Plan to breathe new life into former school building

Over 15 years after it closed, plans are afoot to breathe new life into the former school building in the picturesque village of Shannonbridge. A consultant will start work shortly on stage one of the project which comprises of a 'Future Look Study' on the former school building and site to investigate the best possible future use for it in the years ahead.

Located in the heart of the village, the national school site which the Department of Education closed back in 2007, is identified as an opportunity site within Offaly County Council’s development plan.

“It's to try and come up with what would be the best and most economically advantageous use of the building and the site,” explained Vincent Darcy from Shannonbridge Action Group of the process being funded by Just Transition. “There is a lot going on with climate change, working from home, remote working and starter businesses and everything in between, so it's to get someone to have an umbrella look at all of the opportunities that might be available to us and come up with something for this building and the site,” he said.

Built in 1940, the schoolhouse is described in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as a “detached six-bay single storey national school“ with hipped slate roof and a modern extension to the rear. Owned by the Diocesan Council, the custodian of the former national school premises is Clonmacnoise parish, which has agreed in principle with the study. After the research is complete, there will be a round of consultation with the parish council, community and other stakeholders to agree on its conclusions and its future use.

With work due to to begin in mid-September on the study, Mr Darcy is urging the local community to engage and give their opinions on what they would like to see the building, which holds a lot of memories for locals, used for in the future.

Once the research, to be carried out over a three-month period is complete, the community group will move onto stage two, which will see an architectural team put the conclusions of the research into design form. Tenders are currently out seeking a team to carry out this element of the project covering a “review of existing buildings to agree extent of refurbishment and extent of demolition and clean-up”. Preliminary layout options would also be prepared with an outline cost plan and preparation of final design drawings part of this second stage.

The delivery of planning permission for a change of use for the Shannonbridge old school buildings through local consultations with the community group and key stakeholders is also a key component of this part of the project. “It's to bring the conclusions of the Future Look Study and the future uses of the building into visualisation and realisation – what will the project look like,” explained Vincent of stage two, who said it is hoped to appoint a consultant for this piece of work in October.

Ultimately, the community group wants the use of the building to bring opportunities and jobs to the West Offaly village.

“We want to see the building being used – ideally multi-occupancy usage that brings life back to the building and that part of the village. If there was an opportunity to create employment, happy days for us all.

“This will all form part of the consultation that the Future Look Study people will be looking at and we're hoping people will tell us what they would like to see it used for be it some community meetings, classes or whatever. Then someone else might come in and say they would like to see used for something else. Ideally, it would be multi-occupancy and multi-usage,” he said, urging people to give their ideas and have their say when the community consultation starts shortly.