Killybegs

Co. Donegal

Our School

OUR SCHOOL PAGE

Our School

Our school is situated approximately 8km from the centre of Cork City.  The local GAA field is situated directly behind our school, with the Whitechurch and Waterloo Community Centre beside us also.

There are 11 teachers in our school.   We also have part-time resource and learning-resource tachers attatched to the school.  The school is also lucky to have a school secretary and caretaker.

Our school is very active.  Music is a very important part of our school-year.  We have Christmas pagents and summer plays annually.  These are very popular times for teachers and pupils alike, as we all get to show the parents of the locality just how hard we work.  Many on the children attending our school attend music lessons outside of school and we are very proud to say that many of them have won a variety of important prizes.

Every class in the school goes on a 'school tour', usually in the month of May.  The infant classes visit local attractions, while sixth class embarke on a trip to Dublin.

Sport is a very important part of our school year.  Hurling and Gaelic Football are practiced by all children in the school, and as a result of all our hard work, we have won many Sciath na Scol finals both in girls and boys divisions, over the past few years.  Our achievements in the Cork City Sports for track and field events has also been outstanding recently.  Thanks to the facilities available to the school, we also play basketball, olympic handball and volleyball.

Our school also has a proud tradition of competing at the highest level for primary schools in both spelling competitions and table quizes.

Where We Are

Whitechurch is a little village which is part of the parish of Blarney, in County Cork.  We are situated on the old Mallow-Cork road.  

Our school is situated just outside the village, surrounded by the local Sports field and Community Hall.

Read below for further details

In 1826 there were 4 paying schools in Whitechurch, 3 Catholic and 1 Protestant.

In 1835 a new School House was built on the site where the present school is situated.  It was a 2 storeyed, 2 roomed building with the boys downstairs and the girls upstairs.  This building still stands today, however it is only a single storey building today.

During the 1847 famine, the school was converted into a temporary fever hospital.

A set of three classrooms were added opposite the main building in the late 70's.  A further 3 classrooms were added to the main building in 1982.

We now also have a portacabin and 2 prefabs to house 264 children at present.

A new 2 storey school is in the pipeline, so we are gone a full circle!!

School Buildings in 1835

Monard Mills 1930

       Whitechurch has always meant different things to different people. To most it is just a place you pass through going the back road between Cork and Mallow with its two most prominent features , the ancient round tower and the Modern Telecommunications Mast. To hundreds scattered over the five continents, from Australia to Peru it means places full of happy memories, faces of dear ones long unseen. To these at home it means buildings, fields, roads, each with their own story to tell, each with its associations stretching back to other days.

          The surveyor who came to investigate the place names for the first Ordinance Survey map called it ‘An unassuming little hamlet’. Daniel Corkery when he looked north from the hustle and bustle of the City of Cork was reminded of something else. ‘For me, to gaze thus into that trembling distance, where the little wind-swept hamlet, trees and all, fades into the light of the sky is to sink softly, and with, perhaps, some gathering wistfulness into the Gaelic world of 18^th Century.

           Our great families played prominent parts in the National struggle, and Whitechurch men fought in our own parish at Sixmilewater in 1691. When Gaelic Civilization was on the decline Whitechurch had a Court of  Poets. We are proud of our Connection with the great liberator Daniel O’ Connell whose mother was born in Whitechurch. The place saw its share of suffering during the great Famine. One wall still standing , is all that is left to remind us of the Enterprise of Robert Gordon who attemted to set up a Linen Industry in our locality while the shovel Mills still stand in their desolation Whitechurch Men and Women played their part in the war of Independence which we live today.

           An awareness of our past helps us to become better citizens. Knowing the history of our parish enables us to appreciate our environment better. Knowing about the lives of the people who helped make our history, must surely make us more appreciative of our good fortune to live in better times.

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