Blarney National School – Heart of our Community

The holidays are over and our children are back in school. The festivities are but a distant memory, however, the recent Advent period was such a hugely significant time for our school, and the wider community, that it cannot escape mention in this column. ‘No room at the Inn’, is the oft quoted refrain from Nativity plays performed by doe-eyed infant classes. This perennial verse would never been heard had the Holy Family travelled to Blarney on that First Christmas. Just as the winter began to cast it’s chilling breath over our village, the heating in our Junior Building suffered a catastrophic failure. Scoil Chroí Íosa found itself with a major accommodation crisis at the coldest time of the year. ‘The show must go on’ is the show biz motto, and the same applied to our wonderful school. Whilst many of the children from our Castle Close Road campus were accommodated in the Senior Building we simply could not fit all the children on that site. Unlike Bethlehem on the First Christmas the Community of Blarney threw open their doors ensure the show continued. Special mention must be made of Cllr. Kevin Conway and Ger Hanlon who ensured that the furniture was in order and the all important heating on for our 6th Class in the Parish Hall each morning. Our ever dependable partners in Blarney GAA unflinchingly made their premises available to our children. The community spirit in Blarney shone as bright as the Star at the First Nativity. On behalf of our school, we say ‘thank you Blarney’! As an aside, the Parish Hall and St. Helen’s Convent have been with us since 1892. The site was developed with help from Nicholas and Ellen O’Mahony and the people of Blarney. The Hall formerly accommodated classes from Blarney Boy’s NS in the 1980′s, when many of our current scholar’s fathers were in school!

The children in Mrs. Corkery’s choir performed movingly at the beautiful ecumenical service held under glow of the Harry Clarke stained glass windows in the Church of the Resurrection. The true spirit of community and Christmas is present at this event. Great credit is due to Fr. Michael and the Rev. Robert for facilitating this event annually.

Our children were out and about carol singing and enjoying walks in the Castle.

Good use is being made of the GAA Club astro turf. Mr. Burke took 6th Class to Ian and Úna Forrest’s Castle Hotel for a special breakfast treat. Mr. O’Leary and Mrs. O’Connell were nurturing the GAA stars of the future at an indoor blitz.

For more information and photographs we recommend that you visit our website www.scins.ie, recently revamped by Mr. Cotter.

Finally, we wish to reiterate our sincere thanks to the parents, staff and the wider community for being there for our village school in December. Happy new year to one and all.carol siging castle IMG_0316

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