Connacht Tribune
Long-awaited ‘Bish’ relocation takes step forward
The long-awaited move of St Joseph’s College (the Bish) from Nuns’ Island took a step forward this week as a design team was appointed to draw up plans for what will be a 1,000-pupil school on a site in Dangan, adjacent to the NUI Galway campus – with the move expected to take place by 2025.
Principal John Madden said this was the first step in a long journey, but all at the school were “absolutely delighted” that plans to move to a site big enough for its 760 pupils were moving forward.
“The design team is talking about probably five years [before a new school opens] because it will take time to get everything in line – they must first identify a number of designs. They then have to be brought to the Department of Education to sanction it, and that could take up to a year.
“Then it must go for planning permission and that process takes time,” said Mr Madden.
The Bish was a flagship school for the Patrician Brothers worldwide, he said, and while it would be moving out of the city centre after 158 years, they would be ensuring to take the school’s long-held tradition of excellence in education with them.
The school had outgrown the 1970s-build in Nuns’ Island and in order to adapt to the needs of students in the future, by expanding subject choice and offering on-site sports facilities, a move was necessary, said Mr Madden.
“Because of a lack of space, we haven’t been able to offer our students practical subjects. We are awaiting temporary accommodation so we can offer Home Economics and Technology to our first years next year and we have been able to offer Art, Music, Spanish and Graphics for this years’ first years.
“It is great for students to get as broad an education as is possible and to enable them to make choices, rather than be confined to a limited number of subjects. That has worked well for us in the past, but we want to offer choice in the future,” he said.
Plans for the Bish to move to Dangan were first mooted 20 years ago and despite a major setback in 2005 – when city councillors voted not to rezone lands necessary for the development – a change to the City Development Plan in 2017 has enabled plans to progress.
A land-swap is understood to be the basis of proposals, with NUIG to take ownership of the site at Nuns’ Island if the move goes ahead. NUIG and Galway City Council are currently engaged in developing a regeneration masterplan for the wider Nuns’ Island area.
Meanwhile, Mr Madden said Covid-19 had put in focus the lack of space at their current site, with social distancing requiring the setting up of additional classrooms on- and off-site.
“Up to three weeks ago, we were operating from four buildings around the city. We’ve since been able to add four classrooms on-site by converting an old bus garage, a bike shed and a weights room. We’re also leasing the Presentation Building on Presentation Road for our sixth year students.
“We had Nuns’ Island theatre on the go for a few weeks too, and we have been using the monastery building across the road [from the school] for a number of years, which had allowed us to grow our student numbers up to 700. The building we’re in was built for about 500 students,” said Mr Madden.