There was a truly international vibe on Creamery Lane / Convent Street on Thursday around noon as a troupe of young artists from Germany, France, Spain, the Philippines and Ireland and their teacher Mary J. Leen emerged from their school, Presentation Castleisland.
The excitement and joy of their young lives was unconfined as the moment – the deadline they had worked towards for the past couple of weeks to was only minutes away.
School care-taker John Naughton had fixed their collaborative, first public exhibition to the outside wall of the school facing the rising sun and the Castleisland Co-Op Mart.
Enjoyed the Process
Just as they had all contributed brush-fulls of paint to the work, members of the team contributed a cúpla focal on the work as soon as the black shroud had been removed and the unveiling complete.
That they enjoyed the process of the project was undoubted and a couple of them said that they wished it could have gone on for longer.
One overseas exchange student said that it as the most exciting thing she had ever been involved in.
A Glimmer of Hope
There was a glimmer of hope for the students of further projects as Pres Principal Pierce Dargan pointed to the remaining 30 metres or so of blank wall space stretching away towards Main Street – waiting to be filled – he said.
Castleisland Tidy Towns Chairman John Breen praised and thanked both teacher and students for their work. He looked forward to further collaboration over the years to built on the present project. He reminded the gathered crowd that a previous group of young artists from the school had brought art and colour to the ESB boxes on Church Street.
Back in 2022
At close enough to this time of year back in May 2022 the Transition Year class and teachers of Presentation Secondary School Castleisland of that time did a ground-breaking collaboration with the local Tidy Towns committee to help brighten up Church Street by painting nine ESB boxes along the street.
Bringing the Ideas to Fruition
The Tidy Towns committee and Mary Walsh brought the idea to the attention of the Art class in Presentation Secondary who in turn brought it to the Transition Year Class.
The class group members were very excited to begin designing their ESB boxes in small groups and to start painting them. The nine boxes begin at Church Street Bridge outside Garvey’s SuperValu and run up along the street.
There are two outside the school, two residences, St. Vincent de Paul, Dr. Fleming’s, Pius Fleming’s Veterinary practice and East 73rd Clothing Shop.
And just like the current crop of TY students, the girls of 2022 were equally delighted to take on such a project.
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