viable by continuing to invest in excellent schools and by investing in broadband and in our rural towns and villages.
“Earlier this week I allocated €100,000 to Claremorris for enhancement of the Market Square and Plaza as part of the €1,348,000 allocated to Mayo in my department’s Town and Village Renewal Scheme.”
Gaelscoil Uileog de Burca was provided with €400,000 under the Additional Accommodation Scheme 2011 of the Department of Education and Skills to provide four mainstream classrooms.
In 2015 the government approved a devolved grant of €58,053 to the school for the provision of a boundary fence to existing school play area.
The final instalment of this grant was paid to the school in February, 2017 and works are complete. The school was awarded funding under the Summer Works Scheme in 2011 amounting to over €22,000 towards toilet works.