Work has begun on a brand new astroturf pitch in Laois.
Last year, primary school boys in Portarlington moved into a brand new school adjacent to McCann Park in the town.
St Patrick’s BNS became Scoil Phádraig, Cúil an tSúdaire and it now has capacity for 24 mainstream classrooms, eight resource rooms and an ASD base catering for 12 children.
The sports facilities are second to none with a fantastic hall, running track, three basketball courts and assorted play areas.
All that was missing was an astroturf – and now work has gotten underway with All-Ireland winning Kerry footballer Kieran Donaghy involved.
Principal Pat Galvin said: “Work got underway yesterday and this is great news for our school community.
“All going well, it will be ready to go for our 600 pupils in September and it will be a huge resource for us.”
Kieran Donaghy is the Business Development Manager for PST Sport – the company who are carrying out the project.
He said: “We have started the artificial grass pitch that principal Pat Galvin has been working so hard on over the last number of years.
“We can’t wait to get it ready for the students and it will be ready for them when they come back.
“I feel a bit sorry for the outgoing sixth class but maybe they might get brought back for a bit of a blitz during one of the future holidays.
“I hope the students will get great use out of these facilities and I hope they are getting on well during this very tricky time.
“With God’s help, in September when they return, they will have a state of the art PST artificial playing surface to use no matter what the conditions are.”
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