One of our parents Keith Dixon (Keith Dixon Photography) kindly came to take some photographs on the day of our unveiling.  

What a beautiful day we got for our unveiling yesterday.  It was a wonderful, uplifting and an emotional afternoon.  While there was of course a deep sadness as always when we remember  our dear friend, colleague and teacher Caroline there was also a great sense of satisfaction at what we have achieved together over the last few months. We are certain Caroline would have been fully on board with this project and would have loved everything about the process. She would have especially loved the sense of teamwork, the fun element for the children and the fact that so many people got to be a part of it-children, parents, staff past and present and her family.  The project really was everything we wanted it to be and much more. It was great to see everyone together yesterday to celebrate the finished product and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did. It was really lovely to have Ms. O'Brien back for this special occasion too.  Ms Dwyer's family were really delighted to be there too and love the mosaic and the process involved just as much as we do. Finally I'd like to thank Sean again for giving so much to this project and we are indebted to all the people who helped make it happen in so many different ways. A special thank you to Sheila,  Joan and Jim for all their help with the unveiling and all the way through the project.  Here are some of our photos from the day and there are more to follow.

Ms. Sheridan's 4th Class produced some wonderful circular artwork after being inspired by our 'Circles of Life Mosaic'.

Our memorial mosaic was mounted in the playground today. It was very exciting to see it go on the wall after 3 months of working on it. It looks absolutely fantastic and we're all really looking forward to the unveiling next Wednesday May 28th. Thank you so much to Orla Dunne for making the stainless steel frame and the memorial plaque. Also thanks to Alan and Jerzy for working with Sean  today to install the artwork. Ben and Emma were also on hand to help. 

Here are some pictures of the mosaic taken by our artist Sean at various stages of the process. Beautiful!   Will keep you posted on the mounting of our wonderful artwork next week.

Finishing touches were put to our mosaic last week by Sean, Deirdre, Sabrina, Nora, Cathy, Dimi and Emma.  It looks absolutely wonderful and is ready to be mounted now.  Orla Dunne and her engineers will do this on the 19th of May.  We can't wait to see it on the wall.  A huge thank you to all the parents involved on the different days. We couldn't have done it without you all.  

Thank you so much to everyone who suggested a title for our mosaic. It was very hard to choose and there were so many wonderful and creative ideas.  In the end we decided on 'Circles of Life'. This will be written on the memorial plaque.  There were actually seven children who came up with this title for the plaque so well done to Lucie Dunne (Rm 15), Aoife Clarke, Jodie Gavin,  Christine Daly, Lauren Brady (Rm 12), Sophie Gaynor (Rm 10) and Anna Mandzyuk (Rm 16).

The children brought in a wonderful array of bright and colourful things to add to the mosaic and you could spend hours looking at it and still find things you hadn't noticed before.  Staff past and present as well as Caroline's family also added some things that have special meaning for them. Here are some examples of these and we will continue to add more.

We're getting close to the end now and it's all coming together really nicely.  Séán was back today to continue work on our mosaic. His wife Miranda who works alongside him in The Art Hand came along to see the project she has heard so much about and to help.  Some of the parent's team and staff were in again and we spent the day scraping, cleaning, polishing  and digging out some of our lovely pieces that had been slightly covered by the grout. It was very rewarding work and everyone was very pleased with the day's work.  As always thanks to everyone for giving up their time. Sean will be back at the end of next week to finish up and then we may be ready to mount the mosaic. 

Séan and his parent helpers were back in their workshop today (Thursday) to begin the daunting task of  grouting the mosaic. It was a very productive day and they had it all grouted by the afternoon.  Well done to all of them. It was definitely the tougher task.  After school many of the staff and more parent volunteers got down to some cleaning and polishing.  It was a case of many hands make light work. There was also some healthy competition between certain people:-). Ms. Sheridan may have got the gold star today for cleaning and polishing.  Thank you again to everyone for being so generous with their time and willing to help.  It's  all going really well and we'll continue with the cleaning and polishing during the holidays.