Relief as South Roscommon school reopens after extended closure due to storm

A national school in South Roscommon which was forced to close for four days this week because it had no electricity in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn was finally able to reopen this morning (Friday).

Curraghboy NS had been without power on each weekday this week, until the lights came back on yesterday (Thursday) afternoon.

A number of homes in Curraghboy village which had also been in the dark were reconnected around the same time.

Rory Leonard, the principal of the 35-pupil Curraghboy NS, said he was delighted today's reopening had brought back a sense of normality to the school community.

"There was a feeling of relief from everybody that we were all back," he said.

"It was a nice day for us to come back, because kids had swimming in the morning and then we had Paul Shanagher of Music Generation Roscommon coming in to do ukulele lessons with them later in the day."

During the power outage this week Alan MacNeice, the chairperson of St Brigid's GAA club, had offered the use of the club's facilities to Curraghboy NS.

"It was a very kind offer, and if the power hadn't come back today the next step would have been for us to use the St Brigid's facilities for our classes next week. I was going to plan that out today, if we still hadn't got power, but thankfully it didn't come to that," said Mr Leonard.

He also wished to publicly express his gratitude to the parents' association in Curragboy National School for their support throughout a difficult week.