Fund Raising
Non uniform Day
Mar 5th
The school hosted a Trocaire non uniform day in aid of the Haiti earthquake disaster. It took place on the 5th of February and the school raised over 2800 euro for the earthquake victims.
A Note from the Parents Council
Jan 21st
The Parents’ Council of Coláiste Mhuire would like to express a sincere thank you to all parents who contributed over the year: “We are particularly greatful to those who contributed time to the work of the council. The funds we raised from subscriptions over the year were put to very good use in the school.
Among the many areas we helped out in were the provision of a defibrilator for the school and of some equipment for the music department. We ran a very successful table quiz in the Greville Arms and are hoping to repeat the performance next March.”
Chairperson Sandra Neville tells me that The Parents’ Council meets once a month and all parents are welcome to attend. Come along and support your son and our school.
Helping Trócaire
Jan 21st
Congratulations to the students of St. Mary’s 6 and Colman’s 5 who collected funds in their own class towards Trocaire’s Global Gifts campaign.
Ms. Costello says that they have collected enough to buy a house for an underprivileged family in a developing country. Times may be hard but they adopted the real Christmas spirit.
Hevey Building Restoration
Mar 12th
Since its opening in 1856, thousands of Mullingar boys have passed through the doors of the Hevey Institute and gone out again into the wide world. The intervening years have not always been kind to the building, which is now showing its age and is in urgent need of conservation. The interior has been much altered with the original rooms being partitioned to cater for the greater numbers attending, particularly in the 1950’s.
The construction of new primary and secondary schools in the 1950’s and 1970’s meant that the Hevey Institute which had been swarming with pupils gradually fell into disuse.
Speaking this week, Mr. Joe O’Meara, Principal of the Secondary school, spoke of the need to conserve the historic building while at the same time to ensure that it continues to serve the community as it has done since 1856.
Work has been continuing at Coláiste Mhuire on restoration of the Hevey Institute building.
School Principal Mr. O’Meara has worked closely with Westmeath County Council’s conservation architect Ms. Bernadette Solon and with the school’s own architect Mr. Pat Weafer on the best way to maintain the original character of the building. Ms. Solon visited the site on several occasions and greatly facilitated the difficult project. The school also received some financial support from Westmeath County Council. The first part of the restoration work involved a survey of the building. “Despite searches in the archives, we were unable to locate any original architectural drawings of the Hevey Institute” said Mr. O’Meara.
Past pupil T.P. McKeon conducted a detailed survey of the building. The ceilings are a lath and lime plaster conglomerate and the specialist company “Living with the Past” advised the school on the best way to conserve the plaster work and ceilings. The main contractors for the works are Lynam and O’Boyle.
Following the survey of the building and development of a restoration plan work began on restoring the fabric of the building and on putting the space to constructive use. “Our overall plan involved three stages. Stage one which involved rewiring and installation of a heating system. Stage 2 which is now underway involves a fitting out of the east wing of the school. The old oratory has been restored and the original stained-glass windows featuring scenes from Irish history have been restored. The windows depict the Ardagh Chalice, Carraig an Aifrinn (Mass Rock) and Teamhair (St. Patrick lighting the fire on Tara).
The Christian Brothers have generously offered funding for the establishment of a liturgical centre and counselling rooms in this part of the old building and we hope to develop it during the summer months” added Mr. O’Meara. This area will be named for the founder of the Christian Brothers: The Edmund Rice Centre. “We will also open a Language Centre before the end of the year”, added Mr. O’Meara. “The teaching of languages has been greatly facilitated in recent years by use of the internet. Pupils can now have regular contact with native speakers in the target language through this medium. I’m sure the original founders of The Hevey Institute would be astonished to see this fabulous tool in operation. I like to think that they would approve of the uses our languages classes can put it to in Colaiste Mhuire. In any case we are going to open a state-of-the-art language centre before the end of this school year in the revamped old building”
“This phase of the development costs over 200k and we are actively fundraising to pay for this. The people of Mullingar and our parents and past-pupils have always been very generous. I like to think they understand the very important part Colaiste Mhuire has played in the life of Mullingar and are anxious to help us develop this role in the future”.
“We are very aware” continued Mr. O’Meara “of the importance of the Hevey Institute in Mullingar and indeed nationally. We hope to gradually restore it and to use it to benefit future generations of Mullingar people. Given the funding available to schools it will be a slow process but we are prepared to stay with it so that the beautiful old building which has served Mullingar so well will continue to do so”.