A 'big team effort' for na Daoine Beaga

One determined mammy can accomplish plenty but seven are a force to be reckoned with as the Arva community recently found out.

Seven women on a mission have successfully spearheaded a community movement to renovate a former school building into a modern community pre-school facility.

Once home to classrooms, the former Corratober National School is now equipped with two-preschool rooms, which cater for 13 children.

The Celt meets the group who, along with others in the community, spent the summer painting, laying floors, cleaning and planning for the opening of Daoine Beaga.

The initiative began after the parents received a message to say the facility their children previously attended was closing down.

Upset that the group was going to be split up, they wondered if they could open up a new pre-school. They had no money, no premises, and “not a clue” what they were doing, however they had one objective in mind.

“The main goal for us was to keep the kids together and not have them going their separate ways,” parent Louise Ellis explains.

While driving from Gowna to Arva one day, Louise’s husband suggested: “What about Corratober?”

Corratober National School was a two-teacher rural primary school, which closed down in 2015. The Gowna Parish Council owned the building, and the determined group of parents asked the group if they could use the building as a pre-school.

With permission granted, a team comprising parents, tradespeople and community members got to work renovating the building, which had been vacant for over a decade aside from some community group meetings.

“When I say it was a massive undertaking, I mean it was massive,” mum of three Louise emphasises.

A lot of paperwork went into their application to TUSLA before renovation work could even begin, while the latter commenced at the end of June.

“A lot of them came out and did whatever had to be done. We had carpenters, plumbers, and 90% of the people who came out didn’t charge for what they did.

“We couldn’t have done the work had we not had that help,” she praises.

“All of our husbands were very handy, my husband is a block layer, we had carpenters, one of the fellas is an architect, so we did have the right people,” she laughs.

Meanwhile, each mammy on the committee “brought a different skill” that was put to use in delivering the Daoine Beaga pre-school.

A community fundraiser raised more than €27,000, which was put towards the pre-school.

“The community really got behind it. We had no government funding at all, we basically set it up with the money we got from our fundraiser.

“It was a combination of everybody working together and that’s what made it work in the end. A lot of hard work, long days and long nights.”

The summer of work culminated in a positive TUSLA inspection on August 6, and the pre-school got the go ahead to open. With Karen Lynch as Manager and Ruth Harkness as Early Years Educator, both of whom have “amazing experience”, Daoine Beaga pre-school opened on Wednesday, August 26.

“I can’t tell you the relief,” Louise, who works as a primary school teacher in Longford Town, tells the Celt. It was on her first day back at work last Monday that she felt the summer’s efforts had been “so worth it” when she dropped her two kids, Emmie and Aidy, off at the facility.

“The kids are happy out, it’s just brilliant. It’s all a bit surreal at the minute,” she laughs.

“It was a lot of hard work but it was definitely worth it,” she says.

When the Celt called out to visit the pre-school last week, na daoine beaga were playing in the outdoor area, and took a small break to speak with the Celt. Bram loves his new pre-school and said his favourite thing to do is go on the swing. Meanwhile, Sadie said she too likes to go “super fast” on the swing.

“We are just so delighted that it did work out and everything fell into place for us. There’s an enormous sense of relief,” Louise says, while looking at the children playing.

“We are very grateful to the community for getting behind us and our mad little dream. To pull it off in four or five months was a massive undertaking but we just rolled up our sleeves and got stuck in. “It was just a big team effort really.”

Those looking for more information on the pre-school can email:

daoine.beaga@outlook.com