REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON HER VISIT TO SCOIL ÍOSOGÁIN FRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 1999
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON HER VISIT TO SCOIL ÍOSOGÁIN FRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER, 1999
One of my great pleasures as President, is meeting people from every part of our country, from all walks of life and from all traditions. In particular I love to visit schools, to meet with girls and boys, their teachers, parents and everybody playing their part in providing the wonderful gift of education to our children, our next generation of educators, decision makers and carers.
My thanks to Reverend Brother Vaughan for inviting me to join with you as you celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Scoil Íosagáin - a school that can be justifiably proud of its reputation for providing excellence in education to the community it has served for the last half-century.
Many distinguished people were associated with the foundation of the school – the late Dr. McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin, Canon George Turley, Father Kinnane and Reverend J.P. Norman, the Superior General of the Christian Brothers - identified the need for the building School in this community. Indeed it proved to be a very real need with some 275 pupils enrolling on the first day of opening alone.
From those early days the School went from strength to strength – the numbers of boys rising to over 600 in the early 1970’s. Today, that has changed - student numbers have dropped - as in so many schools throughout the country. This presented you with a new challenge – one which you have risen to meet. For along with normal classroom activities, you now provide educational courses for parents and also serve as a center promoting drama, Irish dancing and singing.
It is a great credit to the teachers and parents who have such a commitment to this school, that today it is such a fitting place for children to grow and be nurtured in. Parents and teachers working together can achieve much more than teachers alone. Children need to see this co-operation between parents and teachers, one supportive of the other. In our changing world, it is hard being a parent but then again, as I know myself, nothing can match up to the joy of seeing children growing up to be well-educated, rounded and happy individuals. It is said ‘what is learnt in childhood is engraved in stone’. We parents, teachers, are the engravers in those fragile early years. If we engrave well we’ll give the child a great start – as they say in Irish ‘tús maith is leath na hoibre’ – a good start is half the work.
May I thank you all - Brother Vaughan, Principal Michael Loughman, teachers, parents and friends for your warm welcome to me today. I congratulate you all on the many achievements of your school in its first fifty years and wish you well for the next.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh.