THERE was great excitement at Mount Carmel Secondary School, King’s Inns Street, Dublin 1, last week for the official opening of a new five classroom extension.
The new extension is named Áras Skinnider in honour of Margaret Skinnider who fought in the 1916 Rising.
Skinnider was a sniper and the only female wounded in action during the Easter Rising. She became a teacher at King’s Inns Street in 1928 and continued teaching there until her retirement in 1961.
She was a member of Cumann na mBán, involved in the campaign for Women’s’ Suffrage and an active member of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), to which she was elected President in 1956
A number of past pupils, now aged in their 80’s, who were taught by Skinnider attended the official opening of the extension by Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, on Tuesday, May 2.
This new extension comprises four bright classrooms over two floors with a well-equipped music room on the third floor. The new building dovetails with the original building (completed in the early 1940s) and sits on the corner of Bolton Street and King’s Inns Street.
The staircase incorporates beautiful vantage points overlooking the historic Henrietta Street and the extension opens on to a beautiful landscaped garden space.
Principal Gerry Cullen says the extension positions Mount Carmel as one of the foremost schools for girls on the Northside and joked that it’s “the best kept secret in Dublin”.
“However, based on increased enrolment experienced in recent years it looks like the secret is finally out there,” he added. “The school is thriving at the moment with student numbers higher than they have been in the last 25 years.
“It is also encouraging to see the number of students progressing to third level has doubled in the last decade from 30 per cent to nearly 60 per cent.”
Mount Carmel is an all-girls secondary school situated adjacent to DIT Bolton Street and at the foot of Henrietta Street. Its roots go back over 200 years to 1812, making it one of the oldest schools in the Dublin Metropolitan area.
