Ard Scoil Mhuire - 100 years Celebrations on 9th March 2019!

Ardscoil Mhuire, Ballinasloe, is hosting a Heritage Day to celebrate the 100 years since the foundation of our school.

On Saturday March 9th, Ardscoil Mhuire, Ballinasloe, in conjunction with the Heritage Officer, Galway County Council, is hosting a Heritage Day to celebrate the 100 years since the foundation of our school. The focus of this day is the contribution of women to society over the past one hundred years and the role of education in enabling women to do so.

Mairead Mc Guinness MEP will open the event. There will be two key note speakers. Dr. Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, granddaughter of Hannah and Francis Sheehy Skeffington and lecturer in Plant Ecology in NUIG will speak. Micheline has travelled extensively and given countless talks on her grandparents’ role in the Irish fight for Independence. Eithne Treanor, past student, who began her 25 year career in Journalism in the USA with ABC News and has since worked with Sky News, BBC World, Bloomberg and CNBC will give a presentation of Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles”. She now lives in Dubai where she runs a media and communications training consultancy.

The afternoon will feature a lively Discussion Forum featuring six past students who have forged interesting career paths. They will talk about their educational experiences in our school and where it has brought them in life. On the panel will be: Zoe Carol, Fashion Designer, Dr Caitriona Cormican, G.P. and Galway County footballer, Margaret Curley, currently the Series Producer of the Marian Finucane Show on RTE Radio 1, Anne Marie Hayes, Primary Teacher, Galway camogie player and TV Sports pundit with RTE 2 TV, Dr Aideen Ryan, Postdoctoral Researcher, NUIG and Anne Walsh, Senior Lecturer in Marketing Programme, NUIG
There will also be a section on the history of our school from its beginnings in 1919, told by present students with contributions from a Mercy Sister, Sr Loreto McLoughlin, who is herself a past pupil and who was actually taught by the foundress of the school.

There will be exhibitions and short presentations in various classrooms in the afternoon, including a re-creation of an old classroom. A series of short videos filmed by Transition Year students related to the history of our school will be shown. Recordings of interviews students made with past students and lots of photographic displays from former school days will be available to view also. We will have short video contributions from past students who are unable to be with us on the day such as Geraldine Lynagh, Virgin Media (TV3) and Amie Doherty, an established and award winning film and TV composer, arranger and conductor in Hollywood.

We will have the “Our Irish Women” exhibition on view on the day. This project was an initiative undertaken by The Museum of Country Life, Castlebar together with the Heritage Office, Galway Co Council and iCAN. As 2018 was the centenary of women voting for the first time the aim of the project was to highlight the achievements of women from various localities who have made a contribution to a local , national or international community in any aspect of life and who perhaps have never been recognised for their contribution. The exhibition had been on display in The Museum of Country Life, Turlough House, Castlebar during Oct and Nov 2018. It has been made available to us for March 9th courtesy of the Museum.

Our students will have a very active part in the day’s events. Our beautiful choir and trad group will provide wonderful musical interludes and we will have an exhibition of some of our students’ art work, creative pieces and project work. And much more besides.

This is a free event in Ardscoil Mhuire and open to the general public. Please register your interest in this event on Eventbrite. Registration will also take place at 9.30am on March 9th in the school. We look forward to welcoming our past and present students, staff, parents and interested members of the general public on the day.

​Programme of Events
9.30 am – 10.00 am Registration
10 am - 10.30 am Welcome address from Patricia Kilgallen 
Official opening by Mairead McGuinness MEP
10.30 am Musical Interlude by Ardscoil Mhuire school choir 
10.40 am “Echoes of the Past: The History of Ardscoil Mhuire” Written by Claire Dempsey and presented by our students
Sr Loreto McLoughlin “Scoil Mhuire to Ardscoil Mhuire, a short history”
11.00 am Musical Interlude by Ardscoil Mhuire school Trad Group
11.10 am “Fighting for the vote: Hanna and Francis Sheehy Skeffington’s activism in the early 20th century” by Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington
12.00 pm Musical Interlude by Ardscoil Mhuire school Choir 
12.05 pm – 1.30 pm Walking tour of the various exhibitions on view in the school building and lunch
1.30 pm -3.00 pm Musical Interlude by Ardscoil Mhuire school Choir 
Discussion panel with past students Zoe Carol Wong Margaret Curley Dr Caitriona Cormican Ann Marie Hayes, Dr Aideen Ryan, Ann Walsh 
Moderated by Mary O’Rourke Former TD and Minister for Education
3.15 pm – 4.15 pm Musical Interlude by Ardscoil Mhuire Trad Group
“The Success Principles” a presentation by Eithne Treanor
Musical Interlude by Ardscoil Mhuire school choir
Our school choir and trad group are led by Caroline Jackson and accompanied by Lisa Loughnane. Our MCs are Aisling Doherty and Rachel Whyte our Student Council Presidents 2018-2019

For further information or to book a place at this event please contact Tina in Ardscoil Mhuire at 090 9642206