North Wing of school facing out onto the Dunmore Road

The phone buzzed. 1 message received...“The Minister said Yes”

It was Friday, March 7th 2008, in a Galway hotel, that the then Education Minister, Mary Hanafin, gave the delegation from Glenamaddy lead by the Principal, James Duignan, exactly the news they wanted to hear...they were not even sure they had heard it correctly it was so quickly granted...they looked at each other in wonderment...they had just secured the promise of the new school...it had been discussed for so long, people doubted it would ever happen.

The announcement was the trigger for jubilation and congratulations, it was the reward for years of campaigning and appealing, it was the starting gun for months of hard but enjoyable work.

Glenamaddy had played host to secondary education for almost fifty years and the old site of Coláiste Seosaimh was showing its age. It had served its students and staff well but it was time for fresh blood, a new, young, whipper-snapper of a building, one which would re-invigorate the town, one which would provide the students in this pocket of east Galway with a facility to be proud of. One in which academic achievement would thrive.

Building continues despite the rain as we look west across what would become The Courtyard

Word reached the school of the Minister’s decision and the plan for the homecoming swung into action. We had no Plan B, there was no what if...we were celebrating. Flags, banners, signs, roadside fires, microphones, speakers, anything and everything we could think of were wheeled out ready for the heroes’ return. The buzz was almost tangible.

Deputy Principal, Mr Tom Fahy, was MC to a school gym packed with students, teachers and parents, all of whom greeted the team with a raucous, rousing cheer. There were handshakes all round. It was an emotional moment. It meant so much to so many.

Within six weeks of the announcement, Glenman Corporation, whose company directors were Glenamaddy men born and bred, were on site stripping the soil and subsoil ready for foundations. Wagon after wagon disgorged hundreds of cubic metres of concrete into mesh filled trenches.

Trowels, spirit levels and mortar soon replaced lorries and the shape of the school became apparent as, despite the rains of another bad summer, concrete block walls rose into the sky criss-crossing each other, slowly creating rooms and corridors. Room 11 in the old school was the best vantage point, the meeting place where we would watch the progress and guess at which room was which, poring over the architect’s drawings.

Summer wore on and the work intensified, scaffolding enveloped the structure. Cranes, three at one point, lifted beams, concrete and girders into place. Three cranes in Glenamaddy; it may never be seen again.

The building was weather tight as we headed into late autumn and winter so work continued apace inside. We were no longer privy to the daily updates Room 11 had offered so it was time to don the Bob The Builder helmets, Hi-Vis vests, steel toe cap boots and venture on-site to see first-hand the tremendous amount of work which had got the building to this stage.

The corridors and rooms were dank and gloomy, lit only by yellow industrial rope lighting strung along walls. We knew that in time those same walls would be transformed, though it was difficult to envisage how it would all come together, given that we were hoping to move into the new building, and bid farewell to the old one, in Summer 2009.

Bear in mind that whilst this construction took place there was a fully functioning school next door doing its best to operate as normal. There was tremendous co-operation and tolerance shown by students and staff although it should also be said that any disruption caused by the building work was kept to a minimum by a sympathetic Glenman Corporation.

The end of the school year loomed large as did the Junior and Leaving Cert exams of 2009. It was decided that to minimise any inconvenience caused by machinery, hammers, compressors beavering away next door, the exams would take place in the St Benin’s Vocational School campus.

As the students left the old building at the end of May, it would be the last time they would see it in its glory. From there on the dismantling would begin. On one site there was construction, on another destruction. People asked why the old building had to be knocked. The simple truth is that the space taken by Coláiste Seosaimh would soon become outdoor courts and the site for the new super sized gym. There was no room for sentiment. It had to go.

The view across The Courtyard has changed markedly as we look westwards again a few months later

There was a final fond farewell for the school as a reunion for former students took place on Saturday 30th May 2009. A celebratory Mass, conducted by Fr. Paddy Mooney PP, took place in St Patrick’s Church, Glenamaddy, whilst the finishing touches were put on the old school. Photos adorned the walls. The hairstyles, fashions, memories and laughs may have differed from era to era but there was a constant affection for the old place. The alumni roamed room to room, recounting where they sat, for which lesson, given by which teacher, re-living their time in school, re-counting the stories, no matter how much of a distant past it had now become.

June became July. There were phone calls, meetings, more phone calls, plenty more meetings. There were suppliers to contact, to cajole, to appease and to restrain. Having won the contract to supply, they wanted to deliver but we still were waiting for the nod to say you can move in.

July became August. The phone call would come any day now and the big move would be on. Staff members were chomping at the bit to move but still it wasn’t quite ready. The timescale was tightening in but still...

As far as folk could see there was no way we were going to get into the school in time for the new term. Pessimistic students were doing their best to see the bright side by spreading the rumour that the long summer holidays would be extended by another fortnight!

“There’s too much to do, ye’ll never be in for September”.

The last two weeks in August saw the ugly duckling turn into a beautiful swan. The exterior of the building was painted. Windows cleaned. Lights installed. Kerbs laid. Stone and tarmacadam became roads where there had previously been stockpiles of building site debris. Site cabins moved into the old basketball court to be replaced by topsoil and trees. Inside, floor coverings appeared, presses and cabinets clung to walls, ceiling tiles replaced the previous vista of pipes, cables and ducting. The building site finally became our new school.

In a remarkable few days the old school was completely emptied and transported across to the new site. New furniture and new equipment seemed to be arriving hourly all to be accommodated in Ireland’s newest secondary school. Teachers took possession of their new work space, readying it for the students’ arrival. We were to receive our first students through the doors on Tuesday September 1st 2009.

The first bus to arrive that Tuesday morning carried just two students – one a new First Year, Sean Gaffey from Creggs NS, the other, Niamh Conway, formerly of Creggs NS, going into her Leaving Cert year. By some quirk we had a student from each end of their secondary school careers to welcome across the threshold.

There was no great fanfare. It was business as usual as we settled into the first day in the new surroundings. Everyone had to familiarise themselves with the layout. There were bound to be glitches, something we hadn’t thought of, something to hastily re-arrange but...it didn’t materialise. The day passed off well. The students settled into their new environs with great ease.

The new style bell (a tribute to airport terminals across the globe) rang out through the day and, most importantly, signalled the end of Day One. It is wrong to say it was uneventful. We had just taken delivery of the greatest thing to happen in Glenamaddy in a long time but it did pass off without a hitch.

Within a week of taking possession of the new school the old one was gone. Excavators with rock breakers turned a building which had influenced decades of students into rubble and dust. A bare facade was all that remained on Monday morning after a weekend of demolition. Great care and planning went into the preservation of the Convent House which now, with its companion gone, stood alone in the grounds as it had fifty years previous.

By the end of September the old site was cleared and the ground broken for the new gym; foundations, mesh, concrete, steel structures. We had seen this before but it was in the old school looking out across to the new. Now we were in the new looking back out onto the old.

The Gym should be completed May 2010 with a fully equipped Fitness Suite to accompany the impressive Basketball court and outdoor five-a-side areas.

Thanks go to all who have got us to this magnificent place – you are far too numerous to mention individually, your role however small is much appreciated.

A request goes out to those who have yet to enter its doors – please enjoy our school, respect its past and work hard to create future glories for Glenamaddy Community School.

Ar Agaidh Le Cheile