The American Ambassador, Mr Richard Egan, will officially open a large extension to Castleknock Church of Ireland National School, Main Street, Castleknock, on Sunday 9 December 2001. The extension will be dedicated by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Walton Empey.

The ceremony will take place following the School Carol Service in St Brigid’s Church at 3.00 pm. which will be attended by the school’s 150 pupils, staff, parents and members of the Board of Management.

The official opening was originally planned for Friday 14 September 2001 but had to be postponed because of the National Day of Mourning for the victims of the terrorist attack in America. So it is appropriate that the Ambassador, who is resident in Castleknock Parish, should perform the official opening.

The five-teacher school has been refurbished and extended at a cost of £¾ million. Four new classrooms with cloakrooms ensuite have been built. Other additions include a computer room, a general purposes room, a room for the learning resources teacher, an office for the principal and store rooms.

The Principal, Ms Lorna Beattie says, “This is a dream come true. We have waited so long. The numbers have been rising since the 1970s and now at last in 2001 we have a really great facility. Unfortunately we are still using a “pre-fab” classroom as the numbers continued to rise during the planning and the building stages. We hope that this will be only for a short time.”

There is a long history of commitment to education in Castleknock Parish. The first school on the site was built in 1720 and became part of the National School system in 1880. In 1961 it was replaced by a modern 2-teacher school. With the expansion of West Dublin this had to be extended in the early 1970s and again in 1988 by the addition of 2 “pre-fab” classrooms.

The school caters mainly for Church of Ireland and Protestant children in North-West Dublin and East Meath.