Survey Data
Reg No
41402601
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Derrygoony National School
Original Use
School
In Use As
Community centre
Date
1860 - 1865
Coordinates
268567, 310884
Date Recorded
20/04/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay single-storey former national school, dated 1861, having flat-roofed porch to north gable, with gabled four-bay single-storey extension of c.1980 at right angles to north end of original block, and flat-roofed single-storey extensions to re-entrant corner to rear (west) elevation. Now in use as community centre. Pitched slate roofs, timber corbelled eaves to earlier block, red brick chimneystacks to later block. Smooth rendered walls with limestone plaques inscribed: "DERRYCOONEY [sic] NATIONAL SCHOOL ERECTED BY/RICHARD ALLEN MINNITT ESQ. J.P. A.D. 1861" and "Scoil Doire Ó gCuanaigh Scoil Náisiúnta". Square-headed window openings with cut limestone sills, having six-over-nine pane timber sliding sash windows to front elevations of both blocks, and timber casement windows to rear elevation of earlier block. Square-headed door openings, with recent timber door and over-light to porch, and with timber battened door to rear elevation of earlier building. Recent timber windows and doors to flat-roofed extensions. Remains of toilet block to north of site. Double-leaf wrought-iron gate with rubble stone piers to south of site, recent metal pedestrian gate with rendered piers to north-east of site, rubble stone and stone-clad boundary walls with render capping. Set in own grounds at junction of four roads.
Appraisal
Typical of nineteenth-century national schools, this building is small in scale, with a symmetrical ordered elevation with tall windows. A later addition to the north repeats the form and materials of the older block, creating a sympathetic extension. The plaque notes that the school was erected by Richard Minnit, a local landowner, and as such is a physical reminder of nineteenth-century philanthropic landlordism. Although no longer in use as a school it continues to serve a useful social function as a community centre.