School History
Village Schools
In 1835 a Government report gave a list of all seven schools in Moynalty Parish. At the time two of those schools listed were located in Moynalty Village.
- The Moynalty Boys' National School was located over Molly Lynch's shop in the centre of the village (formerly known as The Borora Stores & currently The Hair Store) The playground for the boys was across the road along the River Borora.
- Moynalty Girls' National School was set up in 1834, located over what is now Farrell's TV & Electrical Store.
Both schools were built by the local landlord, Mr. J.A. Farrell. These two schools were among the earliest schools in Ireland to be taken over by the National Board.
Old School
In 1939 the two schools in Moynalty Village were amalgamated and a new co-educational school catering for both boys and girls was built beside the church grounds. Upon the opening of the new school all the boys and girls excitedly gathered in the village and walked the short distance to their new school together in a poignant parade. The new school was named Scoil Mhuire. In 1940 the newly opened Scoil Mhuire was blessed by Rev. William Cooney. Mr. Wilford Melville became Principal of Scoil Mhuire and Mrs. E. Smyth who had been Principal of the girls' school became Privileged Assistant and Miss Brady was the Assistant. Some of the teachers who taught in the old schools were Mr. L. McMahon, Mr. Moran, Mr. O'Neill, Miss E. O'Brien and Mr. Byrne. The teachers in the new Scoil Mhuire since 1939 were Mrs. Doyle, Miss E. Geraghty, Mrs. C. Carolan, Mr. P. Murchan, Mrs. M. Murchan, Miss S. Blood, Miss G. Farrell, Miss M. Dorian, Mrs. K. Bradley and Miss S. Jennings.
New
New School
On Thursday morning 29th March 2012 at 11am the staff and children of Scoil Mhuire Moynalty moved into their new school building located opposite the graveyard in the village. The children, staff, parents and Board of Management all made the short walk from the old school to the new one. Each child carried something from the old school with them and they walked in pairs with older children holding the hand of a younger child. The procession of children excitedly walking to their new building was reminiscent of the similar walk made by a previous generation in 1939. We were fortunate to have one of those pupils from the 1939 school move, Mr. Tommy Deignan, with us on our special day.
The new school design is unique in that it has been built to PassivHaus Standard. This involved a number of challenging aspects to the building like the high levels of insulation, the window glazing, energy efficiency, mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery, rain water harvesting, triple glazing, Co2 sensors in the rooms and an enveloped or air-tight build. The resulting building is therefore hugely energy efficient and extremely eco-friendly in its running and has received an A rating certificate.
In addition to our good fortune at having been chosen by The Department of Education and Skills for this type of building, the huge effort at fundraising a couple of years ago has afforded us the opportunity to have a flood-lit all-weather football pitch installed. This fundraising has also been used to upgrade many of the teaching resources in the school and to get a good range of IT and computer equipment for use by all the children.
The work of successive Boards and Parents and the work of the School Fund Raising Group must be acknowledged. They have worked hard and have shown great resilience, commitment and patience.
Our congratulations go to all involved and our best wishes to everyone for a great future in such a beautiful school building. We are indeed fortunate to have it and to have the staff and children that make having this great catholic school possible in our parish.
The BEMS provides information on the efficiency of the school building and is used to control temperatures, ventilation, Co2, heat & light inside the building. By going into each classroom onscreen you can access information about the rainwater harvesting, biomass boiler, energy usage, temperatures, humidity, Co2 levels, wind speed and general weather conditions outside.
