This was a very special week in St. Declan’s. In honour of our 40th anniversary Bishop Michael came to Ashbourne to say mass in the church for our school. In 1977 there were 361 children on roll, 9 teachers and 10 classrooms. Today we have 700 on roll, 37 teachers and 24 classrooms. Unfortunately the weather was so wet we were unable to bring Junior Infants, Senior Infants and first classes to the church. We brought our time capsule to the church to be blessed. The ceremony was very special and the bishop commented on the excellent behaviour of all the children during the celebration. Thank you to Ms Mc Gowan, Ms Kelly and Mr Mc Keown for providing the wonderful music for the occasion. Well done to all the children who contributed to the ceremony. They all did a fantastic job. A special thanks goes to all the staff who worked on this project since we arrived back to school in September. Junior and Senior Infants made a guard of honour for the Bishop to come in the front door where he was greeted by our new Student’s Council. Bishop Michael visited our staff room to say hello to the staff and our three 6th classes to talk to the children. Light refreshments were provided by the PA in the hall. All children were provided with a goody bag from the PA. Many thanks to all members of the PA for their involvement in the celebration. Thank you to Colette Byrne for the beautiful cake and to Allan and Emer Gallagher for the sign in honour of the occasion. We will have our own ceremony at school next week to put items of interest into our time capsule. Let’s hope the next forty years in St. Declan’s will be as happy as the last forty years have been.




Here is some of the work the children prepared for the occasion.

Here is the time capsule.




Look at the fabulous cake.




Some very special retired teachers came back up to the school after the mass.
Brendan O’Reilly in his old classroom Room 19


Mairead Rogers

Mona Boylan and Mary Harty used to be next door neighbours in Room 4 and Room 5 teaching 1st / 2nd classes and 3rd / 4th classes.

Bihop Micheal gets a very special guard of honour from all our Junior and Senior Infants

Here he is meeting the new Student’s Council

Look at our lovely Sacred Space

The PA is hosting a quiz night tomorrow night the 29th of September at 8pm in Donaghmore Ashbourne GAA club. Tickets are available from the school office or from Yvonne Moran (087 4169256). Tickets cost €10 ahead.