CITY TRIBUNE
Coláiste Éinde set to celebrate 90th anniversary
Coláiste Éinde (St Enda’s College) in Salthill is planning a celebration for past pupils, friends and staff this October to mark the 90th anniversary of the school.
Founded in 1928 by the Irish Free State, Coláiste Éinde preparatory college was an all-boys boarding school that recruited primary school students who were firstly fluent in Irish. After four years, students who passed the Leaving Cert were guaranteed places in St Patrick’s College in Drumcondra to train as primary school teachers.
An t-Athair Aindrias Ó Seasnáin, a close friend of Fr Griffin, who was killed by the Black and Tans, was first president of Coláiste Éinde and there were 29 pupils in the first class.
Originally located in Na Forbacha at a temporary building on land owned by the Blake family, Coláiste Éinde move to its current home in Salthill in 1937. It was constructed by J Stewart Ltd at a cost of £85,394.
Threadneedle Road wasn’t always earmarked for St Enda’s, however. According to a history of the school, written by history teacher Tony O’Leary, for its 75th anniversary, the site was originally earmarked for the San Louis Order of nuns, who hoped to use it for a girls’ organisation.
“Dr O’Doherty, Bishop of Galway, did not however favour a new order of nuns having the site,” according to the 75th anniversary book.
The school was under construction in 1929, 1930 and 1931. In 1932 – the year Éamon de Valera came to power with Fianna Fáil – the new class of St Enda’s included Pádraig Ó hAoidhne who later composed the music for our national anthem, Amhrán na bhfiann or The Soldier’s Song.
It was originally intended to be a three-storey building but the school plans were simplified and a two-storey building was completed and opened on Threadneedle Road on October 10, 1937. One of the new pupils of that year, Donnchadh Ó Gallchóir, was later to become Minister for the Gaeltacht in 1978.
A milestone in the history of the St Enda’s came in 1939, during World War Two or ‘The Emergency’ when the pupils were moved to Dublin because the school building was being used as a military hospital.
Mr O’Leary wrote: “In October 1939, the Athenia sank in Galway Bay. For the more than 100 survivors rescued by the Norwegian ship Knut Nielson, the Bishop of Galway offered refuge at St. Enda’s. School holidays were extended while sailors from the ship took over the kitchen and passengers from Europe and America were looked after.
“The Army now occupied the East wing of the school as a military hospital. In 1944 prior to D-Day, de Valera was asked to take injured soldiers from Italy and Germany. For a while, the Department of Defence used the whole building as a hospital. A red cross was painted on the roof. The school was temporarily moved to Dublin.”
In the 1960s and 1970s, as secondary schools were now opening in Gaeltacht areas, St Enda’s, like other preparatory schools, became a ‘normal’ secondary school. It was not feasible to continue as an all-Irish school but an “all subjects through Irish’ stream was available and many boarders continued to come from the Aran Islands as well as the Connemara and Mayo Gaeltachts.
The Irish stream was available up until 1984 and a couple of years after that the boarding tradition ceased in the school.
Coláiste Éinde’s transformation was complete in 1992 when the school became co-education and welcomed its first group of girls into first year.
Students have gone on to make a huge impact in the fields of the arts, politics, education, sporting life and journalism.
The anniversary (1928-2018) provides past pupils and staff an opportunity to meet up and reminisce. It takes place on October 28 (Bank Holiday weekend).
The school will be open for past pupils to visit and there will be an exhibition of photos and memorabilia following light refreshments at 3pm.
Mass will be celebrated in the college chapel at 5pm and it will then move to The Ardilaun Hotel for dinner at 6.30pm.
■ Tickets priced at €50 will be available from the school from August 7. Contact 90thanniversary@colaisteeinde.ie for all enquiries.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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