HISTORY OF ST. NATHY’S COLLEGE, BALLAGHADERREEN:

1810 – 2007. - [Page 2]

The next extension to the College was the Recreation Hall which joined the New and The Old College on the north end. This was a one storey building and continued that function as a recreation hall until 1964. Andrew Breslan, Dublin later, in 1925, completed minor repairs and improvements to the Old College, the surroundings of the Recreation Hall and the boundary wall as well as to the drainage and sewers. Shortly afterwards, when the E.S.B. replaced the Ballaghaderreen Electrical Supply Company, the Old Electricity Office (Powerhouse) on Chapel Lane was purchased and furnished as a Science Laboratory.

In the thirties and during the presidency of Canon Ambrose Blain accommodation was, again, insufficient for boarding students. This shortage prompted the planning of the New Wing which was well underway in 1930. The president and the bishop began a building trust fund in the National Bank. They initially envisioned the provision of a study hall over the Recreational Hall and a two storey building of class rooms, dormitory and dining room adjoining and behind the Old College. This was revised and a three storey building linking the New College and the Old College on the Fair Green side was adopted.

Fr. Thomas Curneen, as president, undertook this project shortly after the outbreak of World Ward II. The New Wing consisted of three very large halls, the ground floor furnished as a dining room, the first floor as a study hall and the second floor as a dormitory. Between the New Wing and the New College, three large washrooms and toilets and a large side entrance on the ground floor were built. The style was a classical façade matching the earlier building. The Old College or Barracks had to be modified and the end section of the battlement which housed the dairy on the ground floor and two staff bedrooms on the upper floors was demolished so that the New Wing completed the quadrangle enclosure. The plan involved linking the New Wing and The Barracks through the new servery / washroom on the ground floor and by means of a fire escape from the gable top of the New Wing to the adjacent gable of the Barracks on the first floor. The Military Barracks ceased to be used for student classrooms, dining and trunk rooms and was increasingly used as residential accommodation for domestic staff and as a student infirmary. The official opening of the extension by Bishop Patrick Morrisroe was on the 6th September 1941. The contractor had been Mr. James Glynn, Ballina; the Architect was W.H. Byrne & Son, 20 Suffolk Street, Dublin and the Engineering Consultants were Hadens Engineering Co. Ltd. 199 Pearce Street, Dublin. The enrolment was then 150 having dropped from about 215 in 1935, but it rose rapidly to 190 four years later.

The student enrolment, and particularly boarders, gradually increased at the end of the forties and into the fifties. To provide extra accommodation, Canon James Colleran proposed building a new oratory on the ground floor and converting the existing College Oratory on the ground floor into two classrooms. The proposal was put to the priests at the diocesan retreat in the College in 1954 (the Marian Year) and the project was undertaken.

There was a very generous response to a diocesan collection in all the parishes for the New Chapel. An Oratory with accommodation for about 220 students and a cloister where the growing staff of priests could celebrate private Masses was designed by Noel R. De Chenu and John O’Reillly Architects, bill of qualities prepared by Padraig Mulcahy, Merrion Square, Dublin and building was completed by Kelly and Sons (Builders) Westport in 1957.

One detail worthy of note was the Stations of the Cross designed in oak by Walkinstown artist Mr. John Haugh. The main altar was dedicated to the memory of Canon Hugh O’Donnell who was president from 1911 to 1920. The seating (pews) was supplied by O' Huigin Teo. Galway. At the same time a new sanitary building and water tower were built in the garden at the entrance to the football field and grounds.