Untitled Document

The beginings of Mother of Fair Love School.

Senior 2 decided to do a brief history of Mother of Fair Love School as our part of the Kilkenny Archival Project. We decided to invite Mr. Paddy McAlinney in to help us. Mr. McAlinney was principal of the school from October 1966, when the school opened, to January 1998 when he retired. This photo show Mr. McAlinney giving a slide show to our class when he came in to talk to us.


	When Mr. McAlinney came to our classroom he showed us some slides of the original building. The original building consisted of two pre-fabs and a toilet block. Presentation and C.B.S. schools each donated one pre-fab. The toilet block was a block construction. The school was situated in the grounds of St. Mary's cathedral. Each pre-fab was divided into two classrooms.



Our school from the very beginning provided hot school lunches for all the students. We now have our own dining room but in the beginning the students took their lunches in the chapter room of St. Mary's cathedral. There was about forty children on the roll when the school opened and there was a staff of four. The photograph shows the chapter room.

	Ms. Kay Phelan joined the staff in the spring of 1968. She was the first to work in the new school building. Kay retired as deputy head in January 2001. The following picture shows members of the school staff, including Ms. Phelan, on a school picnic around June 1968 or June 1969. Left to Right: Mary Grace, Sister Sheila, Sr. Eileen Maria Ryan, Kay Phelan, Sr. Paula, Sr. Colette Casey (Kathleen Casey), Sr. Mechtilde, Mrs. Wilson, Sr. Bernard (Mary Loughran)


There were 127 pupils in the school during the late 1970s. In 2001 Mother of Fair Love School has a teaching staff of ten and ninety students. There are four Special Needs Assistants. We have a secretary and two Childcare Assistants. We have access to a Home Economics Teacher, a Physiotherapist, a Speech Therapist and a Reflexologist. We also have a P.E. teacher.