Excitement builds in Westport’s Sacred Heart School ahead of All-Ireland final

SARAH McGreal is exactly the kind of woman you’d want to be your school principal. 

Permanently smiling and fulsome in her support of extra-curricular activities, Ms McGreal glows with pride when speaking about her school’s high-flying footballers.

With two U-14 teams on the go, Ms McGreal has no doubt that the school’s football, rugby and athletics success has had a contagion effect.

“Not everybody likes to play sport, but they might like to get behind their friends that are on the team, and getting staff involved is a huge commitment,” she tells The Mayo News.

“Hours of Mr Coyle’s life goes into this team that he will never see money for or time back again, or time from his family, or for any teacher that’s involved in extracurricular. But it’s the positive that it brings with your relationship to the students and to the school. And that’s where the pay-off, whether it’s in musicals or competitions or drama or sport.”

She played a lot of sport in her younger days – she even coached a rugby team in Gortnor Abbey – but Ms McGreal is slow to credit herself with her school’s recent success.

“I’m only the year and a half here. So I walked into a situation where there’s a great spirit of volunteerism,” she says.

“I think anyone involved in education knows it's about building students’ relationships and rapport. And that can start outside the classroom, and it carries into co-operation in the classroom.

“I’m sure the girls would attest to that, the strengthened relationship with the teacher does impact your engagement in the classroom and I am part of that buy-in and I hope, from my perspective and [Vice-Principal] Mr [Kevin] Malone, that it’s something we’ll continue to encourage and foster and show our appreciation to staff who give up that time.”