Forty years a-growing

PROUD DAY Fiona Byrnes, principal, is pictured with Eugene McCormack, Mayor of Castlebar and Archbishop Michael Neary at the at the St Anthony’s School 40th anniversary celebration.  Pic: Studio 094

‘Priority is given to what is really important’

Sean Rice

St Anthony’s in Castlebar was a formidable challenge to all of us, Archbishop Michael Neary told a gathering at a celebratory Mass marking the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the special school. Forty years ago, he said, a number of people with prophetic vision and foresight had the courage and initiative to lay the foundations for the school.
While there had been enormous changes in Castlebar and throughout the country over those 40 years human needs remained much the same and required to be addressed. We lived in a society of radical extremes, he said. On one hand there was a grasping greed driven by profit and productivity where people and principles were frequently pushed aside.
“At the same time, on the other hand you have people who are continually looking outward, continually thinking of others and acting on their behalf, as they recognise human need and respond generously and encourage others to respond to those needs. This latter group acts as a kind of conscience for the rest of society.”
The Archbishop said the school did not have in 1967 the resources that were available today. This school of St Anthony’s ‘has been a wonderful support to parents as they endeavour to educate their children and to ensure they have every opportunity to develop their special skills so that they can become independent and take their rightful place in our society today’.
He congratulated all involved, including the Western Care Association and the HSE, in making the school the wonderful success it was today. Team work, he said, had been a very special emphasis both for staff and pupils alike.
Archbishop Neary, who celebrated Mass assisted by Fr Fergal Cunnane, school chaplain, said we lived in a world with so much emphasis on education at all levels, that it had a narrowing focus and effect. He referred to the hysteria associated with examination results and points, and said the emphasis on instant success was such that society tended to be impatient if that success was not forthcoming immediately.
“Here in St Anthony’s, by contrast, each pupil is taken at his or her own pace. To start, working together, helps them to recognise their strengths, to develop their special gifts and to build on those. As a result the young people here in St Anthony’s acquire a confidence that enables them to take their rightful place in the Ireland of today. Priority is given here to what is really important.”
The chairman of the Board of Management, and founding member, Johnny Mee said it had been a quick 40 years. He recalled the children gathering for their first day at St Patrick’s old national school. They were one pupil short to make up the required complement. Tom Fallon, who together with Michael J Egan was the other founding member, asked Johnny if he knew the parents of one pupil who had not turned up. They drove to her house, convinced the parents of the advantage of the school, and their child made up the magic number of 29 students in order to be officially recognised by the Department of Education and the Department of Health.
Johnny paid tribute to all who help make the school the success it now was, including present principal Fiona Byrnes and her staff. It has been a wonderful 40 years and he remembered people recognising how pleased he was when they moved to their school on a site provided by the Sisters of Mercy. Their new modern school at Humbert Way was opened in 2005.
He said he visited the school nearly every day and the one thing that struck him always was the great love the children showed. It was so natural and so wonderful. “If you want to see genuine love, come to St Anthony’s.”
Presentations were made to Johnny Mee and his wife Mary, and to Eithne Egan, wife of the late founder Michael J. A message of regret for his inability to attend was received from the other founding member, Tom Fallon.