Work starts on controversial Westport school building

Renovation work has started on a Westport school building that has been at the centre of public controversy for several years.

Contractors have begun works and erected hoarding around the former Scoil Phádraig building on Altamount Street. The derelict building had been earmarked for rehousing Holy Trinity NS before being allocated to Sacred Heart Secondary School (SHS) to address their ‘urgent’ temporary accommodation needs.

Years previously, the site had been proposed to co-locate Holy Trinity NS and Westport Educate Together National School [ETNS]. The plan was scrapped following public opposition.

In October, hundreds of people attended a public demonstration outside Scoil Phádraig calling for the Department of Education to allocate the building to Holy Trinity NS as originally intended.

“The works that have recently commenced at the former Scoil Phádraig building at Altamont Street, Westport are preliminary works to facilitate the temporary accommodation of the Sacred Heart School at that location, pending the completion of permanent accommodation for the school, a Department spokesperson told The Mayo News. 

“These works are also serving as an early phase of the project to fully refurbish the building to accommodate Holy Trinity NS. The project for Holy Trinity NS is continuing to advance through the planning stages and the Department is working to ensure that all the relevant projects progress as quickly as possible. Good progress is already being made in this regard.

“These significant projects will transform this area of Westport town with modern school accommodation for circa 800 students in total and support good linkages with the local community.”

The Protestant school received the site from the Sisters of Mercy on the understanding that it would be used ‘to enable diverse provision of education in Westport’.

Holy Trinity NS is currently housed in Newport Road premises that dates back to the 19th century and that has long been deemed not fit for purpose.

The school, which is the only Protestant school in Westport and serves an area roughly the size of Co Louth, signed the Scoil Phádraig site over to the Department of Education to allow refurbishment works to proceed.

Last year, the school received a letter from the department informing it that the building would instead be allocated to SHS as temporary accommodation.

SHS is an all-girls school that is currently using modular accommodation on its grounds due to insufficient capacity in the school building, which dates back to the 1920s.

Contractors who visited the site last November were asked not to tender for the project by Eoin Holmes, chairperson of the Holy Trinity NS Building Committee, and Lesley Emerson, who have both opposed the school being used by SHS.

The Department previously stated that ‘the use of the Scoil Phádraig building on a temporary basis by the Sacred Heart School, together with the delivery of significant permanent school building projects for Holy Trinity NS, Sacred Heart School and Westport ETNS, represents the best overall solution for the children of Westport’.

The Department said that the continued safe operation of schools was ‘of paramount importance to the department’.

“The department also remains committed to the Holy Trinity NS project and getting it delivered as quickly as possible,” they said.