South Roscommon school ‘facing week-long closure’ due to power outage

A South Roscommon school has been told that it may not be able to open its doors for the rest of this week due to a prolonged power cut in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn.

The 35-pupil Curraghboy National School, like all schools, closed last Friday due to the red-level storm.

On Sunday evening, when principal Rory Leonard called to the school, he found that its power was working and everything seemed to be in order for it to open as usual the next day.

But when he arrived on Monday morning it was a different story. The electricity, which had been back on Sunday, was now gone again, meaning the school had to close.

And this morning (Tuesday), the news got worse. After he contacted ESB Networks, the principal was told that power was not scheduled to be restored to the school until 1.15pm this Friday, January 31.

“We’ve essentially been told that we’re going to have to close for the week, which is absolutely awful news,” said Mr Leonard.

“There are 22 families in our school who are being affected by this. It’s very disappointing, because some of the pupils had been coming from houses with no power and no heat.”

He said that, as of Monday, the school had already been closed for four days this term due to weather warnings. “It’s upsetting for the children. They’re missing out on their education.”

He added that the issue in Curraghboy seemed to be very localised - pointing out that one house close to the school was without power on Monday, while a house next to it did have power.