TWO murals were officially celebrated at St Joseph’s NS in Ballyheigue during the week.
The murals, painted by a former pupil, were inspired by two significant deaths over the past few months, that of George Floyd and John Hume, as principal of the school Terence Dineen explains.
“During the lockdown and the following months two events stood out for me. When George Floyd was killed in America it raised a lot of issues both in the U.S. and here in Ireland. I was taken aback by the calls on national radio from people who have experienced racism or verbal/physical abuse because they are different in some way. Some people on the airwaves spoke of experiencing such bullying in our schools. This got me to thinking of how we could portray the image that our school aspires to and how we could remind ourselves of this message every day .
Continued below…
“Then John Hume passed away. Here was a man whom we all admired and I am no different. John Hume was a man who believed that things could change, that differences were to be respected and when his funeral was to take place his family asked that a candle be lit as a sign of peace.”
“These two events stayed with me and with the help of the Parents’ Council we asked Lisa Harkin, a former student at this school, to encapsulate these ideas in picture form for the front of our school.
“Not an easy undertaking but Lisa surpassed our expectations. She produced two beautiful colourful lively and engaging pieces. One painting illustrates inclusion of every child in a very happy rainbow filled scene. The other bears the words of John Hume ‘The answer to difference is to respect it’ which was included in his Nobel Lecture in 1998.
“Eugie Stack suggested framing the paintings and set about making the frames and ensuring they were situated correctly on the school front wall. To my mind these two paintings illustrate the ethos of our school,” concluded Terence.
Terence and the rest of the staff and pupils celebrated the addition of these paintings to the school during the week with rainbow iced cupcakes made by Ann Drury @ Ann’s Creative Cakes, while members of the Parents’ Council presented Lisa with a bouquet and voucher for her time and talent.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..