By Sinéad Twomey
On the 19th of December we celebrated the official opening of our revamped library. This opening was celebrated with a visit from the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Kieran McCarthy and parents and friends of Coláiste Muire. We are thrilled to now have a library that is an inviting space for our students, full of up to date, relevant and inviting books. This project came together through a host of support.
Our caretaker Dave O'Connor painted the space, sanded floors, assembled furniture and built bookcases with the help of Ken Keohane (Parents Council) and the Woodwork department. The English Department sorted books and Pam O'Connell with the Transition Year students provided invaluable assistance, moving books, painting shelves, researching new titles and TY student Daisy Mulcahy designed genre title cards. A special thank you to Kian O'Mahony and Aoife Claffey, both past pupils who returned to help in the organisation and decoration of the space. Kian helped to alphabetise and organise the books into genre and Aoife designed and painted the beautiful murals.
Students will have access to the library through their English classes and hopefully this space will become a safe and welcoming hub for our school community. Studies have shown that reading for pleasure has numerous benefits in adolescents including improved concentration, reading comprehension and verbal literacy. Reading has also been shown to develop empathy by seeing other people's perspectives and has been proven to reduce stress.
Seamus Heaney wrote, 'If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way'. Hopefully our library will help to guide our students in the right direction.
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