In 1955 the parish of St. Agnes was created.  Fr. Cunningham was the first Parish Priest of St. Agnes’.

One of his priorities was to educate the growing number of children in his parish. St. Agnes had no parish schools and St. Teresa’s Girls’ and Boys’ schools were badly overcrowded.  

He spoke to the  GAA who agreed to rent him rooms at the newly built Casement Park (opened in 1953).  He then withdrew the children from St. Agnes’ parish who were attending St. Teresa’s schools. Children were taught here in rooms under the stand. Maybe you have a grandparent who was taught here.

Listen to the words of local man, Robert Pimley, as he remembers his early schooldays in Casement Park:

“I started school in November 1957 when I was 5 years old.  There were 48 boys in my class.  The classrooms were in the changing room under the stand. There was only one small door as an entrance to the whole school. In the rooms the windows were slits at roof level and not very clean. This meant that the place was very dark and cold. The toilets were the shower rooms. We got free school milk in 1/3 pint bottles and it was frozen. The teacher warmed it by putting the crate near the heater. It was my job to put the straws into the bottles. Outside there was a cinder track where we used to play.”

Rosnaree was the parish house back in 1955. Father McCullaugh lives there now. There were small buildings at the back that were also used as schoolrooms for Holy Child pupils.   

Here is our school when it was first built back in 1959.  It opened its doors on January 21st which was also the feast of St. Agnes. It had room for 1200 pupils.  At the time there were 1500 enrolments and temporary classrooms had to be erected in the school grounds.  The schools were built on one site. The Holy Child Girls occupied the left side of the premises and The Holy Child Boys occupied the right side.

On January 21st, 1959, Holy Child was opened to the boys and girls of St. Agnes’ parish. Bishop Mageean blessed our school. 

There was a photograph in Irish News showing the ceremony. 

Robert Pimley remembers the special day:

“For the opening of the new Holy Child school I remember everybody processing up from Casement to North Link.  I have a photograph of the opening ceremony with Bishop Mageean blessing the building.”  Over the years the link between the church and the school has been very strong.

Owen Kelly, a young teacher in the new school, remembers the school’s early success:

“Father Cunningham was as proud as Punch of his new school and was in and out every day on some business or other.  He said Mass in the school, heard confessions in the school, and brought the ashes on Ash Wednesday round the classrooms. . . The rapidly expanding population of the parish brought the Holy Child Schools into the record books for the size of their enrolments.  This also meant high levels of performance in the dreaded Eleven Plus, another factor of which Fr Cunningham was very proud   "We have the highest IQs in Ireland,” he used to say, though he was also punning on the height of the schools above sea-level. ”

Every year we award the Pat Trainor Cup for children who have been outstanding in Hurling/Camogie. Pat was a teacher here at our school. 

And although staff members and pupils have changed we will always be proud to call ourselves part of the family that is Holy Child Primary School.