Gaelscoil Bheanntraí recently welcomed to Bantry for the first time St. Margaret Mary’s School from Manchester. The visit to Bantry by St. Margaret Mary’s was the culmination of a year long study undertaken by both schools.

The Joint Curriculum Project was funded by both Léargas and The British Council and involved the children from the Gaelscoil studying aspects of our shared history with England. The senior children looked at the Famine, the Industrial Revolution and Nano Nagle’s influence on education while the junior children compared life beside the sea to living in a big city like Manchester and also learned nursery rhymes given to us by St. Margaret Mary’s.

The highlight of the project for our children was a visit to St. Margaret Mary’s School in Manchester in March to coincide with their ‘Irish Week’ celebrations. 15 children along with staff and parents travelled to Manchester and had a wonderful time. The main focus of our trip was visiting and experiencing life in an English school. We were very grateful to the staff and pupils of St. Margaret Mary’s for the welcome they provided us.  While in Manchester we also visited The Science Museum and Styll Mill to coincide with work that the children had done in school. However no trip to Manchester would be complete without a visit to Old Trafford, which was the highlight of the tour for the children, many being huge Manchester United fans.

In June St. Margaret Mary’s visited Bantry and had a fantastic tour. It was the first visit to Ireland for most of the children. They visited our school where they were welcomed them with a lunch and then a school concert. Councillor Mary Hegarty welcomed them on behalf of the town council and our children then performed songs, dances and played various musical instruments. While in Bantry they visited Bantry House, Skibbereen’s Heritage Centre and went to a céilí in Ballingeary where they danced the night away.

Over the duration of this project, a first of its kind for the Gaelscoil, we’ve forged great friendships and links with St. Margaret Mary’s School and are already looking into a further study in the future.

We would like to sincerely thank the staff and parents who gave up their time to come on the tour with us and also for their help in preparing lunches to welcome St. Margaret Mary’s to Bantry. Thanks also to Mary in Floury Hands for lunch and to Mary Hegarty for officially welcoming our guests.